BLUE STAR SKIFFLE GROUP, THE

Vocals, Gtr: Dave Atkins

Gtr: Maurice Spike Haward

Wb: ??

Tcb: ??

"Dave Atkins and I met at Alice St Johns music shop in Old Road, Clacton in the mid ’50s where we both went for initial guitar lessons. As a result we formed a skiffle group – the ‘Blue Star Skiffle Group’ – with various tea-chest bass and washboard players, and played the occasional gig (if ‘play’ was ever the right word!). Skiffle was all the rage then – it being a form of music that only required limited ability. Get a guitar, learn 3 or 4 chords and you could become a part of it all. Lonnie Donegan and his group was one of the top UK skiffle acts of the day, and I can recall going to see him with Dave at a stage show at the Savoy Theatre, Clacton in June 1958. We waited at the stage door after the show to meet them – star struck in those days I guess. I can also remember our entering a skiffle competition at the Town Hall Clacton, where all the entrants had their efforts recorded on an acetate 78rpm disc. We were awful – thankfully that record no longer exists. It is interesting to see from the photos that we had a different tea-chest bass player in each shot – that must have been a very unpopular instrument at the time! " Spike Haward 2023

From Spikes Website: Link to come