The organ grinder

Sheet music for the music hall song 'The Organ Grinder' written and composed by G. W. Hunt and performed by Arthur Lloyd. The lithographed cover by Alfred Concanen depicts Arthur Lloyd as a costermonger with a tatty suit and striped scarf. The song refers to lost love - the singer lamenting the loss of the servant girl he loved to a 'nasty organ grinder'.

Arthur Lloyd was one of the fashionable 'swells' of the music hall, known collectively as the Lions Comiques. Along with The Great Vance and George Leybourne he had a reputation of living the high life and it was commented, in the late 19th century, that these Lions Comiques were men who set women just a little higher than their bottle. Most famous for parodying 'swells' and upper class 'toffs' the fashionable evening dress of the Lions Comiques performers contrasted greatly with the cloth-cap coster cockney image adopted by many other music hall performers.