Lonnie Donegan MBE (29 April 1931 – 3 November
2002) was a skiffle
musician, possibly the most famous of them all, with more than 20 UK
Top 30 hits to his name. He is sometimes called the King
of Skiffle and is often cited as a large influence on the generation of
British
musicians who became famous in the 1960s.
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Contents
- 1 Early
life and trad jazz
- 2 Skiffle
- 3 Quotations
- 4 Discography
- 5 External
links
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Early life and trad jazz
He was born Anthony James Donegan in Bridgeton,
Glasgow,
Scotland,
the son of a professional violinist. He moved with his mother to East Ham, Essex (now Greater
London), at an early age, after his parents divorced. Inspired by blues music and New
Orleans jazz
bands he heard on the radio,
he resolved to learn the guitar, and bought his first at the age of
fourteen.
The first band he played in was the trad jazz
band led by Chris Barber, who approached
him on a train asking him if he wanted to audition for his group.
Barber had heard that Donegan was a good banjo player; in fact, Donegan had never
played the banjo at this point, but he bought one and managed to bluff
his way through the audition. His stint in this group was interrupted,
however, when he was called up for National
Service in 1949.
In 1952 he formed his first group, the Tony Donegan Jazzband, which
found some work around London. On one occasion they opened for the
blues musician Lonnie Johnson at the Royal
Festival Hall. Donegan was a big fan of Johnson, and took his first
name as a tribute to him. The story goes that the host at the concert
got the musicians' names confused, calling them "Tony Johnson" and
"Lonnie Donegan", and Donegan was happy to keep the name.
In 1953 cornetist Ken Colyer, enjoying hero
status for having spent time in a New Orleans jail (due to a visa
problem), returned to England and took over the name of Barber's band,
though it was very much a cooperative. With the new name, Ken Colyer's
Jazzmen, the group, with Donegan, made its initial public appearance on
11
April 1953
in Copenhagen, Denmark. The following day, Chris
Albertson recorded the group (as well as a Monty Sunshine Trio, with
Donegan and Barber) for Storyville Records. These were
Lonnie Donegan's first commercially released recordings.
Skiffle
Donegan was the first person to become famous playing skiffle
in the United Kingdom, and went on to have an influential hit in
Britain and the U.S.A.. At the time he sang and played both guitar and banjo for Chris
Barber's Jazz Band, and began providing what he called a
"skiffle" break during the intervals. With a washboard, a
tea-chest
bass and a cheap Spanish guitar, he had a lot of fun entertaining the
audiences with folk songs and blues by artists such as Leadbelly
and Woody
Guthrie, casually giving the impression that anyone could do it. This
proved so popular that in July 1954 he recorded a fast-tempoed version
of Leadbelly's "Rock Island Line", with Chris
Barber's Jazz Band, featuring a washboard
but not a tea-chest bass, with "John
Henry" on the B-side. It was an enormous hit in 1956, but ironically,
because it was a band recording, Lonnie made no money from it beyond
his original session fee. It was the first debut record to go gold in
Britain, and reached the top ten in the United
States, and Donegan has suggested that it might have influenced the
beginnings of white rock and roll.
The skiffle style encouraged amateurs to get started, and one
of the many skiffle groups that followed was The
Quarry Men formed in March 1957 by John Lennon. Donegan's
"Putting On The Style" / "Gamblin' Man" single was number one on the
British charts in July 1957, when Lennon first met Paul McCartney.
After splitting from Barber, he went on to make a series of
popular records with Lonnie Donegan's Skiffle Group, with successes
including "Cumberland Gap" and "Does Your
Chewing Gum Lose It's [sic] Flavour on the Bedpost Over Night?". He
turned to a music
hall style with "My Old Man's A Dustman" which was not well received by
skiffle fans, but reached number one in the UK singles charts.
Donegan's group had a flexible line-up, but was generally formed by Les
Bennetts (of Les Hobeaux and Chas McDevvit's skiffle groups) playing
lead guitar and singing harmony vocals, Pete Huggett on upright
bass, Nick Nichols - later Pete Appleby - on drums or percussion and
Lonnie playing acoustic guitar or banjo and singing the lead. Despite
appearances that the style was simple and somewhat 'unpolished', all
were accomplished and highly talented musicians.
Donegan was unfashionable and generally ignored through the
late 1960s
and 1970s
(although he wrote "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" for Tom
Jones in 1969),
and he began to play on the American cabaret circuit. In 1976, he suffered his
first heart attack while in the United
States and underwent quadruple bypass surgery. He
returned to the public's attention in 1978, when he made a record of his early songs
with such figures as Ringo Starr, Elton
John and Brian May called Putting
on the Style. In 1992 Donegan underwent further bypass
surgery following another heart attack.
There was a reunion concert with the original Chris barber
Band in Croydon in June 1975 - notable for a bomb scare, meaning that
the recording had to be finished in the studio, though patrons were
treated to an impromptu concert in the car park.
Then in 1994, the Chris Barber band celebrated 40 years, with
a long tour with both bands, rather than just a concert. Pat
Halcox was still on trumpet (a position he retains as of
2006). The reunion concert and the tour, were recorded on CD, and also
on video (and later released on DVD, though the quality isn't up to
digital standard). As is Chris Barber's normal style, he generously
featured Lonnie in the concerts and the whole original band were much
more relaxed than in 1954, making these real collectors items, as the
stereo was real and not electronically created.
He experienced another late renaissance when in 2000 he released The
Skiffle Sessions - Live In Belfast 1998, a
critically acclaimed album made with Van
Morrison and Chris Barber, with a guest
appearance by Dr
John. He also played at the Glastonbury Festival, and was
awarded the MBE in 2000.
His last CD was "This Y'ere the Story", which tells his story
- complete with the inaccuracies as to his introduction to the banjo
and the Barber band as related above...
Donegan's influence on the generation of musicians that
followed him is unquestioned. He inspired both John
Lennon and Pete Townshend to learn to
play the guitar, and was responsible for hundreds of other skiffle
groups being formed. One of them, The
Quarrymen, later evolved into The
Beatles.
He died in 2002, after a final heart attack in Peterborough,
mid-way through a UK tour and shortly before he was due to perform at a
memorial concert for George Harrison. He had
suffered several heart attacks in the years
leading up to his death at age 71.
Musician Mark Knopfler released a
tribute song to Lonnie Donegan called "Donegan's Gone"
on his 2004 album Shangri-La.
Donegan's music formed the basis for a musical starring his
two sons. Lonnie D - The Musical took its name from
the Chas
& Dave tribute song which starts the show.
Subsequently, Peter Donegan formed a new band that performs his
father's material.
Quotations
- "In England, we were separated from our folk music
tradition centuries ago and were imbued with the idea that music was
for the upper classes. You had to be very clever to play music. When I
came along with the old three chords, people began to think that if I
could do it, so could they. It was the reintroduction of the folk music
bridge which did that." Interview, 2002.
- "He was the first person we had heard of from Britain to
get to the coveted No. 1 in the charts, and we studied his records
avidly. We all bought guitars to be in a skiffle group. He was the
man." -- Paul McCartney
Discography
- Rock Island Line/ John Henry
(1955)
- Diggin' My Potatoes/ Bury My Body (1956)
- On A Christmas Day/ Take My Hand Precious Lord
(1956)
- Lonnie Donegan Showcase (December 1956)
- Jack O'Diamonds/ Ham 'N' Eggs (1957)
- Lonnie (November 1957)
- The Grand Coulee Dam/ Nobody Loves Like An Irishman
(1958)
- Midnight Special/ When The Sun Goes Down
(1958)
- Sally Don't You Grieve/ Betty Betty Betty
(1958)
- Lonesome Traveller/ Times Are Getting Hard Boys
(1958)
- Lonnie's Skiffle Party Pt.1/ Pt.2 (1958)
- Tom Dooley/ Rock O' My Soul
(1958)
- Tops with Lonnie (September 1958)
- Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour/ Aunt Rhody
(1959)
- Fort Worth Jail/ Whoa Buck (1959)
- Battle Of New Orleans/ Darling Corey (1959)
- Sal's Got A Sugar Lip/ Chesapeake Bay (1959)
- San Miguel/ Talking Guitar Blues (1959)
- Lonnie Rides Again (May 1959)
- My Old Man's A Dustman/ The Golden Vanity
(1960)
- I Wanna Go Home (Wreck Of the John B.)/ Jimmy
Brown The Newsboy (1960)
- Lorelei/ In All My Wildest Dreams (1960)
- Lively/ Black Cat (Cross My Path Today) (1960)
- Virgin Mary/ Beyond The Sunset (1960)
- (Bury Me) Beneath The Willow/ Leave My Woman Alone
(1961)
- Have A Drink On Me/ Seven Daffodils (1961)
- Michael Row the Boat/ Lumbered (1961)
- The Comancheros/ Ramblin' Round (1961)
- More! Tops with Lonnie (April 1961)
- The Party's Over/ Over the Rainbow (1962)
- I'll Never Fall In Love Again/ Keep On The Sunny
Side (1962)
- Pick A Bale Of Cotton/ Steal Away (1962)
- The Market Song/ Tit-Bits (1962)
- Sing Hallelujah (December 1962)
- Losing My Hair/ Trumpet Sounds (1963)
- It Was A Very Good Year/ Rise Up (1963)
- Lemon Tree/ I've Gotta Girl So Far (1963)
- 500 Miles Away From Home/ This Train (1963)
- Beans In My Ears/ It's A Long Road To Travel
(1964)
- Fisherman's Luck/ There's A Big Wheel (1964)
- Get Out Of My Life/ Won't You Tell Me (1965)
- Louisiana Man/ Bound For Zion (1965)
- The Lonnie Donegan Folk Album (August 1965)
- World Cup Willie/ Where In This World Are We Going
(1966)
- I Wanna Go Home/ Black Cat (Cross My Path Today)
(1966)
- Aunt Maggie's Remedy/ (Ah) My Sweet Marie
(1967)
- Toys/ Relax Your Mind (1968)
- My Lovely Juanita/ Who Knows Where The Time Goes
(1969)
- Lonniepops--Lonnie Donegan Today (1970)
- Speak To The Sky / Get Out Of My Life (1972)
- Jump
Down Turn Around (Pick a Bale of Cotton) / Lost John Blues
(1973 -
Australia only)
- Lonnie Donegan Meets Leinemann (1974)
- Country Roads (1976)
- Puttin' On The Style (February 1978)
- Sundown (May 1979)
- Muleskinner
Blues (January 1999)
- The song Lost John was used to open the
John
Peel tribute album
- This Y'ere The Story (2000?)
- The Last Tour (2006)
External links
