The Vipers Skiffle Group

‘Skiffle Music ( no.2)', an EP (extended play) record released in 1957 by the Vipers, one of London’s leading skiffle groups.

The Vipers were well known on London’s coffee bar skiffle scene. Formed in 1956 (by singer-guitarists Wally Whyton, Johnny Martyn, and Jean Van den Bosch – and joined later by Tony Tolhurst on bass and John Pilgrim on washboard), they played at the Bread Basket near Goodge Street, the Gyre & Gimble off the Strand, and the 2-Is in Soho where they became something of the house band, backing the young singer Tommy Steele.

The group were signed to the Parlophone label in 1957 by record producer George Martin who liked their energy: ‘The Vipers used to jangle away on the acoustic guitars and make the most enormous sound. The style was really the forerunner of the electric guitars which came later – in a way the precursor of the Beatles’. The group had two top 10 hits in 1957: ‘Don’t you Rock me Daddy-O’ and ‘Cumberland Gap’.