I was introduced to Harold Jackson in late 1955 by another Manchester Guardian messenger, John Pilgrim. Harry was a budding guitar player in those early days of skiffle. The first Southern Skiffle Group was me on guitar and vocals, Harry on guitar, Pilgrim on washboard, John Baldwinson (a former Observer wine writer) on guitar and vocals, and Les Rawlings (who also played with Humphrey Lyttelton) on bass.
We were together for about six months, until Pilgrim left to join the Vipers and Harry decided that playing with a second division band in coffee bars and busking would do very little to advance a career in journalism, and he left too.
