Paul Leegan And The Legends - Skiffle And Country Blues Band

Midlands musician Paul Leegan has met with considerable success since he formed his Lonnie Donegan tribute band last year. He regards his booking for the annual ball of the Grand Order of Water Rats at Grosvenor House on November 30 as his greatest achievement.

It came about through a meeting with King Rat Chas McDevitt, who approached Leegan at one of his gigs and asked him to appear. McDevitt, though a great friend of Donegan's, was his great rival in the skiffle popularity stakes in the late fifties.

Leegan also knew Donegan, having spent an afternoon with him just before his death last year, and regards his own show as being a real tribute rather than a recreation of Donegan's music.

"We do not stick to Lonnie's repertoire," he said, "but try to interpret all kinds of material in the way we think Lonnie would do it were he still alive."
In addition to the pub and club circuit, Leegan and his group - which has Barry Meek on bass guitar, Warren James on lead guitar and vocals and drummer Harry Heppingstall - are currently on a theatre tour arranged by Brian Yeates, playing at Solihull, Tamworth, Cannock and Sutton Coldfield.