includes a mix of Jazz, Blues and Folk.
Huge in the US in the early Twentieth Century, Skiffle became very popular in the UK in the 1950s, and later in Australia, and as mentioned is sometimes known as 'Jug Band Music''. Skiffle's typical instruments could see it labelled as 'poor men’s music' as they included such as things as washboards, jugs, tea chest bass, kazoo, guitar, banjo, comb and paper, and fiddles among others. |
Liverpool skiffle group The Quarrymen played their first full show in 1957. |
Skiffle was big in the US in the early 20th century where its name originated. The name was thought to be one of many slang phrases for a 'rent party', a social event with a small rent charge designed to pay rent on a house. This music was first recorded in Chicago in the 1920s and may have been brought there as part of the African-American migration to the northern US industrial cities. Big in the UK in the 1950s, British Skiffle grew out of the developing post-war British Jazz scene, which saw a move away from Swing music towards authentic 'Trad Jazz'. Skiffle grew into British Blues and Rock, Folk and Beat music. Skiffle was made huge by Lonnie Donegan and his band as you can hear above and below. It became a major part in beginning the careers of later eminent Jazz, Pop, Blues, Folk and Rock musicians. |
Jimmy Page - Mama Don't Allow Skiffle
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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, and John Duncan among others. But the main impact of Skiffle, according to Wikipedia, was as a grassroots amateur movement, particularly popular among working class males, such as John Lennon. |
Lonnie Donegan - Rock Island Line
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Captain Matchbox Whoopie Band - I Can't Dance
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Captain Matchbox Whoopie Band - Nagasaki
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