Sturdy Beggar by Paul Manktelow

Paul Manktelow Originals

This painting represents the essential street musician
of working class Britain in the early skiffle group era. Poor young musicians busked for spare change, which came and went to build or buy cheap instruments on which they could experiment.

From a cold bleak and dismal environment of brick and stone a new sensation in sound began to emerge and evolve. It rose into the air and fell like rain drops from some magical land onto the ears of babes sleeping in their prams, young school boys sitting on door steps and old men on their way home from work in the factories.

Slowly locked doors began to open and music echoed up from the streets below into the hearts of young girls who had been shut up in their bedrooms. Soon the whole land began to vibrate with a new sound and new ideas and became transformed by an expression of love, joy, and hope and there came a musical invasion, which changed the world.