Lonnie Donegan, the Scottish skiffle singer, composer and guitarist, was born on January 29th 1931.
Doegans father was a Scot of irish descent, his mother Irish, they moved to London while the boy was still quite young, but he was not allowed to forget his heritage.
Considered by some to be our first pop superstar, James Anthony Donegan burst onto the scene in the mid-1950s with a distinctive, lively sound called "skiffle", which was based loosely on American folk music. His first big hit, Rock Island Line, achieved the then rare distinction of soaring up the US hit parade, and he was rarely out of the charts from then until "The Beatles" era.
Donegan's hits included Does Your Chewing Lose Its Flavour, My Old Man's A Dustman, Cumberland Gap and Puttin' On The Style. Lonnie Donegan died whilst touring in November, 2002.














