Barry Cryer has been awarded the British Music Hall Society 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award. 

Barry was presented the award (an engraved Chairman’s Gavel and Block) at the British Music Hall Society’s President Roy Hudd’s Annual Lunch by Chairman Adam Borzone (pictured).

The event was held at Brick Lane Music Hall. 

The 2017 recipient was Sir Ken Dodd.

The British Music Hall Society is currently celebrating their 55th Birthday. Surveyor and Theatre Historian John Earl is quoted to have said about the late 1950s and early 1960s that this period saw the ‘legalised vandalism of theatres’ as so many were being demolished.

The Metropolitan Music Hall, Edgeware Road seated 3000 and was a flagship in Music Hall venues, the last night of this grand hall was on Good Friday, April 12, 1963 with an all-star bill, compered by Tommy Trinder. The theatre was packed for the occasion and hundreds were turned away.

In the audience that night was two gentleman Gerald Glover & Ray Mackender both in their mid-20s. As they walked down the Edgeware Road with a tear in their eye they wondered what they could do…. they knew that it was far too late to stop the demolition but how could they try and save those still standing, how could they keep this important era of theatrical history alive and so in September 1963 in a pub on Tottenham Court Road the British Music Hall Society was founded an organisation that celebrates Music Hall and Variety past and present.

2018 sees them as a registered charity celebrating their 55th Birthday. Actor and Music Hall encyclopaedia Mr Roy Hudd OBE has been their President for 25 years with Patrons including Des O’Connor, Lady Dodd widow of Sir Ken Dodd and ex-prime minister Sir John Major whose Father Tom Major was a Music Hall artist. They have a very busy social calendar with talks, shows, celebrity lunches and much more.

www.britishmusichallsociety.com