This talk was given in January 2016 at a conference in Glasgow Working in Music: The Musicians’ Union, musical labour and employment. Mitchell Library, Glasgow, 14 and 15 January 2016. The abstract of the paper is below, and you can listen to the MP3 recording here https://www.academia.edu/22182311/_MP3_Trade_unionism_and_the_British_music_hall_1914-1918 Music hall and trade unionism during world war one Singers and musicians in the union journal “The Performer” 1914-1918 John Mullen, Université de Rouen “The Performer” was the union journal of the Variety Artistes Federation, which was set up in 1906. The VAF represented many different types of performers, but singers and musical performers were an important proportion: no doubt a third of the members were singers. The singers and musicians in the VAF generally travelled from town to town following their bookings, an individualist lifestyle which distinguished them from the majority of musicians, who were employed in house orchestras...