The Red Flag Sung by Mr Rufus John AKA John Goss Baritone Socialist Song 1926 Rare 78 rpm
10Here's The Red Flag Sung .by Mr Rufus John AKA John Goss Baritone singing this Socialist Song recorded in 1926 from this rare 78 rpm shellac record.
Lansbury's Labour Weekly
In 1912, George Lansbury, Labour MP and later Party leader, was one of the leading lights in the formation of the Daily Herald. After the paper was taken over by the Labour Party and the Trades Union Congress,
The Recordings
Due to declining sales in 1926, Lansbury's Labour Weekly decided to market a series of commercial left-wing gramophone records banned by record companies and in December released recording no.6 The March of the Workers and A Talk by George Lansbury, in a series of Labour gramophone records. These records were labelled at the newspaper's offices due to the desire to remain anonymous of the record companies who originally produced them. This makeshift production often led to mistakes and many readers often found they had received The Red Flag rather than A Talk by George Lansbury.
In 1927, the paper carried advertisments from Independent Labour Party bookshops for these Labour records. They were 10 inch double sided and priced 3s each (postage 6d), although the whole set could be purchased in a fine red case for £3.1s. Record No.1 was The Red Flag and The International and record number 6 included the original speech by Lansbury. Other records in the series included talks by Ramsey MacDonald, James Maxton and A.J.Cook, along with socialist songs sung by Rufus John and others.
George Lansbury, a Labour M.P. in the early 20th century, founded the magazine of this name in 1925. It survived independently until 1928 when it was merged with the Labour Party's own official newspaper. During this time, he arranged to have six different records produced. Due to the controversial political nature of the records, they had to be produced anonymously with plain white labels, then Lansbury's people pasted on the label as seen here. The records were recorded by British Homophone (acoustically) and pressed by Pathe UK.
Jim Connell (27 March 1852 – February 1929) was an Irish political activist of the late 19th century and early 20th century, best known as the writer of the anthem "The Red Flag" in December 1889.
John Goss (1894-1953) was an Englishman by birth, but for most of his later years, he made Vancouver his home. In the 1920s and ’30s, Goss toured in the U.K., the U.S. and Canada as a recital singer, gradually building a reputation as a world-class baritone.
Goss was also political. As early as 1941, he spoke out at the Canadian Federation of Music Teachers’ Associations, urging amateur musicians to “organize to avoid this ‘sweated labor’ by various well-meaning organizations which offer artists nothing more than a cup of tea in return for their services” (11 July 1941 Lethbridge Herald).
Starting in 1944, he co-founded and later became president of a new organization called the Labor Arts Guild. The Guild was intended to promote interest in the arts among labour and interest in labour’s struggle among artists. A number of the members of the first executive of the Guild were members of the Labour-Progressive Party.
In 1949, Goss was evicted from the U.S. while in New York at a peace conference. The FBI made noises about Goss being a Communist sympathizer. He returned to Vancouver where he was under the impression that he had a job with the BCIMD faculty. Wrong. The BCIMD, together with many others in the city were not interested in a ‘Communist’ joining the staff of the Theatre Under the Stars group. There was no written contract between the board and Goss, and the Board made it clear that he could forget about working with BCIMD.
Goss left Vancouver for England the following year, with his reputation in tatters. He died there in 1953. Keir Hardie's newspaper The Labour Leader, and was secretary of the Workingmen's Legal Aid Society during the last 20 years of his life
Although Lenin dismissed the Independent Labour Party as bourgeois, he later awarded Connell the Red Star Medal in 1922.[3]
John Goss (1894-1953) was an Englishman by birth, but for most of his later years, he made Vancouver his home. In the 1920s and ’30s, Goss toured in the U.K., the U.S. and Canada as a recital singer, gradually building a reputation as a world-class baritone.