The first British recordings of skiffle were carried out by Colyer's new band in 1954 but it was the release by Decca of two skiffle tracks by Barber's Jazz Band under the name of "The Lonnie Donegan Skiffle Group" in late 1955 that transformed the fortunes of skiffle.1 Donegan's high-tempo version of Leadbelly's "Rock Island Line" featuring a washboard (but not a tea-chest bass) with "John Henry" on the B-side was a major hit in 1956. It spent eight months in the Top 20 peaking at #6 (and #8 in the U.S.). It was the first dbut record to go gold in Britain selling over a million copies worldwide.1

It was the success of this single and the lack of a need for expensive instruments or high levels of musicianship that set off the British skiffle craze. A few bands enjoyed chart success in the skiffle craze including The Chas McDevitt Group Johnny Duncan and the Bluegrass Boys and The Vipers but the main impact of skiffle was as a grassroots amateur movement particularly popular among working class males who could cheaply buy improvise or build their own instruments and who have been seen as reacting against the drab austerity of post-war Britain.17 The craze probably reached its height with the broadcasting of the BBC TV programme Six-Five Special from 1957. It was the first British youth music programme using a skiffle song as its title music and showcasing many skiffle acts.1 Liverpool skiffle group The Quarrymen playing their first full show in 1957: John Lennon is centre stage.

It has been estimated that in the late 1950s there were 30-50000 skiffle groups in Britain.6 Sales of guitars grew rapidly and other musicians were able to perform on improvised bass and percussion in venues such as church halls and cafes and in the flourishing coffee bars of Soho London like The 2i's Coffee Bar The Cat's Whisker and nightspots like Coconut Grove and Churchill's without having to aspire to musical perfection or virtuosity.1 A large number of British musicians began their careers playing skiffle in this period and some became leading figures in their respective fields. These included leading Northern Irish musician Van Morrison British blues pioneer Alexis Korner as well as Ronnie Wood Alex Harvey and Mick Jagger; folk musicians Martin Carthy John Renbourn and Ashley Hutchings; rock musicians Roger Daltrey Jimmy Page Ritchie Blackmore Robin Trower and David Gilmour; and popular beat music successes Graham Nash and Allan Clarke of The Hollies.8 Most notably The Beatles evolved from John Lennon's skiffle group The Quarrymen.9

After splitting from Barber Donegan went on to make a series of popular records as "Lonnie Donegan's Skiffle Group" with successes including "Cumberland Gap" (1957) "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour" (1958) and "My Old Man's a Dustman" (1960).1 However the British rock and roll scene was starting to take off producing home grown stars like Tommy Steele Marty Wilde and Cliff Richard and The Shadows (themselves originally involved in skiffle). Donegan was the only skiffle act to make a serious impact on the charts and even he began to look outmoded. The skiffle craze was largely over by 1958 as its enthusiasts either abandoned music for more stable employment or moved into some of the forms of music it had first suggested including folk the blues and rock and roll. As a result it has been seen as a critical stepping stone to the second British folk revival blues boom and British Invasion.1 Donegan continued his career in skiffle until his death in 2002.10 Several bands have taken up the form (such as The Ugly Dog Skiffle Combo and The London Philharmonic Skiffle Orchestra) or returned to it but attempts at a skiffle revival have failed to reach anything like the heights of the initial craze.citation needed Notes a b c d e f g h i j k l M. Brocken The British folk revival 1944-2002 (Aldershot: Ashgate 2003) pp. 69-80. L. R. Broer and J. D. Walther Dancing Fools and Weary Blues: the Great Escape of the Twenties (Popular Press 1990) p. 149. J. R. Brown. A Concise History of Jazz (Mel Bay Publications 2004) p. 142. J. Simpson and E. Weiner eds The Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2nd edn. 1989) c.f. "skiffle". J. Minton 78 Blues: Folksongs and Phonographs in the American South (University Press of Mississippi 2008) pp. 119-20. a b R. D. Cohen Folk Music: the Basics (CRC Press 2006) p. 98. J. P. Ward Britain and the American South: From Colonialism to Rock and Roll (University Press of Mississippi 2009) pp. 192-6. C. McDevitt Skiffle: The Roots of UK Rock (Robson Books 1998). J. Roberts The Beatles (Lerner Publications 2001) p. 13. Skiffle king Donegan dies (BBC) accessed 05/01/08 External links My 20-year love affair with the joy of skiffle v d eFolk music Subgenres Ballads  Carols  Children's songs  Drinking song  Hornpipe  Jigs  Morris dance  Protest song  Sea shanties  War songs Fusions Anti-folk  Celtic music  Celtic rock  Country folk  Electric folk  Filk music  Folk metal  Folk punk  Folk rock  Folktronica  Indie folk  Industrial folk song  Manila Sound  Medieval folk rock  Neofolk  Nu-folk  Psych folk  Progressive folk  Skiffle  Techno-folk  Un-folk Related articles Festivals  Folk clubs  Folk dance  Instruments  Lists of traditions  Pub session  Record labels  Roots revival  Singer-songwriter  Traditional music  World music Regional scenes American  Assyrian/Syriac  Balkan  Cuban  English  Filipino  French  German  Greek  Hungarian  Icelandic  Indian  Iranian  Irish  Italian  Jamaican  Macedonian  Pakistani  Portuguese  Scottish  Swedish  Turkish  Ukrainian  Russian