LONNIE DONEGAN ARRIVES

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29367, 21 November 1960, Page 7

LONNIE DONEGAN ARRIVES

Tea, Golf, And Pictures

Lonnie Donegan, the skiffle player and singer, did three things as soon as he reached Christchurch yesterday afternoon—had a cup of tea, borrowed golf clubs for nine holes of golf, and got tickets for the evening picture show.

He likes drinking tea, and golf is one of his games. He also prefers home cooking, but did very well with the hotel’s afternoon tea spread. Born in Glasgow, Lonnie Donegan has lived all his life in London. His skiffle and the songs he sings have put him at the top in Britain’s show business, but he makes no claim to being the first to lift skiffle to full-scale entertainment.

In New Zealand for barely eight days, he is getting no chance of looking at the country. “All I’m seeing is hotel rooms,” he said. He will come back to New Zealand about this time next year if all goes well.

“That will be in the autumn—the proper- autumn—and I’ll stay about a week in each place,” he said.

His best-selling song, “My Old Man’s A Dustman,” is a folk song that used to be sung in Liverpool a long time ago, he said. It started off as “My Old Man’s a Fireman on the Elder DempsterLine,” and on the way to his stage version it passed through the hymn books and a Midlands university song book. Lonnie Donegan’s room suddenly filled with young men dressed elegantly in the latest styles with sun-glasses and cuffless trousers as a common bond. They were the musicians from his group and others from his show. Helping themselves to his afternoon tea they all started telling him about Nick Nicholls, the guitar player, falling into the Avon river while they were canoeing. Then they switched to talking about clothes, but by then a golf course had been found where clubs could be borrowed and Lonnie Donegan was on his way again.

He will give two shows in Christchurch this evening, and tomorrow will leave for Australia on his way home.