SOFT POWER SOUNDS REBOUND

See Also: CAFES Coffee Bars; EMBASSIES & HIGH COMMISSIONS The United States Embassy, The Former United States Embassy; JAZZ; POP & ROCK; MUSIC VENUES, DISAPPEARED The Two I.s

In the post-Second World War era the United States appreciated the importance of exercising 'soft power' wherever she could. The country and Britain shared English as a common language. The United Kingdom's movie studios largely crumbled before the raw economic might of Hollywood.

Popular music was another matter. The industry had a different structure. Within it, the Musicians Union was one of the principal actors. Until 1956, at the behest of the organisation, the Ministry of Labour operated a ban on American performers working in Britain. As a result, transatlantic acts were popular in the United Kingdom but they were far from being dominant.

During the second half of the 20^thC an American soft power initiative was to have a major impact upon British popular music. However, this phenomenon occurred in a collateral manner rather than in a way that had been devised in Washington D.C.. In addition, ultimately, it was to have as much of an effect upon the United States as it was upon the United Kingdom.

Jazz had had an audience in Britain since almost the start of the century. Some of the people who had listened to the form had chosen to play it. An important part of Lonnie Donegan's musical education had occurred overseas during his national service in the Army. He had been stationed in Vienna. There, he had been exposed to American music that was broadcast on the American Forces Network. Subsequently, after he had returned to civilian life in Britain, his musicianship as a banjo player reached a level where he was good enough to become a member of The Chris Barber Band, a trad jazz unit.

The trumpeter Ken Colyer led the rival Ken Colyer Band, a New Orleans-style group. His older brother Bill was a sailor in the merchant marine. While onshore in the Southern states of the United States, Colyer major had attended some rent parties. At these, stripped-down variants of folk music and blues had been performed on both traditional musical instruments and improvised ones. As a result, Bill had taken to playing a washboard. He told Donegan about what he had seen and heard. For most jazz musicians the form's simplicity would have made it appear to be too insubstantial to be of interest to them, however, the banjo player's curiosity had been piqued by what he had been told.

As part of the projection of American influence, the United States's Embassy s Information Service Library had a collection of recordings of American blues and folk music. They had been created to serve an ethnographic purpose. Donegan learnt of their existence and realised that they might help to inform an alternative agenda. Together with the guitarist 'Wally' Whyton, he studied them assiduously. Working with other musicians, the pair sought to reproduce what they had heard. They dubbed their version skiffle.

Whenever The Chris Barber Band headlined it was customary for its members to take a break during their set. These interludes were usually filled by some smaller act. Barber agreed to allow Donegan the opportunity to play skiffle numbers during some intermissions. Audiences proved to be responsive to the material. His 1955 recording of Lead Belly's song Rock Island Line was a hit both in Britain and in America. The record was the first in a run of 32 chart entries. Over the years 1956 to 1962 seventeen of these reached the Top Ten. Donegan left the Band and assembled his own group.

Skiffle could be played with instruments that could be made from everyday items such as washboards, tea chests, broom handles, and jugs.¹ The use of two or three chords made the form accessible to anyone.² It was democratic in a way that no State Department strategist could have mapped out. The music became a national craze in Britain. It created a massive participatory youth movement. The phenomenon helped to open the way for the teenage revolution. Donegan inspired the likes of Adam Faith to believe that they too could become performers.

Donegan was a pioneer. There was no template for his career to be modelled upon. While he arranged his skiffle material, he did not write any of it. It came from another continent and contained nothing that was personal to him. The songs were story songs and could not be danced to, which ultimately was to limit their appeal. While the vocalist was a dynamic performer, he did not have any obvious sex appeal. He dressed in the manner of someone who was older than he in fact was.

Donegan and his group were effective performers on television. This meant that he and the unit were encouraged to identify themselves with light entertainment. This drift was reinforced by the fact that the vocalist relished humour and enjoyed singing comedic material. He became an all-round entertainer. Many Britons came to associate him principally with the novelty records Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour (On The Bedpost Overnight?) (1958) and My Old Man's A Dustman (1960).³ As his recording career petered out he worked regularly both in summer season and in pantomime.

In 1958 Barber and his manager Harold Pendleton watched Muddy Waters perform at Smitty's Corner in Chicago. They dropped skiffle and embraced r'n'b. Later that year the American performed with the trombonist at The Marquee Club on Oxford Street. It was reputed to have been the first time that an electric guitar had been played in London. The Chris Barber Band evolved into being The Chris Barber Jazz & Blues Band.

Skiffle had rendered Britain susceptible to rock n roll when it had appeared. The latter form led many young Britons to become hungry to hear the blues music from which it was in large part derived. They were open to Black American culture in a way that most of their white counterparts in the United States were not.

As the 1960s progressed, it was to be British musicians who took the blues into the American charts. The culturally literate amongst them, the likes of Van Morrison, were always prepared to openly acknowledge an appreciation of the substance Donegan and Barber's pioneering work.

C.D.: The Skiffle Sessions Live In Belfast: Van Morrison, Lonnie Donegan, Chris Barber Venture (2000).

Location: The United States Embassy, 30 Grosvenor Square, W1A 1AE. The former embassy. (orange, purple)

165 Oxford Street, W1D 2JW (orange, turquoise)

Website: www.chasmcdevitt.co.uk www.chrisbarber.net www.themarqueeclub.net

¹. As with almost any human activity, factional preferences soon emerged. Some purists preferred to play India tea chests, while others would only perform with China ones.

². Chas McDevitt's recording of Freight Train (1956) was one of the very few skiffle songs that had four chords.

³. Donegan was one of the song's credited co-writers.

David Backhouse 2024