George Leybourne

George Leybourne (17 March 1842 – 15 September 1884) was a singer and Lion comique style entertainer in British music halls during the 19th century who, for much of his career, was known by the title of one of his songs, "Champagne Charlie". Another of his songs, and one that can still be heard, is "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze". He remains among the best known 19th-century music hall performers.

Early life George Leybourne was born Joseph Saunders in Gateshead; however, at an early age he and his family relocated to London. Before he worked for music halls he worked as an engineer in, amongst other places, South West England. For his early music hall performances in Northern England, including Liverpool and Newcastle he used his real name—Joe Saunders—a fact which, in the past, caused much confusion as to his real name. His first performance documented in London using the stage name George Leybourne was at the Bedford Music Hall in 1863, but it is known that he had performed in some of the smaller East End venues in the months before this.

Career

In 1866 with composer Alfred Lee, he wrote the song "Champagne Charlie", premiering it in Leeds during August of that year. It took several months before it became successful. Another of Leybourne's major song successes, also dating from 1866, was "The Flying Trapeze", music by Alfred Lee. The song represented a fascination with trapeze artistes then performing in the UK, including Jules Léotard who had appeared in the Alhambra Music Hall in London. In 1867 it was published in the United States by C. H. Ditson & Co, with music attributed to Gaston Lyle.

During the 1860s, Leybourne, along with several contemporaries including Arthur Lloyd and Alfred Peck Stevens developed a new type of music hall character, the Lion Comique; a dandy or attractive, fashionable, young man. For this style, performers relied less on copying burlesque, and instead sought inspiration in their everyday experiences and the characters of daily street life. Audiences loved to join in the chorus and "give the bird".