TIMES PAST
Lonnie Donegan ...
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HE was the king of skiffle, the founding father of British pop and nothing short of a musical legend. Bridgetonborn Lonnie Donegan was the son of an Irish mother and a Scottish father,who was a violinist who once played with the Scottish National Orchestra, and later joined the Merchant Navy. In 1933, the family moved to London, where the teenage Donegan learned to play the guitar and the banjo, and formed the Anthony Donegan – later Tony Donegan – Jazz Band, which he financed through part-time delivery work
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for a photographer. Donegan changed his name soared during 1956, mothers’ to Lonnie after his idol, the washboards were ‘borrowed’ American blues guitarist for their percussive effect, and Lonnie Johnson, with whom schoolboys learned how to
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he had once played. manufacture an upright bass from Between 1956 and 1962 he an old tea chest and some string... had recorded an incredible Donegan’s success prompted an 26 hits, including Rock outbreak of teenage music-making Island Line, an old American unprecedented in the nation’s song – and other classics like history.” Thousands of these Cumberland Gap and My Old groups were launched – among Man’s A Dustman. In 1959, his them, The Peepel, seen above song Does Your Chewing Gum entertaining holidaymakers on a Lose Its Flavour On The Bedpost beach in Millport in July 1957. In Overnight reached number three Liverpool, Donegan inspired the in the British charts and number Quarrymen, featuring one John five in the United States – it sold a Lennon, which of course later
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million copies. evolved into The Beatles… Music historian Peter Lonnie died aged 71 in 2002 Doggett, in his book after spending his later Electric Shock, says: years performing in cabaret “Sales of acoustic guitars and in skiffle revival shows.