Bradford singer-songwriter Karl Dallas is taking music fans down memory lane with a skiffle session at the Castle pub in Grattan Road, Bradford, tonight.

The former music journalist, who wrote for Melody Maker, Rolling Stone and The Times, will be singing songs from the Fifties such as Rock Island Line, Midnight Special, Take This Hammer, Pick A Bale Of Cotton and When The Saints Go Marching In, as well as his own compositions from the skiffle era. Karl, 81, has also composed a new Skiffler’s Song especially for the occasion.

He said: “I started up the Riversiders Skiffle Group down in Surrey in 1953 and we attracted hundreds to our sessions on the banks of the Thames. Then another group started up on the opposite bank with the same name, so we called ourselves the ORIGINAL Riversiders. I believe the opposing band went on to call themselves the Rolling Stones.”

He describes Skiffle as a do-it-yourself music that swept the world following on from Lonnie Donegan’s hit recording of Rock Island Line. Every town and village boasted its own skiffle group. Many of today’s rock stars started as skifflers.The Beatles began as the Quarrymen Skiffle Group.

Tonight, Karl will be playing the washboard at his skiffle session and will be handing out percussion instruments like tambourines, drumsticks and maraccas for the audience to play. “The only thing we’ll be lacking is a T-chest bass,” he says. “If anyone can make one, with a box, a broomstick and a length of string, please bring it along.”