Tag: sailing

Course Laid In, sir!

by Lucy Simister, posted in Blog

What can I say about the Pirates in the Port Festival in Newport, Gwent?

The festival started with a convivial gathering at the Mercure Hotel in Newport with many pirates, shanty singers and similar ne’re-do-wells and they were in fine voice!

For the next two days the streets and bars were full of so many great singers and musicians enjoying the sessions as much as we did! Shanties and songs of the sea were the order of the day.

These Shanty and Pirate festivals attract people far and wide and we bumped into others friends from Devon! (Check out the Teignmouth Mermaid here! A real life singing mermaid…) And all prepared to make sometimes very long journeys just to join in with the fun!

We were down for performing on Saturday at two venues – the Mercure Hotel at 1200 hrs and then McCanns Rock N Ale bar at 1400 hrs. We did our thing there – and then we were offered the opportunity to play at the Corn Exchange – a great venue – and performed a set there at 1900 hrs to a near full house. The audience was made up of lovely fun people up for a party – and we had an absolute blast! They joined in with the choruses and the daft action songs with gusto! Our sincere thanks to them that the evening was so successful.

Where next, Sir?

So now we are looking ahead to our next adventures and there are a few in the offing.

On Sunday July 13th we will be playing a set of songs of the sea at the Exmouth Festival. The Festival runs from the 10th to the 13th July and will showcase songs of the sea in all their manifestations. Its a fun for all the family event – and ecologically sustainable as well! check out their website to read all about it here. Trust me, free and fantastic and definitely not to be missed.

We’ve a few other things on the horizon too and I’ll post more in due course when we have more details. In the meantime keep a bright lookout me hearties and speak soon! Take care

Tony

Pirates in the Port!

by Lucy Simister, posted in Blog

I don’t exactly know what it is about pirates that has attracted the attention of such and adoring public. But I for one am glad – it gives Lucy and I the opportunity to dig out our bad rags (that’s like glad rags only more piratical) and get out there and play some music!

We will be a-setting sail once more for lovely Newport in Wales for there annual Pirates in the Port shanty festival next weekend (31st May – 1st June 2025). We will be performing a selection of songs of the sea and shanties on Saturday 31st at the Mercure Hotel at 12.00 hrs and then again at McCanns Rock N Ale Bar at 14.00 hrs – and we’re really looking forward to it.

I am currently working on two more tracks to upload to our Shanty Project Channel.

One is called Steam and Sail and is sung from the perspective of old sailors witnessing the decline of the sailing ships as steam ships began to become more more popular and more reliable. In a final cruel irony sailing ships were retained to carry coal around the ports of the world to fuel the steamships.

And the other track I am working on is about a hapless chappie considering work on a pirate vessel. It is called the Jobseeker’s Hornpipe – and as you might have guessed it’s a funny song.

Here is a snippet of the lyrics:

“Though not usually proactive, I arranged to see the rep,

on consideration thought it would be wiser –

To wait until I’d got the job before I told the wife

Then carefully choose my moment to surprise her”

Ill post more when they are ready for upload

Heave ho! Me lads

The sailing ships ran by the concerted effort of the sailors on board.

It’s a fantastic art form, the sea shanty. You probably don’t need me to tell you that sea shanties are work songs from the sailing ship days where it was man power that kept the ships at sea – human energy – not steam and diesel, nor electric motors raised the anchors and the sails. And these men had to work together. Sea shanties – lead by the shanty man ensured that these tough fellas worked together – to breast the capstan bars or heave on sheets and lines. If they did not work together sailing ships would not have been feasible.

Sometimes shanties were sung to bewail the hard life of a seaman, sometimes to express how they missed home comforts and there loved ones, sometimes shanties sang about hopes for better weather. For me the common thread is that they were very much sung from the hearts and souls of the men singing them.

Hope to see you somewhere soon!

Take care

Tony