Upon his return to the Bay Area, Barthol formed Energy Crisis with some ex-members of the Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band before becoming the musical director for the Tony Award winning San Francisco Mime Troupe in 1976.
Always a label that explored an eclectic range of musical styles, Lyrichord happened to be the label to record and release the first album of late folk/blues legend Dave Van Ronk, entitled “Skiffle in Stereo” (1957) with a band called the “Orange Blossom Jug Five” including Dave Van Ronk, guitar and vocals, Sam Charters cornet, guitar, Ann Danberg, washboard, Len Kunstadt, (co-owner of the Spivey Records label) on kazoo, and Russell Glynn, playing jug.
The book also traces the history of pop music in Manchester, starting with skiffle in 1957, running through the sixties, before coming to an angry explosion with the punk of 1977 and the Buzzcocks.
In 1956, he returned to the Top 20 with "In The Middle Of The House" (No. 20), followed up by his version of Chas McDevitt’s UK skiffle hit, "Freight Train" (No. 3).
After opening with a skiffle song, John Lennon called for the others to start playing an Elvis Presley song, "Don't Be Cruel".
The band have appeared on Kermode’s video blog ‘Kermode Uncut’, playing ‘skiffle’ covers of blockbuster movie soundtracks including Star Wars, Star Trek, The A-Team and Smurfs 3D.
Howard Williams (replaced by Wally Whyton), Muriel Young and Bert Weedon (the famous guitarist) presented the show between 1961 and 1963, assisted by glove puppets Pussy Cat Willum (devised and animated by Janet Nicholls) and Fred Barker (created by Wally Whyton of skiffle band, The Vipers).
Jean Van Der/den Bosch, guitarist and vocalist of the The Vipers Skiffle Group
Steven Wells in the NME was dismissive of track "Life Is Still Sweet", calling it "skiffle", but "not totally shit".