Anthony James "Lonnie" DoneganMBE (29 April 1931 – 3 November 2002) was a Britishskiffle singer, songwriter and musician, referred to as the "King of Skiffle", who influenced 1960s British pop and rock musicians.[1][2][3] Born in Scotland and brought up in England, Donegan began his career in the British trad jazz revival but transitioned to skiffle in the mid-1950s, rising to prominence with a hit recording of the American folk song "Rock Island Line" which helped spur the broader UK skiffle movement.
Donegan had 31 UK top 30 hit singles, 24 were successive hits and three were number one. He was the first British male singer with two US top 10 hits.[1] Donegan received an Ivor Novello lifetime achievement award in 1995[4] and in 2000 he was made an MBE.
Donegan was a pivotal figure in the British Invasion due to his influence in the US in the late 1950s.
Donegan first played in a major band after Chris Barber heard that he was a good banjo player and, on a train, asked him to audition. Donegan had never played the banjo but he bought one for the audition and succeeded more on personality than talent.[5] His stint with Barber's trad jazz band was interrupted when he was called up for National Service in 1949, but while in the army at Southampton, he was the drummer in Ken Grinyer's Wolverines Jazz Band at a local pub. A posting to Vienna brought him into contact with American troops, and access to US records and the American Forces Network radio station.[8]
In 1952, he formed the Tony Donegan Jazzband, which played around London. On 28 June 1952 at the Royal Festival Hall they opened for the blues musician Lonnie Johnson.[5] Donegan adopted his first name as a tribute. He used the name at a concert at the Royal Albert Hall on 2 June 1952.[9]
In 1953 cornetistKen Colyer was imprisoned in New Orleans for a visa problem. He returned to Britain and joined Chris Barber's band. They changed the name to Ken Colyer's Jazzmen and made their first public appearance on 11 April 1953 in Copenhagen. The following day, Chris Albertson recorded Ken Colyer's Jazzmen and the Monty Sunshine Trio—Sunshine, Barber, and Donegan—for Storyville Records. These were amongst Donegan's first commercial recordings.[10]
Skiffle
While in Ken Colyer's Jazzmen with Chris Barber, Donegan sang and played guitar and banjo in their Dixieland set. He began playing with two other band members during the intervals, to provide what posters called a "skiffle" break, a name suggested by Ken Colyer's brother, Bill, after the Dan Burley Skiffle Group of the 1930s.[5] In 1954 Colyer left and the band became Chris Barber's Jazz Band.[8]
With a washboard, tea-chest bass, and a cheap Spanish guitar, Donegan played folk and blues songs by artists such as Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie.[5] This proved popular and in July 1954 he recorded a fast version of Lead Belly's "Rock Island Line",[4] featuring a washboard but not a tea-chest bass, with "John Henry" on the B-side.[5] It was a hit in 1956[11] (which also later inspired the creation of a full album, An Englishman Sings American Folk Songs, released in America on the Mercury label in the early 1960s), but because it was a band recording, Donegan made no money beyond his session fee. It was the first debut record to go gold in the UK, and it reached the Top Ten in the United States.[5]
The Acoustic Music organisation made this comment about Donegan's "Rock Island Line": "It flew up the English charts. Donegan had synthesized American southern blues with simple acoustic instruments: acoustic guitar, washtub bass, and washboard rhythm. The new style was called 'Skiffle'.... and referred to music from people with little money for instruments. The new style captivated an entire generation of post-war youth in England."[12]
His next single for Decca, "Diggin' My Potatoes", was recorded at a concert at the Royal Festival Hall on 30 October 1954.[5] Decca dropped Donegan thereafter, but within a month he was at the Abbey Road Studios in London recording for EMI's Columbia label. He had left the Barber band, and by spring 1955, signed a recording contract with Pye. His next single "Lost John" reached No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart.[5]
He appeared on television in the United States on the Perry Como Show and the Paul Winchell Show.[5] Returning to the UK, he recorded his debut album, Lonnie Donegan Showcase, in summer 1956, with songs by Lead Belly and Leroy Carr, plus "Ramblin' Man" and "Wabash Cannonball". The LP sold hundreds of thousands.[5] The skiffle style encouraged amateurs and one of many groups that followed was the Quarrymen, formed in March 1957 by John Lennon. Donegan's "Gamblin' Man"/"Puttin' On the Style" single was number one in the UK in July 1957, when Lennon first met Paul McCartney.[1] His Skiffle rendition of Hank Snow's Country song "Nobody's Child" was also the inspiration for Tony Sheridan's blues version which he recorded with the Beatles as his backing band.[citation needed]
Donegan went on to successes such as "Cumberland Gap" and "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour (On the Bedpost Overnight?)",[4] his biggest hit in the US, on Dot.[5] He turned to music hall style with "My Old Man's a Dustman" which was not well received by skiffle fans and unsuccessful in America on Atlantic in 1960,[4] but it reached number one in the UK.[4] Donegan's group had a flexible line-up, but was generally Denny Wright or Les Bennetts, playing lead guitar and singing harmony, Micky Ashman or Pete Huggett—later Steve Jones—on upright bass, Nick Nichols—later Pete Appleby, Mark Goodwin, and Ken Rodway on drums or percussion, and Donegan playing acoustic guitar or banjo and singing the lead.[5]
His last hit single on the UK chart was his cover version of "Pick a Bale of Cotton." His fall from the chart coincided with the rise of The Beatles and the other beat music performers whom he inspired.[5]
Donegan reunited with the original Chris Barber band for a concert in Croydon in June 1975. A bomb scare meant that the recording had to be finished in the studio, after an impromptu concert in the car park.[citation needed] The release was titled The Great Re-Union Album.[5] He collaborated with Rory Gallagher on several songs, notably "Rock Island Line" with Gallagher performing most of the elaborate guitar work.[citation needed]
He had his first heart attack in 1976 while in the United States and had quadruple bypass surgery. He returned to attention in 1978 when he recorded his early songs with Rory Gallagher, Ringo Starr, Elton John, and Brian May.[4] The album was called Putting on the Style.[5] A follow-up featuring Albert Lee saw Donegan in less familiar country and western vein. By 1980, he was making regular concert appearances again, and another album with Barber followed. In 1983, Donegan toured with Billie Jo Spears, and in 1984 he made his theatrical debut in a revival of the 1920 musical Mr Cinders. More concert tours followed, with a move from Florida to Spain. In 1992 he had further bypass surgery following another heart attack.[5]
In 1994, the Chris Barber band celebrated 40 years with a tour with both bands. Pat Halcox was still on trumpet (a position he retained until July 2008). The reunion concert and the tour were on CD and DVD.
Peter Donegan started touring as his father's pianist when he was aged 18. In 2019, Peter appeared on the show The Voice as a contestant, and duetted with Tom Jones with the song "I'll Never Fall in Love Again".[13] Anthony Donegan also performs under the name, Lonnie Donegan Jr.
Personal life
Donegan married three times. He had two daughters (Fiona and Corrina) with his first wife, Maureen Tyler (divorced 1962), a son and a daughter (Anthony and Juanita) with his second wife, Jill Westlake (divorced 1971), and three sons (Peter, David and Andrew)[14] with his third wife, Sharon whom he married in 1977.[15]
Lonnie Donegan died on 3 November 2002, aged 71, after having a heart attack in Market Deeping, Lincolnshire mid-way through a UK tour,[16] and before he was due to perform at a memorial concert for George Harrison with the Rolling Stones.[17] He had cardiac problems since the 1970s and several heart attacks.[18]
Legacy
Mark Knopfler released a tribute to Lonnie Donegan titled "Donegan's Gone" on his 2004 album, Shangri-La, and said he was one of his greatest influences.[2] Donegan's music formed a musical starring his two sons. Lonnie D – The Musical took its name from the Chas & Dave tribute song which started the show. Subsequently, Peter Donegan formed a band to perform his father's material and has since linked with his father's band from the last 30 years with newcomer Eddie Masters on bass. They made an album together in 2009 titled Here We Go Again. Lonnie Donegan's eldest son, Anthony, also formed his own band, as Lonnie Donegan Junior, who also performed "World Cup Willie" for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
On his album A Beach Full of Shells, Al Stewart paid tribute to Donegan in the song "Katherine of Oregon". In "Class of '58" he describes a British entertainer who is either Donegan or a composite including him. In a 2023 video interview with Steve Houk, Stewart described 'Rock Island Line' as a record "that completely changed the complexion of English society, and changed my life and everybody else's".[citation needed]
Peter Sellers recorded Puttin' on the Smile featuring "Lenny Goonagain", who travels to the "Deep South" of Brighton and finds an "obscure folk song hidden at the top of the American hit parade", re-records it and reaches number one in the UK.
In the 2019 movie Judy, the actor John Dagleish portrays Lonnie Donegan, who replaces an ill Judy Garland. He is shown in the (entirely fictional) final scene generously allowing her to make one last appearance on stage.
Quotations
"I'm trying to sing acceptable folk music. I want to widen the audience beyond the artsy-craftsy crowd and the pseudo intellectuals–but without distorting the music itself." NME – June 1956[20]
"In Britain, 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.[21]
"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[21]
"He really was at the very cornerstone of English blues and rock." – Brian May.[2]
"I wanted to be Elvis Presley when I grew up, I knew that. But the man who really made me feel like I could actually go out and do it was a chap by the name of Lonnie Donegan." – Roger Daltrey[22]
"You know in my little span of life I've come across such a sea of bigotries and prejudices. I get so fed up with it now. I feel I have to do something about it." - BBC Panorama[24]
Discography
Studio albums
Lonnie Donegan Showcase (December 1956) – UK # 2; UK No. 26 ‡
Most of the above records were accredited to Lonnie Donegan; except, as follows:
† Billed as the Lonnie Donegan Skiffle Group
‡ Billed as Lonnie Donegan and his Skiffle Group
¶ Billed as Lonnie Donegan meets Miki & Griff with the Lonnie Donegan Group
↑ Billed as Lonnie Donegan and his Group
↓ Billed as Lonnie Donegan and Wally Stott's Orchestra
♠ Billed as Miki and Griff with the Lonnie Donegan Group[1]
^Harper, Colin (2006) [First published 2000]. Dazzling Stranger: Bert Jansch and the British Folk and Blues Revival (2nd revised ed.). London: Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN07-4758-725-6.
