Flanders and Swann

Flanders and Swann were a British comedy duo and musicians. Michael Flanders (1922–1975) was a lyricist, actor, and singer. He collaborated with Donald Swann (1923–1994), a composer and pianist, in writing and performing comic songs. They first worked together in a school revue in 1939 and eventually wrote more than 100 comic songs together.

Between 1956 and 1967, Flanders and Swann performed their songs, interspersed with comic monologues, in their long-running two-man revues At the Drop of a Hat and At the Drop of Another Hat, which they toured in Britain and abroad. Both revues were recorded in concert (by George Martin). The duo also made several studio recordings.

Musical partnership
Flanders and Swann both attended Westminster School (where in July and August 1940 they staged a revue called Go To It) and Christ Church, Oxford, two institutions linked by ancient tradition. The pair went their separate ways during World War II, but a chance meeting in 1948 led to their forming a musical partnership writing songs and light opera. Flanders provided the words and Swann composed the music. Their songs have been sung by performers such as Ian Wallace and Joyce Grenfell.

In December 1956, Flanders and Swann hired the New Lindsey Theatre, Notting Hill, to perform their two-man revue At the Drop of a Hat, which opened on New Year's Eve. Flanders sang a selection of the songs that they had written, interspersed with comic monologues, accompanied by Swann on the piano. An unusual feature of their act was that both men remained seated for their shows: Swann behind his piano and Flanders in a wheelchair (having contracted poliomyelitis in 1943). The show was successful and transferred the next month to the Fortune Theatre, where it ran for over two years, before touring in the UK, the United States, Canada and Switzerland.

In 1963, Flanders and Swann opened in a second revue, At the Drop of Another Hat, at the Haymarket Theatre. Over the next four years they toured a combination of the two shows in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, the United States and Canada, before finishing at the Booth Theatre on Broadway in New York City. On 9 April 1967, they performed their last live show together. Ten days later, they moved into a studio and recorded the show for television.

Over the course of 11 years, Flanders and Swann gave nearly 2,000 live performances. Although their performing partnership ended in 1967, they remained friends afterwards and collaborated on occasional projects.

Discography
Their records were originally released on the Parlophone label; CD reissues are on EMI.

45s

 * 1957 – "A Gnu" b/w "Misalliance"

EPs

 * 1957 – More out of the Hat! (EP)
 * 1959 – Excerpts from at the Drop of a Hat (EP)
 * 1959 – More Excerpts from at the Drop of a Hat (EP)
 * 1962 – The Bestiary of Flanders & Swann (EP)
 * 1964 – Favourites from at the Drop of Another Hat (EP)
 * 1964 – More out of the New Hat (EP)

LPs

 * 1957 – At the Drop of a Hat (Parlophone PMC 1033 mono) (Recorded live at the Fortune Theatre, London, 21 February 1957.
 * 1960 - At The Drop Of A Hat (1959 Stereo re-recording) (Parlophone PCS 3001) (Recorded during the final performance at the Fortune Theatre, London, on 2 May 1959. Parlophone's first stereo LP release.)
 * 1961 - The Bestiary Of Flanders & Swann Parlophone PMC 1164 (mono)/ PCS 3026 (stereo)
 * 1964 – At the Drop of Another Hat (produced by George Martin) Parlophone PMC 1126 (mono) / PCS 3052 (stereo)
 * 1975 – And Then We Wrote...
 * 1977 – Tried by the Centre Court

Cassettes

 * 1996 – EMI Comedy Classics (Hat and Another Hat on two cassettes)
 * 1997 – More out of the Drop of a Hat – Again! (double cassette)

CDs

 * 1991 – The Complete Flanders & Swann (first three albums, in stereo in a boxed set)
 * 1994 – A Transport of Delight: The Best of Flanders & Swann
 * 1999 – The Flanders and Swann Collection
 * 2000 – A Drop of Hilarity from Flanders & Swann
 * 2007 – Hat Trick: Flanders & Swann Collector's Edition

Videography

 * 1992 – The Only Flanders & Swann Video (recorded New York, 19 April 1967, 10 days after the close of At The Drop of Another Hat)
 * 1998 – Flanders & Swann (recorded in New York, 1962 & 1967)

Songs
Flanders and Swann's songs are characterised by wit, gentle satire, complex rhyming schemes, and memorable choruses. Flanders commented during the recorded performance of At the Drop of Another Hat, "The purpose of satire, it has been rightly said, is to strip off the veneer of comforting illusion and cosy half-truth. And our job, as I see it, is to put it back again."

They wrote over a hundred comic songs together. The following selection gives an indication of their range.

A very rare song, "Vendor Librorum Floreat" (Let the bookseller flourish), was released as a single in 1960. It was written for the annual American Booksellers Association, the only known time Flanders & Swann accepted a private commission.

Monologues
Flanders' comic monologues include:
 * "By Air"—about the vogue for air travel. "I agree with the old lady who said, 'If God had intended us to fly, He would never have given us the railways.
 * "Tried by the Centre Court"—a parody of the poem "A Subaltern's Love Song" by John Betjeman, about a third-round ladies singles match at Wimbledon, between Miss L. Hammerfest and Miss J. Hunter-Dunn, as related by the bored central umpire. "They are bashing a ball with the gut of a cat".
 * "Greensleeves"—about the background to the composition of the famous English air. An annotated version explains all the jokes.
 * Los Olividados— a satire on bullfighting, about "the almost unbearable drama of a corrida d'olivas, or festival of olive-stuffing". "A cruel sport: some may think it so. But this is surely more than a sport, this is more than a vital artform. What we have experienced here today is total catharsis, in the acting out of that primeval drama, of man pitted against the olive." The title is a reference to Los Olvidados, or The Forgotten Ones, a 1950 movie by the director Luis Buñuel.
 * "Built-up Area"—a prehistoric inhabitant of Salisbury Plain complains about a new development: Stonehenge.

Homage and parody
The British comedy double act Armstrong & Miller have a recurring sketch on The Armstrong and Miller Show in which they parody Flanders and Swann, as Donald Brabbins (Armstrong as Flanders) and Teddy Fyffe (Miller as Swann). The parodies begin like a typical Flanders and Swann performance, but the songs are far more bawdy, often being mock-censored for comedic effect.

British singer-songwriter Frank Turner covered "The Armadillo" in his "Mittens" EP.