Uploaded March 2022 | Updated September 2026, 38 minutes ago
On November 29th 1971, THE IRISH ROVERS’ guests were Lonnie Donegan and dancers Joan Millar, Joe’s wife, and Margaret McDowell, Wilcil’s wife. Lonnie was the UK's most popular and influential recording artist before the Beatles. His influence on British music in the late fifties is incalculable. His interest was in skiffle music, played on improvised musical instruments such as kazoos, broomhandle basses, washboards and empty cider-jugs. His version of Leadbelly's Rock Island Line stormed into the US and UK 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 clocked up 30 UK 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, a #1 hit. The Rovers were Will Millar, his brother George, cousin Joe, and friends Jimmy Ferguson and Wilcil McDowell.
On November 29th 1971, THE IRISH ROVERS’ guests were Lonnie Donegan and dancers Joan Millar, Joe’s wife, and Margaret McDowell, Wilcil’s wife. Lonnie was the UK's most popular and influential recording artist before the Beatles. His influence on British music in the late fifties is incalculable. His interest was in skiffle music, played on improvised musical instruments such as kazoos, broomhandle basses, washboards and empty cider-jugs. His version of Leadbelly's Rock Island Line stormed into the US and UK 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 clocked up 30 UK 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, a #1 hit. The Rovers were Will Millar, his brother George, cousin Joe, and friends Jimmy Ferguson and Wilcil McDowell.
