Lonnie Donegan MBE, the King Of Skiffle and 'first real British pop superstar' was born on 29 April 1931 and celebrated his 50th year in the music business in 2001. He shot to fame in 1956, when Rock Island Line sold an unprecedented 3 million copies, shooting into the British and American top ten. Britain had never heard anything like it and youngsters were hooked.

Launching a craze that was to lead to the creation of over 50,000 skifffle groups in the UK alone, Lonnie Donegan changed the face of popular music forever. Over six years, every single he released was a top-ten hit.

He was the first artist to win a Gold Record with a debut release, the first to have an album and an EP in the singles chart. He popularised the guitar in pop music and is listed in the Guinness Book Of Records, as one of the biggest hit-makers of all time.

Visit www.peterdonegan.com

Currently the band tour as the same line up as the last tour with Lonnie, featuring Lonnie's son Peter Donegan on keyboards and harmonica - only this time Peter also performs lead vocals, acoustic guitar and banjo, fronting the band.

CLICK HERE FOR THE NEW LONNIE DONEGAN CHATROOM

Extracts from the Lonnie Donegan Souvenir Brochure:

Skiffle
"LONNIE'S version of American Folk Music, christened 'Skiffle Music' because of its Jazz content swept aside the popularity of the 'Establishment' soporific crooners and paved the way for Britain's ecstatic embrace of Afro-American Rhythm!"

Making History
One of the most important events in musical history occured on July 13th 1954 at a coffee break during a recording of The Chris Barber Jazz Band. The A&R man reluctantly agreed to let Chris Barber and his banjo player Lonnie Donegan "record a couple of our 'SKIFFLE' songs". Very reluctantly, the A&R man agreed to allow them the freedom of the studio while he took a coffee break. "The result of this 'caffeine fix' was two tracks of music which were to change the musical & social face of the British Empire forever!"

COMING SOON

Exclusive video and photographs of the Royal Albert Hall Tribute Concert.