NEWCASTLE'S MUSICAL HERITAGE AN INTRODUCTION By ...

Beyond the comforts of the City Hall and the Assembly Rooms there was
opera at the Theatre Royal and the Palace Theatres. Not on such a grand scale
as before, but by companies with impressive titles such as the Universal Grand
Opera Co Ltd, and the International Grand Opera Co. Whilst a seat in the new
City Hall might cost as much as two shillings (10p) it was possible to get into the
‘Gods’ at the Palace Theatre for an opera performance for three pence (1.5p). In
the 1930s the Palace Theatre presented ‘The Immortal Hour’ by Rutland
Boughton (1878-1960), his only successful operatic work, later described as ‘one
of those excursions into escapism whose magic defied revival. ‘The Faery Song’
from this music drama remained a great favourite throughout the 1940s in a
recording by the tenor, Webster Booth. For those who demanded more colour
and romance in the theatre there were performances of ‘the Chocolate Soldier’
by Oscar Straus at the Empire Theatre and almost yearly revivals of ‘Lilac Time’
(the musical base loosely on Schubert’s music) at the Royal. For serious music
lovers there was the Bach Festival on 9 th -14 th April 1935 in the King’s Hall of
Armstrong College and the occasional concert by the Armstrong College Choral
and Orchestral Society. Celebrations and other special events featuring music
were also taking place during this inter war period. There was the Coronation of
the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in May 1937 when a full programme of
music was officially organised in the afternoons and evenings featuring various
local bands in all the parks, in and around the town. In 1936 and 1937 there were
Brighter Homes Exhibitions, with musical entertainment by the Royal Marines
Band under Major P.S.G.O’Donnell and F.Lionel Johns and his Broadcasting
Orchestra, which was a sign of the times.
An anonymous programme I discovered in the archives referred to a series of
concerts in October 1932 by The Light Symphony Orchestra conducted by
Percival Goffin. Goffin was a native of the town and musical director at the
Theatre Royal, but few had any idea of the colourful life he had led as a
musician. As a young man he had toured the world as accompanist to such
artists as, Melba, Kubelik, Peter Dawson, John Coates and Albert Sammons. In
the 1914-18 War, so the story goes, he ended up in Palestine, where he
arranged concerts for the troops. Lord Allenby sent for him and said, “Goffin, I
have taken the Opera House at Cairo for you and I want you to run concerts
there for the Red Cross”. Goffen replied “Sir!”, saluted, and went off to see the
opera house which turned out to be bigger even than Covent Garden.
Undaunted he set about his task and managed to find plenty of good material
among the men of Allenby’s Army. It says much for his organising ability that lady
Allenby’s Red Cross Fund benefited by £10,000. Goffin returned to Whitley Bay
and organised a series of Celebrity Concerts but in the end he was defeated by
the cinema. Live music making in Newcastle also suffered as a result of the
growth in popularity of radio, the cinema, gramophone records and improved
travel, but it was more than that. The main thrust – the musical promise and
commitment that had seemed to be there, at the turn of the Twentieth Century
had evaporated and the town’s ability to maintain its own musical culture was
slowly but surely fading.
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