Talk:Stanley Kirkby

How best to describe Kirkby?

I have just finished the enlargement of the stub article into a full-sized article. One of the biggest issues that I have encountered is that he sang and performed in so many different genres that it is impossible to "pigeon-hole" him as one. But this is just exactly what the rest of the Internet has been doing, no doubt aided and abetted by the previous "stub article" for this article in Wikipedia which unfortunately labelled him as a "music hall" singer. What I have tried to do is to ignore the "Internet rumour" and get back to actual facts about his life which can be backed up by good references.

Not one single reference that I have read says that Kirkby was a music hall star. Yes he may have given a few performances early in his career, but the main body of his stage work and recording work has entirely been as a baritone ballad/song singer and what we in Britain now call a "variety artist". Absolutely he did not belong in the the following group of people: Marie Lloyd, Dan Leno, Gus Elan, Harry Champion, George Lashwood, Florrie Forde et al - who definitely were music-hall artists. Richard J Myers (talk)

Who trained Kirkby's voice?

Someone must have trained Kirkby's voice. Given that he was probably a cousin of Loiuse Kirkby Lunn, it is likely that he would have been trained by the same teacher as her at All Saints Church: Dr. J H Greenwood - after all he did sing Oratorio there. I can find no citation for this however. I spent several hours in the Manchester City Archive looking through the only remaining church documents which were the meetings of the Chapter from about 1885 to 1900. Greenwood was mentioned and so was the choir, but not individual choristers. Other church records were probably destroyed when the church received a direct hit in the Manchester Blitz in the Second World War.

I have also established that he did not go to the Manchester College of music (as either Baker or Kirkby) or the other college in Manchester at the time - both of which amalgamated into the Royal Northern College of Music. He did not go to the Royal Academy or Royal Colleges of music in London.Richard J Myers (talk)

Oratorio

There is no mention of oratorio in this article, so I removed mention of it in the Lead. By the way, please sign your talk page messages. Thanks. -- Ssilvers (talk) 16:31, 9 May 2013 (UTC)

Assessment

Good job expanding the article. I have increased the assessment of this page from "stub" to "B". -- Ssilvers (talk) 16:31, 9 May 2013 (UTC)