| Performance Title | The Chelsea Arts Club Annual Ball - 'Primavera' |
| Performance Date | 31 December 1956-1 January 1957 |
| Performance Day | Monday |
| Performance Time | 10:00 |
| Main Performers | Student performers from:
Brixton School of Building,
Croydon School of Arts,
Goldsmith's College School of Art,
Kingston School of Art,
Regent Street Polytechnic School of Art,
St. Martin's School of Art,
Twickenham School of Art
Pipe Major J B Robertson |
| Orchestra or Band | Ted Heath and His Music,
Ivy Benson and Her Orchestra,
Humphrey Lyttelton and His Band,
Sid Phillips and His Band |
| Conductors | Ted Heath,
Ivy Benson,
Humphrey Lyttelton,
Sid Phillips |
| Set List | Theme Tune - 'Saints'
Massed Bands,
Humphrey Lyttleton and His Band,
Ted Heath and His Music
Students' Stunts:
The Triumph of the Queen of Spring - 'The Arrival of The Queen of Sheba' (Twickenham School of Art)
Midnight,
Big Ben,
'Auld Lang Syne' (Pipe Major J B Robertson),
Sid Phillips and His Band,
Ivy Benson and Her Orchestra
Students' Stunts:
Hearts and Flowers - 'Hearts and Flowers' (Goldsmith's College School of Art),
The Insects Parade - 'Rumba' (Regent Street Polytechnic School of Art),
Spring Graces - 'Come Lasses and Lads' (Croydon School of Art)
Humphrey Lyttleton and His Band,
Ted heath and His Music
Students' Stunts:
Primordial Primavera - 'The Animals Came In Two By Two' (St. Martin's School of Art),
The Birth of Spring - 'Spring Song', Mendelssohn (Kingston School of Art),
Loch-Nest Monster and Trojan Pheasant - 'Let's All Sing Like The Birdies Sing' (Brixton School of Building)
Sid Phillips and His Band,
Ivy Benson and Her Orchestra,
Humphrey Lyttleton and His Band,
Massed Bands
'God Save the Queen' (The National Anthem) |
| Performance Notes | There is a photograph in The Times of A R Thomson, RA, and his daughter preparing the back cloth for the ball.
Associated Press Archive holds B&W British Movietone footage of the event (Story No.BM69328).
"ROCK & ROLL AT CHELSEA ARTS.
'PRIMAVERA' THEME.
After many "rock and roll" numbers the 5,000 revellers at the Chelsea Arts Ball rang in the New Year at the Albert Hall to the skirl of a military piper. The theme of the Ball was "Primavera" (Spring), the Botticelli painting.
The BBC televised part of the evening. Fancy dress was, as usual, essential, but for the more reticent, Venetian capes could be hired on arrival, to be worn over evening dress.
The parade of art tableaux, which previously has been held immediately after midnight, was this year at 1am. Only a few of the revellers, in many varities of fancy dress, attempted to wreck them.
At the end of the parade one of the four "name" orchestra immediately went into a rock and roll number."
(The Daily Telegraph, 1 January 1957)
Founded in 1891 The Chelsea Arts Club is a members club for artists, which for 50 years from 1908 held an annual costumed New Year's Eve ball, which was an infamous part of London's social calendar. After two years at the Royal Opera House the extravagant ball proved so popular it moved to the Royal Albert Hall where it stayed until 1958. The balls attracted media attention with their lavish theatrical sets, multiple orchestras, raucous midnight carnivals and balloon drops and crowds of up to 10,000 socialites, bohemian artists, actors, and ordinary Londoners in elaborate and often scandalous fancy dress dancing until 5am.
Each year a theme was chosen such as Egyptian, Dazzle, Noah's Ark, Prehistoric and Sun Worship around which guests could create flamboyant costumes. London art schools participated by decorating huge carnival floats, which were driven around the auditorium floor and which, at the stroke of midnight, would be destroyed by revellers. The balls were well-known for reports of public nudity, drunken displays of affection, fighting and unadulterated fun. In the vastness of the Hall with its gas lit corridors, curtained boxes and dark staircases naughtiness was the order of the day.
Similarly to the annual Lady Malcolm's Servant's balls (1930-1938) these events were a safe space for the queer community to meet and express themselves with unbridled creativity and little inhibition. There were no scrutineers denying entry or undercover police. LGBTQ+ party goers could feel (relatively) free to be themselves without the scrutiny and surveillance they underwent in their daily lives. For many men especially they could wear drag, dress outrageously, and socialise unashamedly while never appearing to be anything out of the ordinary.
It was New Year's Eve 1958 that was to be the final Chelsea Arts Ball at the Royal Albert Hall. As well as minor damage to the building fabric, a partygoer dispatched a smoke bomb that exploded on the dance floor and ultimately became the straw that broke the camel's back. The Chelsea Arts Ball was asked to take out insurance indemnity against further damage to the Hall and they didn't return. The Ball has returned three times since - in 1984, 1985 and 1992 - although the elaborate costumes and floats didn't make the return trip. The extravagant, eccentric originals remain part of the history of the Capital's social calendar. |
| Related Archival Material | Programme (RAHE/1/1956/195),
B&W Photograph (RAHE/3/1956/1) |
| URL | https://thirdlight.royalalberthall.com/pf.tlx?83q83DM83f-epf |
| https://thirdlight.royalalberthall.com/pf.tlx/YZfYZIlYZ1PGlg |
| Code | Name of Performer(s) |
| DS/UK/104 | Chelsea Arts Club; 21 March 1891-; British arts club |
| DS/UK/1530 | University of London; Goldsmiths; 1891-; English education institution |
| DS/UK/9139 | Kingston University; Kingston Universitys Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture; c1895-; English university faculty |
| DS/UK/11358 | Regent Street Polytechnic School of Art; 1881-1970 |
| DS/UK/3856 | St. Martin's School of Art; 1854-1989; English art and design school |
| DS/UK/15129 | Robertson; J.B. (fl 1950s-1960s); Scottish piper |
| DS/UK/8227 | Heath; Ted (1902-1969); British musician, big band leader |
| DS/UK/8559 | Benson; Ivy (11 November 1913-6 May 1993); English musician and bandleader |
| DS/UK/7312 | Lyttelton; Humphrey Richard Adeane (1921-2008); English jazz musician, broadcaster |
| DS/UK/7461 | Phillips; Isador Simon 'Sid' (1907-1973); English jazz clarinetist, bandleader, arranger |
| DS/UK/19169 | Brixton School of Building; 1904-1970; British training college |