“He Could Tell A Joke, He Could Dance, He Could Grin And Be Goofy” : Lonnie Donegan, Teenage Idol and Comedy Singer

• On 13 July 1954, Chris Barber’s Jazz Band recorded in Decca’s studio in northwestern London. During a break in the session, band member Tony (later Lonnie) Donegan took the microphone and performed the Leadbelly song Rock Island Line in his own particular style with a much simpler accompaniment than the ordinary Jazz band.1 In that way Donegan followed a live tradition the band had created a few years earlier. Between the jazz sets, it performed a few songs in, what members regarded as a more easyminded music style.2 The following year Rock Island Line was released as a single, which in January 1956 reached the English chart. The same spring it also reached the charts in America. This recording is often seen as a starting point for the British skiffle movement or ”the Skiffle Craze”, which reached its height between 1956 and 1959. It was a youth movement crossing class barriers, and with a particular music style as core.3 The development went rapidly. Already in 1956 more than 600 skiffle bands were established in Greater London. It is estimated that in 1957 about 50.000 bands had been established all over Great Britain with about 300.000 teenagers more or less involved.4 However, Lonnie Donegan was not originally labelled as a teenage-idol.

Nyckelord

skiffle-music

Lonnie Donegan

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)