Who Started British Rock and Roll?
The man behind the British beat boom.
(I would like to thank Benighted who helped me locate this image.)
Much has been said about the influences and birth of British rock and roll. But here is my view on how more than one root that gave bloom to the swinging sixties pop boom.
The Beatles, Rolling Stones and other major groups all rightly point their fingers to such stars as Elvis, Carl Perkins and Buddy Holly, and so they should. These artists were major influences in the development of the musical and writing styles of most of the stars of the sixties.
But in the fifties very few of the young would be musicians could afford electric guitars as used by Buddy Holly and Carl Perkins.
So, if you ask many of these stars what and who made it possible for them to start playing music, there is one name that often comes up. Lonnie Donegan.
Many British people of a certain age will know this name, and there have been many words written about the man, so this will not be a biography of him in any way.
Lonnie Donegan introduced the youth of Britain to a music style called skiffle when he sang and played on the record, Rock Island line.
Basically, skiffle was a simple music based on American folk songs, and the beauty of it was, it was easy to play.
All that was needed was a cheap acoustic guitar, a wash board and a double bass. The latter could be made with a broom stick handle, a tea chest and a piece of rope.
Almost overnight skiffle groups sprung up all over the country, Lonnie Donegans records were selling by the thousands and these groups were playing them. Among them a group called Johnny and the moon dogs, later to be called the Silver Beetles.
Lonnie Donegan's recordings, opened up the future stars to the American folk music that could be played with three cords on a guitar.
It was the start of the journey.
But things were changing.
In the late fifties two young men from the North of England came to London with a Skiffle group and decided to stay. They were teamed up with an up-and-coming British singer and began recording with him, using electric guitars.
These two young men were Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch, and the group the Drifters, later to be called the Shadows, backed the highly successful Cliff Richard.
In 1960 The Shadows recorded an instrumental called Apache. And all the young musicians playing skiffle saw electric Guitars, and with sixties economic boom just beginning, it became possible for them to go electric. The skiffle groups of the fifties became the beat groups of the sixties.
In my opinion The Shadows have never received the credit they deserved for the part they played in the early days of the British beat boom.
Another result of Lonnie Donegan's influence surfaced in the mid-sixties when Bob Dylan started to make his presence known on this side of the Atlantic. His early songs in the style of Woody Guthrie were familiar to British musicians thanks to Lonnie Donegan and skiffle.
That is why I believe when Dylan went electric and got booed by the “purists” the British public could not see what the fuss was about. Wasn’t he just doing what they, the home-grown musician had already done. Moving from acoustic folk-based music on to electric based music, to them it was the natural thing to do.
With the coming of the Beatles and all the rest of the beat groups, Lonnie Donegan's career went into decline, and by the end of the sixties he had almost been forgotten as far as chart success was concerned.
He did continue to record and perform, but ill health dogged him in his later years, and he died in 2002.
I am aware that this article has only been an outline on the effect Lonnie Donegan had on the development of British Rock and Roll.
But to illustrate his importance to the music of the sixty's generation, I can only refer to two interviews given by musicians of that age.
Chas and Dave, the English “pub rock” stars both gave skiffle as their introduction to music.
And when Graham Nash of the Hollies, and Crosby Stills and Nash, was asked who made him want to be a musician, he simply replied.
” Lonnie Donegan”.
More stories from my sometimes-addled brain.
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