Bandleader Mrs Mary Hamer and Her Boys

This Element considers the bandleader Mary Hamer, who was one of the only women leaders of an all-male dance band.

This Element considers Mary Hamer within the rapidly evolving dance music culture of interwar Liverpool. It discusses the different genres of popular music and dance presented at the Grafton and the role(s) of women in popular music and as bandleaders, contextualised within the popular dance cultures, sexuality, faith, class, and race.The city of Liverpool is renowned for its popular music, although the formidable hagiography which has developed around the Beatles tends to dominate historical considerations to the virtual exclusion of the many other varied genres which have flourished in the city before, during, and after them. Within Liverpool's popular-music past is a partially hidden history of women's musical leadership. This Element concerns the Grafton Rooms' bandleader, dancer, and pianist Mary Hamer (1904–1992). Hamer led the otherwise all-male dance band at the Grafton for two decades, providing dancers with first-class dance music. The Element considers Hamer within the rapidly evolving dance music culture of interwar Liverpool, and discusses the different genres and sub-genres of popular music and dance presented at the Grafton and the role(s) of women in popular music and as bandleaders. This is contextualised within the contemporary social anxieties of popular dance cultures, sexuality, faith, class, and race.