As the doors of the Royal Albert Hall opened at 7.15pm and the orderly crowds filed in, an orchestra struck up while lyric sheets were dished to those unfamiliar with the words.
It was all very civilised — that is, if you ignored the Blackshirts posted at the end of every row of seats, the fascist content of the lyrics, the balconies draped in bills for the Fascist Week publication and the fact that Jewish people were barred from getting in altogether.
22 April 1934 was one of a few hate-fuelled rallies held around this time in London's most esteemed concert hall. These days, labelling anyone a 'fascist' is commonly met with full-throated denial — even as the accused carry out suspiciously fascist-redolent actions. But fascism in the 1930s wore its heart on its sleeve. "This will be the outstanding event of the year," claimed a poster for the "Great Fascist Rally", which had been organised by the British Union of Fascists (BUP). "Don't miss your opportunity of securing a seat". Many didn't; January 1934 had seen the Daily Mail's now-infamous "Hurrah for the Blackshirts" headline — and fascism was on the rise. The Royal Albert Hall was packed.
Every one of the thousands who poured in had come to swoon over the dashing headliner. "Hurrah! Hail Mosley! Mosley, Mosley!" the crowd chanted. Oswald Mosley — leader of the BUP, a party he'd formed after being turfed out by Labour — paraded about in the blinding light of arc lamps, his chest thrust out as he looked over a sea of Union Flags, fascist banners and rabid Nazis — British ones. Fascism in the UK was growing faster than anywhere else in the world, rejoiced Mosley in his speech, which also contained the chilling lines: "Jews, international financiers and Communist leaders will be dealt with," pronounced the man who called himself "The Leader", in what could hardly be further from a pleasant evening at the Proms.
The appearance had a 'pop concert' tenor to it, and the speech was even recorded and released on vinyl. Mosley's son, Nicholas, recalled to the Sunday Express in 1983 that he still played the record sometimes: "My father's voice comes out lashing like some great sea: it is pulverising... it sends shivers up and down the spine — of both wonder and alarm."
Mosley's April appearance at the Royal Albert Hall was followed that year by a speech at Olympia in front of 10,000 fascists ("Sir Oswald Mosley had nothing of theatricalism to learn from either Hitler or Mussolini," said the Manchester Guardian). The event was infiltrated by anti-racists, and gleefully ended up with Mosley being turfed out by the council, not because of the ensuing bust-ups, but because he'd gone over the allotted time slot.
Mosley returned to the Royal Albert Hall that October for another packed rally, but many more Brits railed against the vileness of fascism. 100,000 anti-fascists had showed up at Hyde Park that September, to drown out another Mosley speech. They chased a bunch of fascists out of the park. The week after Mosley's October Albert Hall slot, one Lord Melchett (different, we presume, to the one in Blackadder) appeared on the Albert Hall stage to dub Mosley a "secondhand Hitler". 1936 saw East-enders successfully fight against fascism in the Battle of Cable Street, as, eventually, did the Second World War. Mosley was slung in jail in 1940, and later — as these proud nationalists are wont to do — moved abroad. He died in Paris, which if we may say, is a very un-British thing to do.
We'd usually file an article like this under 'history'. We'd also file it under 'unthinkable in this day and age'. But at a time when the American government is attacking the democratic principles of Europe, and the Reform party continues to spit poison about minorities, we can't remind ourselves enough how close Britain came to succumbing to the evils of fascism. Just like our anti-fascist forebears, we may well have to take the movement to task again.
With thanks to to Wiener Holocaust Library for sourcing some of this material. We highly recommend a visit to this eye-opening (and free) institution, located in Bloomsbury. You can now also explore the Wiener Holocaust Library's catalogue online.
.jpg){kind=link}