In the late 1950s, Brian Bird wrote a book about skiffle not long before skiffle’s decline. The book was superficial largely because Bird did not know just how widespread the skiffle craze was. Chas McDevitt, by contrast, is steeped in its history. I’m sure he researched his book thoroughly, and he started with an advantage that neither money nor thoroughness can buy: it was all there in his head. Not only was Chas “in it from the beginning” but he was also an enthusiastic and dedicated performer. His skiffle group was one of the earliest and most successful, and in one form or another it has existed to this day.
What a mine of information. And how well devised is the book’s structure. McDevitt set out to give a readable account of skiffle (and a good read it is too), but he managed to classify his information in a very useful way. The various sections of the book include: recording groups; non‐recording groups; pseudo skiffle; coffee bars; guitarists; washboard players; charts and media references; contests; and two discographies. The longer of these has track‐by‐track listings of skiffle recordings and details of the various line‐ups of the groups. The shorter one has simple and handy lists by index number of recordings, group by group.
Useful as it is as a reference work, the book is compelling as a straight read‐through: I read it in one session. It is spiced with chuckle‐worthy anecdotes that convey the real flavour of the heady times of the skiffle craze. Skiffle music arose in the late 1950s and was largely improvised. A typical group consisted of guitar, washboard, tea‐chest bass, and of course vocals. So widely was skiffle spread that it appeared in church halls, pubs, clubs, and concert halls, though the main thrust was in the coffee bars that were then a prominent feature of urban life in Britain.
It is worth noting that the groups that “occupied” London’s coffee bars were dominated by people who went on to form the mainstays of a burgeoning pop music industry ‐ among them Adam Faith, Lonnie Donnegan, Wee Willy Harris, Hank Marvin, Tommy Steele, and Cliff Richard. None of these ended up in the folk clubs. The provincial scene was different. Many skiffle familiars eventually founded and ran successful folk clubs: for instance, the Spinners in Liverpool, and the Ian Campbell Group in Birmingham.
The progress and demise of the craze is well charted in Chas McDevitt’s book. As a reference work it is an inestimable guide to a largely transitory but seminal period in British pop history.
