1 the Rock Island Bridge case drew national attention: David A. Pfeiffer, ‘Bridging the Mississippi: The Railroads and Steamboats Clash at the Rock Island Bridge’, Prologue Magazine, Vol. 36, No. 2 (Summer 2004)
2 the Rock Island operated 3,568 miles of track: Bill Marvel, The Rock Island Line, Indiana University Press, 2013, pp. 53, 56
3 The verses spoke of the different characters: Stephen Wade, The Beautiful Music All Around Us: Field Recordings and the American Experience, University of Illinois Press, 2012, p. 49
1 to spend whatever money he’d saved from his job: Pete Frame, The Restless Generation, Rogan House, 2007, p. 3
2 had put his two elder brothers into children’s homes: Mike Pointon and Ray Smith, Goin’ Home: The Uncompromising Life and Music of Ken Colyer, Ken Colyer Trust, 2010, p. 45
3 But instead of the RAF, he attempted to join the Merchant Navy: Frame, The Restless Generation, p. 6
4 Now don’t be angry: Frame, The Restless Generation, p. 6
5 Talking to Ken, he was intrigued to discover: Pointon and Smith, Goin’ Home, p. 49
6 Within a couple of numbers, the band were playing with a power: Pointon and Smith, Goin’ Home, p. 56
7 After what he later referred to as ‘a lot of argy-bargy’: Frame, The Restless Generation, p. 9
8 Ken and Bill teamed up with another shipmate: Pointon and Smith, Goin’ Home, p. 258
9 Ken said very little to us: Pointon and Smith, Goin’ Home, p. 64
10 We chatted and got along quite well: Pointon and Smith, Goin’ Home, p. 64
11 We’re talking about kids – fifteen, sixteen, seventeen: Pointon and Smith, Goin’ Home, p. 74
12 Big Bill Broonzy was another favourite: Frame, The Restless Generation, p. 19
13 The Cranes were grudgingly allowed to play: Pointon and Smith, Goin’ Home, p. 75
14 And Bill Colyer came along too: Pointon and Smith, Goin’ Home, p. 82
15 A good New Orleans band has no stars: Frame, The Restless Generation, p. 16
16 Even Humph, although he always denied it: George Melly, Owning Up: The Trilogy, Penguin Books, 2000, p. 416
17 Having lost his front teeth: Samuel Charters, A Trumpet Around the Corner, University Press of Mississippi, 2008, p. 332
18 we didn’t call him ‘Bunk’ for nothing: cited in Charters, A Trumpet Around the Corner, p. 94
19 You see those fellows standing behind him: Pointon and Smith, Goin’ Home, p. 54
20 If the employer desires to bring in a complete band: Hansard, 11 February 1929
21 The crowd of over 1,700 were ecstatic: Martin Cloonan and Matt Brennan, ‘Alien Invasions: The British Musicians’ Union and Foreign Musicians’, Popular Music, Vol. 32, Issue 2
22 In England, owing to the unfortunate restrictions: Melody Maker, 28 March 1953
1 the orchestra was composed of three pieces: Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff, Out of Sight: The Rise of African American Popular Music 1889–1895, University Press of Mississippi, 2002, p. 444
2 Jones was enjoying success with his new song: Abbott and Seroff, Out of Sight, p. 162
3 the most common term used to describe these informal events was a ‘breakdown’: Abbott and Seroff, Out of Sight, p. 443
4 ‘Jazz’ as a musical term was rarely heard before 1920: Burton W. Peretti, The Creation of Jazz, University of Illinois Press, 1994, p. 22
5 a placard that read ‘Don’t Patronise This Jass Music’: Charters, A Trumpet Around the Corner, p. 116
6 When the Spanish ruling class sought to marginalise French settlers: http://www.neworleansonline.com/neworleans/history/people.html
7 reclassified as ‘negro’ by Louisiana state law: Charters, A Trumpet Around the Corner, p. 38
8 won’t lower the tone of your event by vulgar improvisation: Charters, A Trumpet Around the Corner, p. 56
9 a very high-class musician: Lee Collins, Oh Didn’t He Ramble, University of Illinois Press, 1989, p. 33
10 by 1900 this red-light zone was generating more revenue than any other district of the city: ‘Storyville, New Orleans’, Wikipedia
11 a celebration of ‘open and notorious depravity’: Abbott and Seroff, Out of Sight, p. 295
12 a habit he’d acquired from performing in rowdy red-light district dance halls: George ‘Pops’ Foster, quoted in Tom Stoddard, The Autobiography of Pops Foster: New Orleans Jazzman, University of California Press, 1971, p. 16
13 He wasn’t really a [trained] musician: Peretti, The Creation of Jazz, p. 101
14 Known as ‘spasm bands’, the more proficient were hired: Peretti, The Creation of Jazz, p. 28
15 When bands from New Orleans made whistle stops in La Place: Peretti, The Creation of Jazz, p. 18
16 But Lena was having none of it: John McCusker, Creole Trombone – Kid Ory and the Early Years of Jazz, University of Mississippi Press, 2012, p. 56
17 It was Bolden’s loud playing that caught their ear: McCusker, Creole Trombone, p. 58
18 four of whom were African Americans: McCusker, Creole Trombone, p. 66
19 He referred to this mixture of influences as ‘soft’ ragtime: McCusker, Creole Trombone, p. 103
20 Looking for a name that described their sound: Charters, A Trumpet Around the Corner, p. 132
21 It was only when the manager appeared: Charters, A Trumpet Around the Corner, p. 136
22 Prohibition, introduced in 1920, further undermined their opportunities: Charters, A Trumpet Around the Corner, p. 302
23 Rather like a primitive religion: Dave Gelly, An Unholy Row, Equinox Publishing, 2014, p. 23
1 You’ll get what men I send you and you’ll accept them: Ken Colyer, When Dreams Are in the Dust, Ken Colyer Trust, 1989, p. 151
2 British cornettist Ken Colyer sends this first-hand account: Melody Maker, 13 December 1952
3 [Ken and I visited] places like: Pointon and Smith, Goin’ Home, p. 100
4 I was given a quiet word of warning: Pointon and Smith, Goin’ Home, p. 103
5 The people in the group are: Pointon and Smith, Goin’ Home, p. 141
1 he and his friends sometimes saw: Chris Barber, Jazz Me Blues, Equinox Publishing, 2014, p. 4
2 The difference between the scratchy old 78 rpm records: Barber, Jazz Me Blues, p. 8
3 It was, by his own admission, a terrible trombone: Barber, Jazz Me Blues, p. 10
4 strange, wild, smoking black cigarettes: Harry Shapiro, Alexis Korner: The Biography, Bloomsbury, 1996, p. 43
5 Alexis had attended the King Alfred Grammar School: Shapiro, Alexis Korner, p. 39
6 Although the young Donegan loved Crumit’s novelty songs: Frame, The Restless Generation, p. 50
7 Alex invited him over for a jam session: Frame, The Restless Generation, p. 36
8 Donegan heard Hank Williams, the Carter Family and Tennessee Ernie Ford: Patrick Humphries, Lonnie Donegan and the Birth of British Rock & Roll, The Robson Press, 2012, p. 48
9 At Wood Green, I would sing the songs: Frame, The Restless Generation, p. 54
10 No, I just want you: Humphries, Lonnie Donegan, p. 53
11 OK, I was terrible: Frame, The Restless Generation, p. 58
12 All the things that Lonnie had been reaching for: Melody Maker, 7 June 1952
13 Lonnie wasn’t too disappointed: Barber, Jazz Me Blues, p. 22
14 Barber’s band thought he was mad: Frame, The Restless Generation, p. 65
15 Straight away we sounded marvellous: Frame, The Restless Generation, p. 66
1 We are going to try to popularise New Orleans music: Melody Maker, 21 March 1953
2 with the glamour of his New Orleans adventure behind him: Melody Maker, 4 April 1953
3 Playing every night in Denmark: Barber, Jazz Me Blues, p. 26
4 Whenever there was a gap: Pointon and Smith, Goin’ Home, p. 160
5 This instrument was going to change the world: Ken Colyer: He Knew, All Out Productions, 2008
6 If you don’t believe this kind of music could be a draw in London: Jazz Journal, July 1953
7 the ‘parlor social’, the ‘gouge’ and the ‘percolator’: Paul Oliver, The Story of the Blues, Northeastern University Press, 1969, p. 83
8 Burley’s South Side Shake album, which appeared on Circle Records: Karl Hultberg, Rudi (& Me): The Rudi Blesh Story, Ragtime Society Press, 2013, p. 40
1 An LP of New Orleans jazz: Melody Maker, 1 August 1953
2 Let us not carp, gentlemen: Pointon and Smith, Goin’ Home, p. 159
3 His wife Delphine said as much: Pointon and Smith, Goin’ Home, p. 18
4 Barber easily identified the cause of the friction: Pointon and Smith, Goin’ Home, p. 160
5 Well, that’s not difficult: Frame, The Restless Generation, p. 72
6 While the band has made great progress: Melody Maker, 23 May 1954
7 For that kind of music: Frame, The Restless Generation, p. 73
8 [Ken] always had to have a lot: Pointon and Smith, Goin’ Home, p. 166
9 From the start of this session: Uncredited sleeve note, Back to the Delta, Decca Records LF 1196
10 it might help if the band sat down to play: Pointon and Smith, Goin’ Home, p. 175
1 A cinema used barbed wire: ‘Barbed Wire Foils Teddy-suit Gang at Cinema’, Daily Sketch, 15 March 1954
2 Clearly, all of the classic elements of Teddy Boy style: ‘Why All This Talk of Change?’, Sunday Pictorial, 11 January 1953
3 Youths wearing Edwardian dress will not be admitted: www.edwardianteddyboy.com
4 We did not need to take up the conventional class attitudes of British film-making: Free Cinema, BFIVD717
5 These figures will have raised eyebrows: Picture Post, 29 May 1954
6 before I get called up, blown up or married: quoted in Bill Osgerby, Youth in Britain Since 1945, Blackwell, 1998, p. 20
7 teenagers, viewed from the shelter of this middle-class enclave: Peter Lewis, ‘Mummy, Matron and the Maids: Feminine Presence and Absence in Male Institutions’, quoted in Osgerby, Youth in Britain, p. 27
1 he affected a bohemian style: Christina L. Baade, Victory through Harmony: The BBC and Popular Music in World War II, Oxford University Press, 2012, p. 123
2 Preston, a committed anti-racist: Baade, Victory through Harmony, p. 124
3 What we were doing at Melodisc: Lloyd Bradley, Sounds Like London, Serpent’s Tail, 2013, p. 47
4 Trinidadian vocalist Young Tiger: John Cowley, ‘London Is the Place for Me: Caribbean Music in the Context of Empire 1900–60’, in Paul Oliver (ed.), Black Music in Britain, Open University Press, 1990, p. 70
5 Humph complained in vain: New Musical Express, 14 January 1955
1 During the first ten months of 1955 over 46 million records had been sold in the UK: Record Mirror, 5 November 1955
2 there’s a demon in this man Colyer: Record Mirror, 6 August 1955
3 the utterly stupid antics of fans and fannies: Record Mirror, 12 November 1955
4 it has even been suggested that ‘Rock Island Line’: ‘Trad Man in the Top Twenty’, New Musical Express, 27 January 1956
5 The general ‘pop’ public: Record Mirror, 31 December 1955
1 Marx lives in one of the worst: quoted in Edmund Wilson, To the Finland Station, Harcourt Brace, 1940, p. 243
2 the free port that every city must have: Ian Nairn, Nairn’s London, Penguin, 1966, p. 74
3 singing easily, loudly, all together: Martha Gellhorn, ‘So Awful to Be Young’, Encounter, May 1956, p. 42
1 I don’t think it’s a particularly good recording: ‘Trad Man in the Top Twenty’, NME, 27 January 1956
2 No more fear for me now: John Szwed, The Man Who Recorded the World, Arrow Books, 2011, p. 252
3 The fact that he’d deprived blues fans: Frame, The Restless Generation, p. 54
4 Woody Guthrie’s Blues was Elliott’s first record: Hank Reineke, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott: The Never Ending Highway, The Scarecrow Press, 2010, p. 66
5 We met a most intriguing character: Jazz Journal, November 1955, p. 25
6 the review was written by one Alan Lomax: The Times, 28 December 1955
7 a person supporting Communist movements: Peter Cox, Set into Song: Ewan MacColl, Charles Parker, Peggy Seeger and the Radio Ballads, Labatie Books, 2008, p. 33
1 The fact that records by English ‘skiffle’ groups: Jazz Journal, April 1956, p. 2
2 a phenomenon almost exclusively of the British jazz world: Paul Oliver, ‘Hometown Skiffle’, Music Mirror, February 1956, p. 8
3 You’re the first man to have made any money out of the guitar: Spencer Leigh, Puttin’ On the Style: The Lonnie Donegan Story, Finbarr International, 2003, p. 37
4 A former employee confided: Jim Irvin, unpublished sleeve note, quoted in The Story of Pye Records, Sequel Records, 1998
5 On Monday last the Races began at the Curragh: quoted in Seán Ó Cadhla, ‘In Search of the Original “Skewball”’, in Ethnomusicology Ireland 2, 3 July 2013
6 it is the most widely known of the chain-gang songs: J. and A. Lomax, American Ballads and Folk Songs, Macmillan, 1934, p. 68
7 ‘It was terrific being on those records: Leigh, Puttin’ On the Style, p. 38
8 as a jazz record, it can only be described as phoney: Record Mirror, 28 April 1956
9 the single had received a tremendous reception: ‘Don and Donegan are Fighting Out a Record Battle over “Rock Island Line”’, NME, 16 March 1956
10 So I signed a contract for American representation: Frame, The Restless Generation, p. 91
11 Donegan had parted company with the Chris Barber Jazz Band: NME, 11 May 1956
12 Jazz is your bread and butter: Leigh, Puttin’ On the Style, p. 40
1 obvious commercial intent: Craig Morrison, Go Cat Go! Rockabilly Music and Its Makers, University of Illinois Press, 1998, p. 1
2 We thought it was a rock ’n’ roll record: Humphries, Lonnie Donegan, p. 139
3 They were sensational musicians: Frame, The Restless Generation, p. 92
4 What is a Lonnie Donegan?: Humphries, Lonnie Donegan, p. 138
5 a wiry guy with that intense Murder, Inc. face: Bill Graham and Robert Greenfield, Bill Graham Presents: My Life Inside Rock and Out, Da Capo Press, 1992, p. 88
6 The story was deemed serious enough: Billboard, 9 June 1956
7 All the coloured acts were backed by an orchestra: Leigh, Puttin’ On the Style, p. 39
8 We love what you’re doing, man: Leigh, Puttin’ On the Style, p. 39
1 A family with the wrong members in control: George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius, Searchlight Books, 1941, p. 35
2 There would be no going back to the past: Spike Milligan, foreword to Christopher Pearce, Fifties Source Book, Grange, 1998
3 Oh no! Not the ironing board: ‘Pamela Lane: Obituary’, Guardian, 21 November 2010
4 all scum and a mile wide: Kenneth Tynan, Observer, 13 May 1956
5 It’s just a travesty of England: Arthur Miller, Timebends: A Life, Harper & Row, 1987, p. 417
6 Pop Art is: Richard Hamilton, letter to Peter and Alison Smithson, 16 January 1957, in Collected Works 1953–1982, Thames and Hudson, 1982, p. 28
7 Bill Haley shouted out: Frame, The Restless Generation, p. 218
8 I’m surprised and a little shocked: ‘“Rock” and Wreck in Film Frenzy’, Manchester Guardian, 4 September 1956
9 [Rock ’n’ roll] is deplorable: Daily Mail, 5 September 1956
10 Opposite the cinema in the early evening: Manchester Guardian, 11 September 1956
11 it would have been much better if the police had been allowed to deal with you: Manchester Guardian, 12 September 1956
12 when they got to ‘See You Later, Alligator’: ‘This Crazy Summer’s Weirdest Craze’, Daily Express, 12 September 1956
13 Even without Sunday: ‘Rock Film Off for the Day’ Manchester Guardian, 17 September 1956
14 The press have offered a challenge to the teddy boys: ‘Rock’n’roll Scenes: Press Blamed’, Manchester Guardian, 19 September 1956
15 Much of the hooliganism has drawn strength: The Times, 15 September 1956
16 We sang ‘Tea for Two’ and ‘Avalon’: ‘Elvis the Pelvis and the Big Beat’, Manchester Guardian, 8 November 1956
1 What we nowadays call English folksong: A. L. Lloyd, The Singing Englishman, Workers Music Association, 1944, p. 4
2 Londoners can go and hear folk singers: Sing, November/December 1954, p. 71
3 John Hasted was one of those co-ordinating people: Frame, The Restless Generation, p. 110
1 ‘Don’t worry,’ he assured Booker: Frame, The Restless Generation, p. 132
2 after getting an autograph for himself: http://www.triumphpc.com/mersey-beat/beatles/lonniedonegan-beatles2.shtml
3 from approximately the last weeks of 1956: Mark Lewisohn, The Beatles – All These Years, Vol. 1: Tune In, Little, Brown, 2013, p. 100
4 British skiffle is, most certainly, a commercial success: ‘Skiffle or Piffle?’, Melody Maker, 23 July 1956
1 Had I not gone on holiday: Dave Thompson, Joe Meek – The Ultimate Listening Guide, Kindle, 2013, p. 12
2 had a drum sound: John Repsch, The Legendary Joe Meek: The Telstar Man, Cherry Red Books, 2001, p. 48
3 one of the most astonishing performances in all recorded music: Humphries, Lonnie Donegan, p. 148
4 a joint live review of Donegan and Steele: ‘Rock’n’Roll (Or Was It Skiffle?) Comes to Town’, Melody Maker, 8 December 1956
1 a place of our own: ‘Skiffle: It’s the New Note at Night’, Daily Herald, 6 November 1956
2 I’ve got a very good ear for a melody: Frame, The Restless Generation, p. 226
3 played a passable version of the National Anthem: Chas McDevitt, Skiffle: The Definitive Inside Story, Robson Books, 1997, p. 42
1 At Christmas people were walking around: ‘This’ll Make You Skiffle’, News of the World, 14 May 1957
2 Unlike the older skiffle groups: John Hasted, ‘A Singer’s Notebook’, Sing, April/May 1957
3 I did it from the beginning because I believed in it: ‘Skiffle on Trial’, Melody Maker, 9 March 1957
4 It’s all very well, some say: ‘“Conceited? They Always Say That When You’re Successful” Says Lonnie Donegan’, Melody Maker, 4 May 1957
5 Harry Belafonte, whose album Calypso had vied with Presley’s: ‘Will Calypso Knock the Rock?’, Melody Maker, 16 March 1957
6 The failure of calypso to ride to the rescue: ‘Has Trad Jazz Had It?’, Melody Maker, 15 June 1957
7 Hardly a week goes by: ‘Skiffle Intelligentsia’, Observer, 16 June 1957
8 amateur performers singing in modest public houses: ‘Skiffle Success with Young England’, The Times, 17 July 1957
9 For nearly a decade, my wife and I played: ‘Skiffle Won’t Die’, Melody Maker, 6 July 1957
10 Are we to let youth become the sole judge: Jack Payne in Melody Maker, 23 June 1956, p. 5
11 If one must categorise skiffle: Graham Boatfield, ‘An Eye upon Skiffle’, Jazz Journal, August 1957, p. 5
12 the cheapest Sunday concert: Weekly Sporting Review & Show Business, 28 December 1957
13 these busy boys were also making frequent appearances at the Skiffle Cellar: Barking Advertiser, 20 December 1957
14 we felt that was an injustice: McDevitt, Skiffle, p. 196
1 the recently opened Cavern jazz club in Liverpool was now holding a weekly skiffle night: Reveille, 23 May 1957
2 Bob Cort’s guide to forming a skiffle group: Mirabelle, 22 July 1957
3 quite unlike anything that had been heard on radio before: Brian Matthew, This Is Where I Came In, Constable, 1991, p. 121
4 Cyril said to me one day: Roger Dopson, Blues from the Roundhouse CD, GVC 1006
5 Claiming roots in the jump jazz of 1920s Chicago: Weekly Sporting Review & Show Business, 31 January 1958
6 the vocalists called out for Fags on the recording: McDevitt, Skiffle, p. 85
1 there would soon be as many strip shows as skiffle bars in Soho: ‘On the Beat’, Melody Maker, 26 April 1958
2 a raucous, rhythmic paean of disgust: Expresso Bongo, sleeve notes of original cast recording
1 guests were allowed, although they had to pay two shillings and six pence: Lonnie Donegan Club, Vol. 2, No. 1
2 The winter edition carried the contact details of clubs: Lonnie Donegan Club, Vol. 2, Nos 2 and 3
3 The organisers believed that music should be a central component: George McKay, Circular Breathing: The Cultural Politics of Jazz in Britain, Duke University Press, 2005, p. 57
4 On the black cloth were the words ‘Nuclear Disarmament’: Peggy Duff, Left, Left, Left, Alternative Editions, 1971, p. 115
5 The City Ramblers clearly didn’t get the memo: John Hasted, Alternative Memoirs, Greengates Press, 1992, p. 157
6 the marchers ‘skiffled their way along’: ‘Motley 4000 Begin H Bomb Procession’, Daily Telegraph, 5 April 1958
7 five guitars, a washboard and three dozen people singing a Negro spiritual: ‘Marchers’ Numbers Rise to 1000’, Daily Telegraph, 6 April 1958
8 We’re lovers of good music: March to Aldermaston, Film and T.V. Committee for Nuclear Disarmament, 1959
9 They later told the police that they were ‘nigger-hunting’: Ruth Glass, Newcomers: The West Indians in London, Centre for Urban Studies, University of London Press, 1960, p. 135
10 left five black men lying unconscious: Guardian, 24 August 2002
11 Among the twenty-seven prominent artists who signed the statement: ‘Race Riots’, Melody Maker, 6 September 1958
12 [Our] aims are to promote understanding between races: Glass, Newcomers, p. 198
13 this will not be a select club: ‘Harmony Club on Monday’, Kensington Post, 16 January 1959
14 received letters from fascist groups threatening violence: Marika Sherwood, Claudia Jones: A Life In Exile, Lawrence & Wishart, 1999, p. 116
15 The objectives of the campaign: Panorama, BBC TV, 13 April 1959
1 The Orange Blossom Jug Five: Dave Van Ronk with Elijah Wald, The Mayor of MacDougal Street, Da Capo Press, 2006, p. 91
2 an irregular publication circulated mainly in fandom: Michael Moorcock, Jazz Fan, Issue 7, May 1957
3 overflowing with refugees from the skiffle craze: Eric Winter, ‘The Flowers of Manchester’, Manchester Guardian, 3 March 1958
4 There are generally about thirty bods with guitars: Ben Harker, Class Act: The Cultural and Political Life of Ewan MacColl, Pluto Press, 2007, p. 128
1 The band I had with my friends, Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys: Dora Loewenstein and Philip Dodd, According to the Rolling Stones, Phoenix, 2004, p. 13
2 I was in loads of skiffle groups: Chris Salewicz, Mick & Keith, Orion, 2002, p. 21
3 Without Donegan I don’t know how I would have started: Guardian, 5 June 2015