The unlikely rise of the ocean shanty band

Sitting on the highest deck of the RNLI station at Newhaven on England’s south coast, Tony Lewis is surrounded by atmospheric charts, historic images and fashions of previous lifeboats. He’s chatting to me with half an eye fixed on the harbour, watching the boats come and go, cocking an ear to hear each time the radio crackles.

At one level he will get as much as watch the cross-Channel ferry practise a difficult manoeuvre, akin to a three-point flip in a really slender avenue, which he talks me via in spectacular element. Suffice to say, he has plenty of love for the ocean.

He’s volunteered on the lifeboat station as an operations supervisor for quite a few years, however he by no means imagined his affection for the ocean would flip him right into a singer. Particularly as he’d by no means sung, or had the will to sing, in public earlier than. But that’s precisely what he does each month or so with seven different males, as a part of an area sea shanty group referred to as the Wreckers.

Lewis tells me that their Wednesday evening rehearsals, in a shed on the backside of considered one of their gardens, are the spotlight of his week. And he’s not alone. In recent times, tons of of sea shanty bands have sprung up in coastal cities and cities across the UK, with some teams forming inland, too, from Oxford to West Yorkshire and London.

The singers might skew predominantly male and over 40, however the audiences are a lot broader. Once I watch the Wreckers play within the clubhouse of an area yacht membership, kitted out in Breton tops and sailors’ hats, there are many children becoming a member of the mat the entrance to sing alongside, whereas youngsters and twentysomethings nod their heads on the again.

Homeward Certain, a Brighton-based shanty band, play common gigs in craft beer spots, and run fashionable sea shanty workshops for hen and stag dos. And the organisers of the Falmouth Worldwide Sea Shanty Competition, which was based in 2003 and now attracts greater than 65,000 guests, say their occasion has by no means been extra fashionable with younger individuals, who make up massive swathes of the viewers.

Many shanty bands attribute this to Wellerman, a New Zealand whaling track that went viral in 2021, when it was sung by the Scottish postman Nathan Evans. This kickstarted a shanty TikTok craze that was fuelled by Spotify’s algorithms recommending increasingly shanties to listeners who have been having fun with the observe.

Sea shanties have been initially rhythm-centric working songs, sung by sailors on massive service provider ships, most notably within the nineteenth century, to maintain their spirits up and their minds on the job in an period lengthy earlier than transportable music gamers, not to mention streaming apps on cellphones, may play us no matter we wished each time we wished to listen to it.

“Sailors relied on sea shanties – it was brutal work, usually in actually horrible climate and sea situations, removed from house,” says Lewis. “You’d have the shanty man on the boat main the track – he’d select the most effective track for the actual job, whether or not that was hauling ropes, pulling masts or no matter – and the crew would reply by singing the refrain.”

The Wreckers fashioned in 2023 and Lewis joined a 12 months later, having loved seeing them carry out. “I cherished their sound although it’s not a nice choir,” he warns. “We name it rum-bunctious and it’s such a superb chuckle, we get the viewers clapping, stamping their ft and singing together with the choruses.”

Lewis likes the concept that the Wreckers are conserving the historical past of the previous seafarers alive and sustaining that native relationship to the ocean, at a time when few jobs are instantly linked to maritime work and coastal communities are sometimes uncared for. Final November, lifelong fisherman Martin Yorwarth wrote a protest ska shanty concerning the plight of small fishing boats pushed to smash by industrial-sized backside trawlers.

Lewis additionally thinks that singing collectively usually has introduced quite a few psychological well being advantages to the group of eight, who vary in age from 22 to 82, although are principally retired, because it did for the sailors of yore.

We get the viewers clapping, stamping their ft and singing together with the choruses

“A few of us have gotten well being points or companions with well being points, or we’ve misplaced companions, however via shanty we’ve discovered roots to grasp our place in life,” he says. “Singing is unquestionably good for the spirit, it makes you are feeling such as you’re respiration, and since we depend on one another to return in on the proper time, we’re at all times working collectively. It’s like a fellowship.”

Some shanty bands are extra folks music-inspired {and professional}, however for Lewis and the Wreckers it’s all about leisure relatively than the standard of the singing or the polish of the efficiency. “We at all times begin our live shows by reminding individuals these are working shanties. They weren’t sung by choir boys or famend singers, they have been sung by hard-working sailors.”

In contrast to Lewis in Newhaven, Gareth Roberts, founding father of the Orwellermen in Ipswich, had a background in group choirs and no direct connection to the ocean. Earlier than Covid, he was a member of a barbershop quartet, which folded, and after the pandemic he was trying to get again into singing in a manner which may additionally assist his local people.

“I questioned if singing might be a great way to get males out of the home and supporting one another,” he says. Any individual had lent him the Fisherman’s Pals film, which tells the true story of the Cornish sea shanty group of the identical identify, who signed a document cope with Common Music in 2010 and nonetheless tour the world enjoying shanties to packed-out venues.

“Sea shanties appeared to suit the invoice as they’re straightforward to be taught and accessible,” says Roberts, although the one shanty he actually knew the lyrics to was Drunken Sailor, a crowd favorite after I watch the Wreckers. However he did some analysis on-line, instructed the concept to some pals and was shocked at how receptive they have been.

They frst met on a Wednesday evening on the Steamboat Tavern on the banks of the River Orwell. The river, together with Wellerman, which everybody was a fan of, lent the band their identify, and so they have saved to that weekly routine since.

Singing is unquestionably good for the spirit, it makes you are feeling such as you’re respiration

“I’d at all times thought singing shanties was one thing you probably did with a pint of beer in your hand, sitting round a desk with a number of mates,” he says. “Individuals at all times used to return collectively to sing in pubs, however we’ve misplaced that custom. So, we open the periods to all people and it’s a really welcoming and non-cliquey group.”

The group of 25 contains 4 ladies. Roberts had wished to attraction to males initially, however noticed no cause why ladies couldn’t take part. He thinks their skill to sing totally different harmonies provides to the group’s sound. The Orwellermen’s oldest member is 83 however the group contains some youngsters, and younger individuals usually frequent their gigs and competition appearances across the nation, which Roberts places all the way down to Wellerman, but additionally to the online game Murderer’s Creed IV: Black Flag, which options quite a few sea shanties.

Roberts’ spouse has taken to calling him a “shanty evangelist”, such is his perception within the energy of those native music teams to carry all totally different sorts of individuals collectively in a constructive manner. “Members have stated they sleep higher, it takes their thoughts off their daily, and their confidence builds. Now we have some singers who’d by no means have imagined they’d be capable to lead a track in entrance of an viewers however now they’re up there doing it and it’s wonderful to see.”

The Orwellermen have an enormous repertoire of songs. Roberts thinks they’ve sung 180 totally different songs since forming, together with one they wrote themselves about Ipswich and the Suffolk coast for the shanty competition in Falmouth, and a Japanese sea shanty a few samurai fishing, which got here from considered one of their group who has Japanese ancestry.

However he stresses they haven’t any need to comply with Fisherman’s Pals and get wealthy as musical artists in their very own proper. As an alternative, like most shanty bands, they’re very happy to maintain assembly usually, giving native audiences a superb time at their gigs, elevating cash for charity and proving {that a} track constructed for laborious work at sea can nonetheless carry individuals collectively on dry land.

Pictures by Peter Flude