1929 proved a good year for Florrie who hadn't released any new material for a while but a renewed interest in Music hall saw a few old stars release medley's of their old tunes at the end of the 20s and early 30s. Florrie's did well enough to revive her career and led to a few other medley records and then all new material from 1929 until 1936 when she largely retired again, although she continued doing the odd live show until her death in 1940. 'Give Yourself a Pat on the Back' was a Leslie Sarony novelty song recorded by other artists too such as Tommy Handley. It shows Florrie trying to keep up with the change in British tastes from the old music-hall traditions to the new radio variety type of performances which she handles equally well and strides both eras rather nicely despite her increasing age. Many other old music-hall artists carried on with their old acts to ever-diminishing audiences but Florrie adapted. She was 54 by this point in 1929 but you can't keep a good artist down.
Florrie Forde (16 August 1875 -- 18 April 1940), born Flora May Augusta Flannagan, was an Australian popular singer and entertainer. She was one of the greatest stars of the early 20th century music hall.
Forde was born in Fitzroy, Melbourne, Australia in 1875, the sixth of the eight children of Lott Flannagan and Phoebe - who also had two children from a prior marriage. At the age of sixteen, she ran away from home to appear on the Sydney music hall stage, adopting the surname of her stepfather. At the age of 21 in 1897, she left for London, and on August Bank Holiday 1897, she made her first appearances in London at three music halls — the South London Palace, the Pavilion and the Oxford — in the course of one evening. She became an immediate star, making the first of her many sound recordings in 1903 and making 700 individual recordings by 1936.
Forde had a powerful stage presence, and specialised in songs that had powerful and memorable choruses in which the audience was encouraged to join. She married in 1909 and was soon drawing top billing, singing songs such as \"Down At The Old Bull And Bush\" and \"Has Anybody Here Seen Kelly?\". She appeared in the very first Royal Command Performance in 1912. During World War I, her most famous songs were some of the best known of the period, including \"Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-Bag\", \"It's A Long Way To Tipperary\" and \"Take Me Back to Dear Old Blighty\".
Florrie Forde formed her own travelling revue in the 1920s. It provided a platform for new rising stars, the most famous being the singing duo of Flanagan and Allen. She collapsed and died after singing for troops in Aberdeen, Scotland of a cerebral haemorrhage on 18 April 1940.
