Paul Leegan
Paul got his inspiration like thousands of others, to pick up a guitar and start singing when first hearing Lonnie Donegan back in the 1950's. He started out on the UK's thriving folk circuit playing banjo and guitar and singing American folk songs by the likes of Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie and Big Bill Broonzy to name just a few.
Turning semi-professional in the 1960's, Paul began to tour the UK and achieved thunderous success with his own band who were non other than The Lonesome Travelers.
In the latter part of the 1970's he auditioned for and was accepted onto Hughie Green's Opportunity Knocks Road show appearing at The Bedworth Civic Hall in the Midlands. He sung a song called "It Takes A Worried Man"and although receiving a deafening applause from the theatre's audience Paul had to decline to appear on any of the future shows as the direction the show would take him was not within his artistic taste and would divert him from being the performer he wanted to be.
Paul's roots have always been in skiffle and country blues music, and when he was told that Lonnie Donegan was going to perform in Coventry on New Year's Eve 1979, he went along, met his idol and actually duetted with Lonnie on stage singing one of Lonnie's own songs. He received a thunderous applause from the packed house and afterwards made the firm decision that he would continue to sing the songs that he loved most and remind people that there just isn't enough skiffle in the world.
In 1997 he began a string of theatre shows across the UK and Europe which continue to this very day still performing the music he has worked hard to keep popular.
Paul now mixes skiffle with country blues and to great success and has never looked back, more and more younger musicians are going back to their roots and realizing that the UK music scene didn't arrive the day the Beatles came to the charts.
However not all of the songs in the show are songs from the 1950's - Paul is also a fine song writer of country - folk & blues songs of his own and often features a good selection of his own material within the show.
