Johnny Duncan
After leaving the US Air Force, Kentucky-born Johnny Duncan relocated to England (where he’d been stationed), replacing Lonnie Donegan in Chris Barber’s band until launching a solo career. His second single, the infuriatingly catchy Last Train To San Fernando – a remodelled version of a 1950 calypso originally recorded by the Duke of Iron - made him an overnight star. The story was put about that Duncan was a former member of Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys – but his only connection with that outfit came when he unashamedly appropriated their name, calling his own group Johnny Duncan & the Blue Grass Boys.
Read all about him in ‘The Restless Generation’ by Pete Frame.
