Lonnie Donegan Story at Louth Jazz Club

The show will feature an array of highly respected musicians including New Orleans drummer Baby Jools, West End musical bassist Jim Swinnerton and the BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year Finalist, Alex Clarke.

In the year 2023 it is hard to imagine a time when pop music, the charts or anything up-beat and edgy didn't even existed - but this was the case prior to January 1955 - for it was during that month that the face of British music changed forever.

Until 1955 youngsters were called kids and not teenagers! They had no music they could truly call their own, no fashion to speak of; as Britain was just seeing a faint light at the end of the tunnel following World War II.

Youth culture simply did not exist yet. Rationing was still relevant, and as for music, you simply listened to whatever your parents liked or whatever the BBC broadcast - it is no exaggeration to say that life in post war Britain was grey, dank and grim.

Meanwhile, in the steamy underground jazz and blues clubs of Soho, their was a new sound that was about to explode and change everything, and one young man with a passion for performing black American blues and folk music, a genre that he called "skiffle", was about to become the god-father of British pop music and in the process he would accidentally launch the careers of every major rock band of the last 60s years, whilst bring black musicians to the forefront of people's minds - his name was Lonnie Donegan.

Lonnie Donegan, was known as "The King of Skiffle", a genre similar to the jug bands of 1920s and 1930s America and he inspired all of the music stars of the 1960s, including The Beatles, who began life as the Quarrymen Skiffle Group.

Other artists who began playing because of Lonnie include Van Morrison, Joe Brown, The Rolling Stones and The Kinks - even guitar gods like Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page began playing in a skiffle group because of Lonnie Donegan.

"No Lonnie Donegan, No Beatles, It's that simple" - George Harrison.

From banjo player with the Chris Barber and Ken Colyer's Jazz & Blues Bands, Lonnie reached the heights of international fame and had over 30 chart entries in five years, including: Rock Island Line, Battle of New Orleans, Cumberland Gap, Putting on the Style, Have a Drink on Me and more.

Warren James is a top British jazz and blues musician himself, who has headlined shows and festivals the world over, even performing for the Royal Variety and touring with roots music heavy weights, Jools and the Jazzaholics, The Jake Leg Jug Band along with his own sell-out theatre show - Walk on Back to Happiness.

On Saturday, August 5, starting at 8pm, Warren will bring The Lonnie Donegan Story to Louth Jazz Club and everybody is welcome to go along and head back in time to relive the jazzy-roots sound that gave birth to pop music in the UK.

Doors open at 7pm - entry is £15 online at www.LouthJazzClub.org.uk or pay on the door.