I recall reading about Skiffle bands way back in the 60's when many rock groups grew out of the Skiffle era, if I can call it that. I didn't actually understand what Skiffle was until I read this book, but had made a slight connection between it and Punk by the mid-80's. This shed a lot of light on society before I was born and that ended shortly before I became aware of it. Must read if you are a fan of rock and roll, punk, music in general! Lots of cool info I've never heard about before and so much detail, too. Very good read!

The subtitle of this is How Skiffle Changed the World. Billy Bragg argues that skiffle was the link between jazz and big band and modern rock and pop. He tells the reader that the famous George Harrison quote that Lead Belly led to The Beatles misses out a bit. Lead Belly led to Lonnie Donegan and Lonnie Donegan led to The Beatles. It is a fascinating book even if you are not that interested in the history of music. There are many references to the giants of pop and rock. Billy Bragg tells us that George Harrison begged to borrow the cash, aged 13 , to attend every one of Lonnie Donegan’s six night stint at the Liverpool Empire. Of course Lead Belly had recorded Rock Island Line before Donegan but it was Donegan that took it into the charts and started the stampede to buy guitars and join a skiffle group with its washboard and double bass. Up until then teenagers listened to what their parents wanted them to hear but from then on we can chart the rise of pop and rock through punk and spot the difference between popular music and pop music.
The thrill of the skiffle group was partly that the traditionalists didn’t like it. I think all music that appeals to teenagers has part of its appeal in their parents disliking it. My parents hated the Rolling Stones and the Who although they came to love the Beatles later, at the time they were "long haired layabouts".
A good read, well written and very informative.

While this book was very interesting, it took me quite some time to get through it. As a lover of all things related to music, I was very excited to read Roots, Radicals, and Rockers: How Skiffle Changed the World. I did enjoy the book, particularly the background and all of the cultural references. Billy Bragg goes into A LOT of detail. If you love music, you will enjoy this book. Thanks to Faber & Faber and NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A few weeks before seeing Roots, Radicals, and Rockers on NetGalley, I was having a conversation with my mom and dad, one of those random ones you have, this one sparked by an advert on Sunday morning television selling Lonnie Donegan’s greatest hits.  Their comment was, how many hits did he have?  Children of the 50’s and teenagers in the 60’s their memory of him seemed to revolve around one or two comedy songs like Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It’s Flavour on the Bedpost Overnight and My Old Man’s a Dustman.  One google search later, it became clear there was much more to his music than that.  Next thing you know I’ve a skiffle playlist on Spotify and I’m requesting  copy of a book which has opened my eyes to a period in British music I knew nothing about, embarrassingly so for a woman who claims to love music.
As the Goodreads summary states, this book is incredibly well researched and detailed, taking you back to the America roots of what became a very British type of music and led the way for the British Invasion of America in the 60s.  Some of this America music I was very familiar with, artists like Lead Belly, well at least their music.  I knew little if anything of their lives or the world in which they were creating music.  How it made it’s way to the UK was through a small group of people who were pursing an ideal for want of a better word, known as “trad jazz”.  Skiffle was an offshoot of this, played inbetween sets to keep the audience entertained at gigs.
What makes skiffle so different from what came before is that it the birth of guitar-based music in the UK and it ties in perfectly with the birth of the teenager, who after the restrictions of post-war Britain, finally find themselves with money in their pockets to spend and a desire to break with the formality of their parents generation.  They are looking for a way to express themselves and enjoy themselves and through skiffle they found a way.  In the states, it is mirrored by the rise of rockabilly, the king of which was Elvis Presley.
The King of Skiffle for us, was a young man from Glasgow who became a chart hit almost by accident.  Reading about his rise to fame, and how much of a fluke it was, was fascinating.  What was also interesting to me was how he didn’t write his own music (at least in the beginning) but created a British sounds from what I consider American legends (can you say Woodie Guthrie?).  And how much of a craze that sound became.
This is the best part of the story I thought, which didn’t focus too much on Dunegan’s life but looked instead at the impact he had on music in general (as well as other bands and artists which followed him).  For a short period in time (just two years of ’57 and ’58) it seems that every young man and quite a few young women picked up guitars and learnt to play three chords, enough to throw out a tune and express themselves.
Among these young men were three that would change the music world as we knew it: John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison.  And this is where the story ends, with a musical phenomenon that came from nowhere (seemingly), inspired a generation of musicians, and changed and transformed itself into music that influences what we hear today.   It’s a pretty inspirational story and one that shows the power of youth when they chose to use it to change the world.
I have to say that the number of artists named and the number of musical references (magazines, venues etc.) was a bit overwhelming at times, as was trying to keep an eye on the timeline as the book tended to bop back and forth.   I felt guilty in a way that I knew I wouldn’t remember everything I had read but my husband, who is a much bigger music fan than me and also read the book, didn’t have this problem and found it completely fascinating.
What both of us thought made this book stand out was the passion with which it was written and the love Billy Bragg has for his subject matter.  This wasn’t just well researched, it was well written and, to me, it felt like it was written from the heart by a man who knows the music and has been influenced it by it himself.  This won’t be a read for everyone but for those who love British music, folk and rock, I would say it’s one you should pick up.  Like it a lot!

This is a terrific book. Billy Bragg is immensely knowledgeable about the history of Skiffle and has done some meticulous research – and what's more he can really write.

Roots, Radicals and Rockers is a detailed history of Skiffle, that uniquely British phenomenon which was the precursor to so much of the great British music which followed. For example, Bragg gives the full context of George Harrison's famous line "No Lead Belly, no Beatles." What Harrison actually said was, "If there was no Lead belly, there would have been no Lonnie Donegan; no Lonnie Donegan, no Beatles. Therefore no Lead belly, no Beatles." Well, quite.

This is a thorough account of the origins, development and impact of Skiffle, reaching right back to early Blues, Jazz and Ragtime. Bragg certainly hasn't skimmed the surface here because there is a wealth of detail, anecdote and illustration, all of which I found extremely interesting. He also shows a real cultural and political awareness of the context of the music on both sides of the Atlantic, and there's real social history here, too.

The style is very readable and enjoyable. This little quote, which I liked a lot, is a good example: "Before commerce made ownership the key transactional interest of creativity, songs passed through culture by word of mouth and bore the fingerprints of everyone who ever sang them." It's a real pleasure to read.

I have admired and enjoyed Billy Bragg's music and his work in other fields for a long time now. Here, he has shown that he can also produce a fascinating book of real scholarship which is also a pleasure to read. Don't miss this if you have any interest in the history of popular music; it's a gem and very warmly recommended.

I loved this detailed and impressive history of Skiffle in which Billy Bragg aims to rehabilitate Skiffle's importance and reputation.

Skiffle was the Punk Rock of the late 1950s, just as punk erased the barriers between audience and performer, so did Skiffle. To start a skiffle band all it took was a combination of: a few chords, a cheap guitar, a tea chest bass, some songs, and a washboard, and you could make music.

Lonnie Donegan conquering the charts in the UK and the USA during 1956 was the catalyst for the formation of thousands of skiffle bands all over Britain, and virtually every significant British artist of the next decade had some connection to the movement.

'Roots, Radicals and Rockers: How Skiffle Changed the World' covers some of the same territory as (the excellent) 'The Restless Generation' by Pete Frame, however it is every bit as good. Billy Bragg provides a wealth of fascinating detail about how and why Skiffle happened, in addition to the other contemperaneous trends in society, cinema, teenage spending power, other musical trends and genres, etc.

Lonnie Donegan is the book's central character, however Trad Jazz purist Ken Colyer's key role is also covered in detail. Colyer is an unsung catalyst whose passion and influence laid the groundwork for the Skiffle revolution that forever changed Britain's popular music landscape.

If you enjoy music books and want an enjoyable history of how and why popular music, in the late 1950, transformed from staid adult-centric fare into energetic guitar-led music for teenagers then this marvellous book is for you.

Bravo Billy, a great read.

In this book, Billy Bragg tells the fascinating story of the importance of skiffle on British music; where it originated from and how it inspired a generation of (mostly) boys, growing up in the austerity years of post-war Britain, to pick up an instrument and form bands. He begins by telling us of a dinner he was invited to by John Peel, to meet Lonnie Donegan. It later transpired that Peel was so nervous about being in the company of his hero that he had invited Bragg in order to help the conversation along. Indeed, Lonnie Donegan is central to this book – almost an accidental hero, who stepped into the spotlight with the unlikely instrument, a guitar, and created an explosion across the country.

However, like so many books about the history of music, we begin in the United States, with the music of Lead Belly (or, as he was then, convicted felon Huddie Ledbetter), whose songs were taped by a professor, John Lomax, who went around prisons taping folk and blues songs. Lead Belly became his assistant and, meanwhile, between the wars, English lovers of music began to collect American jazz and blues records. The book also tells the unlikely story of Ken Colyer, who he names the ‘Godfather of skiffle,’ a 1930’s jazz lover who travelled from Soho to New Orleans. Like so many things in this story, this was no simple matter. Colyer had to sign on to work on ships – trusting to luck that, eventually, he would find himself heading in the right direction and could, finally, meet his heroes.

Before Lonnie Donegan appeared in the charts with, “Rock Island Line,” everything that was perceived as cool came from the States. Music in the charts was polished and perfect, not raw. It is, certainly, this attitude, and the fact that much of the music came from working class streets, that appeals to Bragg. He is keen to emphasise the fact that so many of these fledgling musicians could not read music and likens the skiffle boom to that of Punk Rock, many years later. All you needed to start a skiffle band was three chords and a guitar – failing that you could find a washboard, broom handle or other hand-made instrument. These were boys used to ‘making do and mending,’ who were inventive and willing to go and hunt out the things they were interested in. Whether tracking down a particular song, or trying to obtain a guitar, nothing was easy and so was more prized once obtained.

There is also much about the fact that skiffle emerged from the trad jazz scene, but was certainly not welcomed. Jazz purists were dismissive of such commerciality, but Donegan’s popularity could not easily be ignored. While purists such as Nancy Whiskey sniffed that she had, “never liked skiffle anyway,” and artists who had flirted with this new music turned back to folk, or jazz, they were right to scent danger. A new music would overtake skiffle, and the charts, with skiffle bands, such as the Quarrymen, turning into the Beatles, and spearheading the British Invasion of the Sixties.

I really enjoyed this interesting account of the history of skiffle. If you enjoy, or are interested in, the early years of the British music scene, then you will be fascinated by this. Jack Good, Tommy Steele, Larry Parnes, Joe Meek, George Martin, Cliff Richard and more all appear in this book. There are countless later rock stars, from David Bowie to Pete Townsend, Mick Jagger to Dave Davies, who were inspired by Skiffle to pick up guitars – or who witnessed such music played live and whose own lives were changed forever. Sometimes Bragg is a little keen to emphasise the political, or class structure, to make a point, but that is in keeping with the book and the times. This is certainly full of enthusiasm and was an immensely readable account of how skiffle changed the British music scene and created the possibility for thousands of young people to realise that they could make music for themselves. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

Popular music is a house of many mansions. Consider not only the main rooms – jazz, blues, country, folk, hip hop, electronic, easy listening, Latin, R & B and soul, rock ‘n roll, and pop – but also all the myriad sub-divisions, ranging from rockabilly to reggaestep, from lounge to liquid funk, and salsa to shoegaze. All forms of music have their ardent champions and skiffle has found its most eloquent advocate in Billy Bragg whose ‘Roots, Radicals and Rockers’ is subtitled ‘How Skiffle Changed the World’.

At first this seems a vain boast, given that skiffle is often derided as a moribund sub-set of an entire category - folk music – which is all too frequently characterized as terminally ‘uncool’.

Bragg himself concedes that skiffle exists “in the dead ground of British pop culture, between the end of the war and the rise of the Beatles”, having left “little tangible evidence” of its relatively brief period of popularity, so that in the popular consciousness it registers, if at all, as a footnote to the formation of the Beatles (the original Quarrymen being a skiffle group) and in the recordings of Lonnie Donegan who sold out in making novelty songs like ‘My Old Man’s a Dustman’ just as clearly (but much less profitably) as Elvis did when he started making films.

The modern British teenager was certainly shaped by more profound forces than skiffle including the baby boom, full employment and the end of National Service but when Bragg talks about skiffle changing the world he’s really thinking more about its musical legacy and in the book’s last chapter – "The British Are Coming” – he makes a convincing case for the argument that “skiffle was boot camp for the British Invasion” by pointing to the origins in skiffle of John Lennon, Alan Price, Paul Jones, Wayne Fontana, Dave Clark, Bill Wyman, Gerry Marsden, Graham Nash, Roger Daltrey, Ronnie Wood, Rod Stewart, Marc Bolan, Ian Hunter, Jack Bruce. Joe Cocker, Jimmy Page and a host of other seminal figures in the UK pop and rock scene of the 1960s and beyond.

An interesting connection not mentioned by Bragg and further proof of skiffle’s pervasive influence is that John Howlett, the co-writer of ‘Crusaders’, which eventually became the radical 1968 British feature film ‘If ….’ about revolution in a private school, had partly expressed his own rebellious spirits by belonging to a skiffle group when he was as a student at Tonbridge School.

It is clear that what appeals to Bragg is not just the music but its practitioners’ attitude and the way in which skiffle was produced: “the first music for teenagers by teenagers in our cultural history”. Not surprisingly then, Bragg sees punk as the spiritual heir of skiffle: music produced at a time of austerity, which rejected the overproduced confections of the then mainstream and comprised a rough-and-ready three-chord DIY form of expression which was raucous, energetic, empowering and authentic.

It is not possible to read this highly entertaining and informative book without being swept away by Bragg’s enthusiasm. He deserves high praise for this exercise in musical archaeology which successfully rescues skiffle from near oblivion and belatedly gives it its due.

This interesting book, charts the rise of popular music through its roots in Blues, Jazz and Skiffle.
As a casual reader, I was impressed by the depth of knowledge brought to the subject and found myself looking up the artists, to listen to the titles of various songs and comparing the various versions of the same song by them. I found this an absorbing pastime and ended up buying some of the music mentioned! I have always enjoyed the Blues, but not so much Jazz, but as I read this book I found many songs and artists in the Jazz era that I really loved, plus I have now expanded my music knowledge and collection. I already knew a bit about Lonnie Donegan, but had underestimated his popularity during the skiffle era, and his importance at start of the modern music scene.
I was also fascinated to discover that conscription finished, just as the Beatles became a group, and that had it still been in force, each of the Beatles would have gone into the army one after another and that the Beatles might therefore never have been.
Overall, I think this book stands to attract both the serious and casual reader, and is very readable, covering as it does so many genres and the impact on post war youth.