Uploaded July 2014 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
Glasgow's Lonnie Donegan's influence on British music in the late fifties is incalculable. A member of the Chris Barber Jazz Band, on guitar and banjo he featured his particular interest -- skiffle music, played on improvised musical instruments such as kazoos, tea-chest and broomhandle basses, washboards and empty cider-jugs. His version of Leadbelly's Rock Island Line stormed into the American and British Top Ten in 1956, resulting in the sale of thousands of guitars to aspiring skifflers including John Lennon's Quarrymen. For 6 years the King of Skiffle was phenomenally successful, clocking up 30 hits including Cumberland Gap, Lost John, Gambling Man, Putting on the Style (#1 when Lennon met McCartney), Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour, Have a Drink on Me, Battle of New Orleans, and My Old Man's a Dustman. He wrote I'll Never Fall in Love Again for Tom Jones and it became a #1 hit. Lonnie was Britain's most popular and influential recording artist before the Beatles. He was a regular guest on The Irish Rovers' CBC Vancouver TV series in 1971. Here he is preceded by the Rovers backing Irish dancers Margaret McDowell (Wilcil's wife) and Joan Millar (Joe's wife) in a reel.
Glasgow's Lonnie Donegan's influence on British music in the late fifties is incalculable. A member of the Chris Barber Jazz Band, on guitar and banjo he featured his particular interest -- skiffle music, played on improvised musical instruments such as kazoos, tea-chest and broomhandle basses, washboards and empty cider-jugs. His version of Leadbelly's Rock Island Line stormed into the American and British Top Ten in 1956, resulting in the sale of thousands of guitars to aspiring skifflers including John Lennon's Quarrymen. For 6 years the King of Skiffle was phenomenally successful, clocking up 30 hits including Cumberland Gap, Lost John, Gambling Man, Putting on the Style (#1 when Lennon met McCartney), Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour, Have a Drink on Me, Battle of New Orleans, and My Old Man's a Dustman. He wrote I'll Never Fall in Love Again for Tom Jones and it became a #1 hit. Lonnie was Britain's most popular and influential recording artist before the Beatles. He was a regular guest on The Irish Rovers' CBC Vancouver TV series in 1971. Here he is preceded by the Rovers backing Irish dancers Margaret McDowell (Wilcil's wife) and Joan Millar (Joe's wife) in a reel.
