In 1983 Donegan toured England with Billy Joe Spears, and in 1984, he made his theatrical debut in a revival of the 1920 musical Mr. Cinders. As "Rock Island Line" took the country by storm, Decca suddenly had one of the bigger -- and most wholly unexpected -- hits in its history up to that time. Lonnie Donegan remains a beloved pioneer of English rock & roll, and the king of skiffle. WebScottish-born singer and guitarist who was the greatest star of skiffle, the souped-up folk style that predated British rock & roll. Subscription from $10.83/month Michael Row The Boat Ashore More concert tours followed, along with a move from Florida to Spain. Donegan passed away November 3, 2002, following heart problems. In concert, the group's sound was fuller still, with Donegan and Wright sharing guitar chores with bearded, bespectacled Dick Bishop, who had played on Donegan's earliest records. Yes Suh Smith&Co SSCD1123 LD9. The name "skiffle" was hung on this music as a way of referring to it on the group's posters. The only way Donegan had of mastering his instrument was by listening to old records and painstakingly working out the music and a technique, He first became interested in the guitar at age nine, but it was to be another five years before he took matters into his own hands and bought his first guitar for 12.50 (about $70 American in those days). Donegan had never even held a banjo before but agreed to come to the audition, then bought a banjo and tried to fake his way through the try-out. By 1980, he was making regular concert appearances again, and a new album with Barber followed. Donegan cut his first album, Showcase, in the summer of 1956, featuring songs by bluesmen Leadbelly and Leroy Carr, not to mention moody traditional blues like "I'm a Ramblin' Man" and A.P. For LP, just put in Title. Genres: Skiffle. It was through BBC broadcasts around 1946 that Donegan first started learning to play songs like "Frankie and Johnny," "Putting on the Style," and "House of the Rising Sun." Jim Bray - Banjo, Bass 1954 All user-contributed text on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. I'm A Ramblin' Man His bluff didn't work but the mix of personalities did, and he was in Barber's first band. Lumbered Lonnie Donegan was born on 29 April 1931 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. Sally Don't You Grieve (Nov - 1957) Having replaced Bishop in 1956, Wright is playing most of the lead guitar on those tracks, on the accompanying single sides, and on a pair of previously unissued tracks: the Pye re-recording of "Rock Island Line" and the slow blues "I've Got Rocks in My Bed," where he gets to play some Scrapper Blackwell-style licks. Chris Barber - Bass, Vocals He's relatively little remembered outside of England, but Donegan shares an important professional attribute with Elvis Presley, Bill Haley, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and the Sex Pistols -- he invented a style of music, skiffle, that completely altered the pop culture landscape and the youth around him, and for a time, completely ruled popular music through that new form. and After his return, he formed a band of his own, which initially consisted of jazz guitarist Denny Wright, Micky Ashman on bass, and Nick Nichols on drums. Long Summer Day. More than 100 million titles available in unlimited streaming in high sound quality. Artist descriptions on Last.fm are editable by everyone. WebLonnie Donegan will always be remembered for his showman ship that for the younger ones looking on especially in England, such as the Beatles and the list goes on gave them hope. Frankie and Johnny 5. It seemed to fit, and it caught on; the Ken Colyer Jazzmen became almost as popular for Donegan's between-set skiffle songs as they were for their Dixieland music. The details on the right-hand side refer to the CD in the Bear Family 8-CD set More Than Pye in the Sky and also to other items in my own collection. Gloryland 7. The master of ceremonies at the show made a mistake in his announcement, introducing the American guitarist as "Tony Johnson" and the British banjo man as "Lonnie Donegan." Donegan was born as Anthony James Donegan in Glasgow, Scotland, the son of a professional violinist. It was exceptionally popular among England's teenagers, who accounted for most of its sales. In 1949, he was drafted into the British Army. While Donegan was racking up hits -- "Bring a Little Water, Sylvie" (number seven), "Don't You Rock Me, Daddy-O" (number four), "Cumberland Gap (number six), and "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor On the Bedpost Overnight?" With a washboard, a tea-chest bass and a cheap Spanish guitar, Donegan entertained audiences with folk and blues songs by artists such as Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie. The three laid down four or five songs while the producer was away, and one of the songs chosen from among those five for the album was "Rock Island Line." WebLonnie Donegan Pop - Released by Castle Communications on 1/01/1985 16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo Starting at $117.99 My Old Man's A Dustman - The Singles As & Bs 1954 - 1961 Lonnie Donegan Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released by Jasmine Records on 10/12/2012 16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo Starting at $18.99 He continued to record sporadically during the '60s, including some sessions at Hickory Records in Nashville with Charlie McCoy, Floyd Cramer, and the Jordanaires, but after 1964, he was primarily occupied as a producer for most of the decade at Pye Records. To look at Lonnie Donegan today, in pictures taken 40 years ago when he was topping the British charts and hitting the Top Ten in America, dressed in a suit, his hair cut short and strumming an acoustic guitar, he looks like a musical non-entity. He also gained access to more American records than ever before, courtesy of the U.S. soldiers serving in the city. WebLonnie Donegan Showcase More images Tracklist Wabash Cannonball How Long, How Long Blues Nobody's Child I Shall Not Be Moved I'm Alabammy Bound I'm A Ramblin' Man Gamblin Man. And he did it in 1954, before Elvis was known anywhere outside of Memphis and before Bill Haley was perceived as anything but a Western swing novelty act. Each of those was a success, and eventually "Rock Island Line" came up as a 45 rpm release. WebLonnie Donegan. Grand Coulee Dam Only when the next wave of young rockers came along, who, like Donegan, had their own ideas about music and what they wanted to do with it, did he finally fade from the charts. They were successful enough that the National Jazz Federation asked the band to play a show at Festival Hall with American ragtime pianist Ralph Sutton and blues/jazz legend Lonnie Johnson. WebListen to Lonnie Donegan in unlimited on Qobuz and buy the albums in Hi-Res 24-Bit for an unequalled sound quality. WebExplore releases from Lonnie Donegan at Discogs. [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. There's also one fine Chris Barber/Lonnie Donegan original, "Harmonica Blues," dating from 1955 and never before issued. _udn = "none"; '&utmxhash='+escape(h.substr(1)):'')+'" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8">')})(); Aunt Rhody, My Old Man's A Dustman b/w The Golden Vanity, I Wanna Go Home (Wreck Of The John B.) Donegan and his band eventually hooked back up with his old friend Chris Barber, who'd kept his band going throughout the previous two years, and eventually Barber and Donegan linked up with fellow jazzman Ken Colyer, into a kind of supergroup led by Colyer. The Federation had brought the two over to England in defiance of a Musicians' Union ban on all foreign performers and needed a non-union band like Donegan's to play support for the two guests. The only way Donegan had of mastering his instrument was by listening to old records and painstakingly working out the music and a technique, 2000, Jazz - Released by RevOla on 22 jul. http://www.p.griggsy.btinternet.co.uk/Untitled/Lonnie.html (Memories of Lonnie Donegan by Paul Griggs). Golden Hour [UK] GH 514 Lonnie Donegan's' Golden Hour Of Golden Hits: Rock Island Line; Jack ODiamonds; Tom Dooley; Puttin On The Style; Im Alabammy Bound; Nick Nicholls - Drums 1956 Jim Currie - Guitars, Vocals 1957 http://lonniedonegan.webs.com/pagelinkindex.htm,