Skiffle On The Wane—But Not Lonnie Donegan

Press, Volume C, Issue 29651, 23 October 1961, Page 13

Skiffle On The Wane—But Not Lonnie Donegan

“No, skiffle is not popular in England any more,” said the skiffle king, Lonnie Donegan, sadly ‘yesterday. “But I’d like to counter that by getting big-headed and saying that I am.” His popularity now extends to the United States where his three-year-old song “Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour” (on the bed-post overnight) has only recently been discovered by the disc jockeys, bringing him 750,000 record sales. On the strength of this he plans to visit the United States immediately after his New Zealand tour to make some decisions on the flood of recordings and appearance offers he has received. Lonnie Donegan is now 30, but says he does not plan to give up skiffle in favour of some more universally popular form of singing. “I haven’t got the voice for anything else,” he said

yesterday during a short rehearsal break. “I haven’t got any tone. What I’d like to do is to get better at comedy. I’m introducing more comedy all the time and I’d like to be good at that. “I’d like to do some more acting too, especially light comedy.” At the moment Donegan is hunting about for a new song to match the popularity of his "Rock Island lane” and “My Old Man’s a Dustman.” "I just haven't been able to find one,” he said. “I was hoping to be able to hit on one that could' become a best-seller and launch it during the show in Christchurch.” It is only 10 months since Donegan was in the city last, and he was not sure that that was a good thing. “In England we would not go back to the same town for two years,” he said. “But you have to go where the money is—and I like New Zealand second only to England. “Mine not to reason why,” he-parodied. “Mine just to cash the cheque and fly.”