Concert Party (entertainment)

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A Concert Party is the collective name for a group of travelling entertainers in Great Britain, usually in music hall.

Immensely popular before the Second World War, concert parties were also formed by several countries armed forces during the war itself. Other forms of entertainment (particularly television) and the decline of variety in general meant that the concept largely died out from the 1950s onwards.

In Britain during the war and immediately after, the armed forces concert party was known as Combined Services Entertainment, the successor to ENSA. People who began their careers here included Kenneth Williams, Spike Milligan, Stanley Baxter and Peter Nichols.

Originally it was called the Central Pool of Artists .

Nichols later adapted his experiences into a stage play (and later film) called Privates on Parade. This in turn inspired the long-running BBC comedy series It Ain't Half Hot Mum.

The most famous fictitious concert party outside the armed forces was The Good Companions in J.B. Priestley's eponymous novel.