In 1923, in collaboration with Edith Sitwell, Walton had his first great success, though at first it was a "succès de scandale". "Façade" was first performed in public at the Aeolian Hall, London, on 12 June. The work consisted of Edith's verses, which she recited through a megaphone from behind a screen, while Walton conducted an ensemble of six players in his accompanying music. The press was generally condemnatory. Walton's biographer Michael Kennedy cites as typical a contemporary headline: "Drivel That They Paid to Hear". "The Daily Express" loathed the work, but admitted that it was naggingly memorable. "The Manchester Guardian" wrote of "relentless cacophony". "The Observer" condemned the verses and dismissed Walton's music as "harmless". In "The Illustrated London News", Dent was much more appreciative: "The audience was at first inclined to treat the whole thing as an absurd joke, but there is always a surprisingly serious element in Miss Sitwell's poetry and Mr Walton's music ... which soon induced the audience to listen with breathless attention." In "The Sunday Times", Ernest Newman said of Walton, "as a musical joker he is a jewel of the first water".