Donegan was a musician, once known as ‘the king of skiffle.’ He was born Anthony James Donegan on 29 April 1931 in Glasgow, the son of a violinist in the National Scottish Orchestra. He was to recall, “When I was nine, I told my parents I wanted a guitar.” However, he wasn’t able to buy himself the instrument until five years later.

When he completed his army service in 1949, he began playing in various jazz bands. His stage name allegedly came about in 1952, when he was appearing on the same bill as legendary blues guitarist Lonnie Johnson in London and the compere mistakenly announced him as ‘Lonnie Donegan’ – he decided to keep the name.

During the same year he joined Ken Colyer’s Jazzmen on guitar and banjo, where he was reunited with a former army buddy, Chris Barber. During the band’s show he was given his own spot, accompanied by Colyer on guitar, Barber on bass and Bill Colyer on washboard, performing the style of music generally known as ‘skiffle.’

Donegan had a massive hit with Rock Island Line in 1956 and during the next six years enjoyed a total of 32 chart hits. He sparked off a skiffle boom and during its height it was estimated that there were 5,000 skiffle groups in the country.

Commenting on the boom in later years, he was to say “Skiffle is a mixture of music. It’s mongrel music. It came via my singing American folk and blues songs with jazz improvisation. You can call it anything you like. It’s neither fish nor fowl.”

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