Shanty Shenanigans: Live from the International Sea Shanty Festival!

Hello all.

It's chilly here from the port of Bristol Shanty crew and you're listening to the Ship Shape and Bristol Fashion Podcast.

You'll love it.

We do ship shape and bristle fashion boys along the hardest side from evil gorge to wonderful heat em all the line Secure the barrels down below Bind and tie and lash em this vessel, she is certified ship shape from Bristol Fashion.

Okay, so welcome to this very special episode where we are live recording at the Falmouth Sea Shanty Festival.

And throughout this episode, we're going to be capturing lots of audio with people that are here, the crews, but we are going to kick off with two members of the staff that are making all of this happen.

You can imagine it isn't just a two person job, there's a whole committee and team that enabled this to happen.

But I'm really pleased that they, these two lovely ladies have come and spoken to me.

Ladies, introduce yourself and what's your role within the big engine of this festival?

Yeah, so my name is Hayley Nicholson.

I'm the marketing and events officer and I actually work for Falmouth Town Council, but I also obviously work on the committee for the Sea Shanty Festival.

My name's Adele Cole.

I'm an admin assistant again for the town team, working for Falmouth Town Council and again I have supported in this year's civil.

And we are recording on the Saturday, not on the first day.

So let's just review.

How is everything so far?

Do you know what?

Yesterday was fantastic.

Even though we ended up with some typical Cornish mizzle, it was fantastic to see.

Didn't dampen the spirits.

It really didn't.

People were still dancing in front of the main stages.

Honestly, they came out to support yesterday.

There was a really lovely atmosphere throughout the whole town, wasn't there?

It was fantastic to see.

We were at the Falmouth Hotel and we were later on in the afternoon and we just thought, oh, at one point we've been moved to the ballroom.

But.

But they had decided that the liquid sunshine was lightening up.

And we think this is still raining, guys.

And when we were singing, there's just so many people out there that were bearing the rain on for them.

But yeah, no, really good, really good work indeed.

So tell me a little bit about this shanty festival and what it means to you and how it's begun and how has it got to where we are today?

Because I believe 21 years in now, that's it.

Yeah.

This year is our 21st year, so it was a Big celebration last year but I think this year might actually even be be even bigger again.

The whole idea was actually started by one group called Falmouth Shout in the Seven Stars Pub on the Mall.

And the first iteration saw five shanty groups performing on Custom House Quay.

And now Today we have 85 groups across 27 venues.

So it really is a town wide festival.

Really good indeed.

And of course it has a real strong international feel to this, doesn't it?

I've already spoken to some crews that are not just yokels, they've come across the water to be here for this particular festival.

Yeah, absolutely.

We very much are an international sea shanty festival.

So we get groups, we get a lot of Breton groups that come over.

Hence why we have the Breton bash on the Friday afternoon.

So that's all of them getting together.

We've got a group from the Orkneys this year.

Last year we had a group from Canada.

We get enquiries from as far afield as Australia.

So amazing.

Yeah, we welcome all here.

Really good indeed.

And I hear you guys were absolutely integral in providing the cruise.

Probably what would be the most important resource throughout the entire festival.

Tell me a bit more about that.

Well, it's important to keep them fed and watered, isn't it?

Absolutely, yeah.

So we provided all the groups with free beer tokens and also free pasty tokens which seems a sensible way to keep everyone on side and of course that can't happen unless you were heavily sponsored by some organisations.

Won't you?

No.

Talk to me about your sponsors.

Yeah, so our sponsors are really key.

So our main headline sponsors, we've got Sea Salt Cornwall, they've been supporting the festival for many, many years.

We've got the Green Bank Hotel as well.

And then this year we've got our pasty token sponsor which was Warren's as well.

So yeah, keeping the performers fed and watered because this festival is free to attend.

Yeah, really good, isn't it?

Yeah, there's no.

The only ticketed event is the gala concert which is a seated event up at the Princess Pavilion on the Friday night.

For those who don't want to be shoulder to shoulder in the pubs, they have that option as well.

And that was a sellout, wasn't it?

Oh yes, absolute sellout.

Which is great, isn't it?

Really good.

Indeed.

And is there a particular.

I mean are you guys into shanti singing?

You must be to have this kind of inspiring drive to be part of this process.

I think you cannot attend the sea shanty festival and not just say wow and sing along.

Yeah.

It's just such catchy music, isn't it?

And it's got such a lovely uplifting atmosphere.

All the songs just bring a real cheerful vibe to everything.

And let's face it, everybody knows the words.

So you cannot sing along.

What do you do with a drunken sailor?

Everybody knows.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Poor Captain's daughter.

Anyway, so what is probably also really important, and I've certainly recognized more so as I've got into Shanty, is that this isn't just an old person's conference, is it?

There is a lot of young people that are migrating to this world that seem to love shanti.

I was actually down here at the Event Square main stage last night at 10 o' clock with the navy larks on and the entire audience was just filled with young university age students dancing in front of the stage, just having the best time.

I would say shanty music really is the most ageless form.

It's so inclusive.

We've got such a broad age range diversity.

You know, as I said earlier, we welcome everybody here in Falmouth and it's great to see.

And I can see that, absolutely see that now.

We've just clearly seen Will Keating who is shanty Cornish royalty and is bringing shanti to the generation that.

That is following you guys, that the school children.

And there's a lot of school children here.

Yeah.

So we've actually had 11 schools involved this year.

So we had a school children parade yesterday on the.

On day one that was 120 children that came and sang on Church street main stage.

And then today again we had a further 120 school schoolchildren join our groups parade and have been performing on stage with Will Keating this afternoon.

Really good, really good indeed.

And there's lots of local traders that come along and sell their wares.

There's kind of marketplaces in a lot of the venues, aren't they?

Yeah, we've got traders on the mall, which you've organised, haven't you?

Absolutely.

So we've got our regular traders as well as some new additions that have come along to the mall.

It's always a really lovely atmosphere up there.

We've also got Princess Pavilions, so there's a craft market up there with numerous different traders, again from various areas of Cornwall and across.

And then we also have our food traders along Church street and Event Square just to make sure that everybody again is well fed and happy.

And I guess it's really important, is it, for Falmouth Town Council to have that kind of presence in that reach to be inclusive to all the local traders.

Absolutely.

And I think what's really good about the fact we, obviously, we do have the traders in all the different areas, but we've also really advocate the independent businesses as well, so.

And I think the amount of people, the sheer amount of people that we have here at Shanty, it really lends itself to having both.

You just need the extra support there.

Falmouth is majority independent businesses and that's the reason you, you come to Falmouth, is to explore what the town has, has to offer.

And while the local traders support that, we would always recommend that people go into our brick and mortar businesses and explore.

Oh, really good, indeed.

So is there any particular group or acts that you're looking forward to seeing at some point?

Will you guys just be so busy spinning plates?

I've got to think about that one.

I think personally, for me, it'll be the Awgie Men on the Event Square main stage Sunday afternoon, right before the closing ceremony, because that's when you get all of the groups up on stage.

So you get to see the Oggy Men, who, by the way, this year will be going to Glastonbury as well.

I hear this.

Yes, they are the stars.

Will and I have had a convers about that.

Yes.

And then followed by getting all the groups on stage.

So that is great.

What about yourself?

Are you going to be too busy or you got a particular area at the moment?

Yeah, so this is my first year actually supporting the Shanty, so I'm going to be very much running around just trying to get an experience of all of it, really, and really take in that atmosphere.

Oh, exciting.

Now, I should, like, press a button here for a fanfare because I think there's a very special person that's just arrived here.

He was a little bit late to the interview because he was just busy being a superhero everywhere you go.

I'll let you introduce yourself and what's your role within this amazing shanty festival?

Hi.

Hi.

Yeah, so I'm Richard Gates and the chair of the festival and also the founder, town manager as well.

How's it going for you?

Is it too early to ask that question?

Yeah, I'm quite relaxed.

Yeah.

Yeah, I said it was, you know, it's a little bit damp yesterday, as I'm sure you've mentioned, but, you know, it's.

Yes.

I mean, there's such a collective, so many people involved.

Yeah.

If something comes up, you know, whether something happens, something he's dealing with, we Deal with it.

And we deal with it in a professional and proactive manner.

And you do it directly.

Exactly.

Which is a really, really important part.

Yeah, it's really important point.

Very much Cornish time and Cornish miles are always different to English miles in time.

But, yeah, no, really good.

Really good indeed.

So talk to me.

How did you become the chair?

There was a.

One of the guys is a gentleman called Alan's a lovely guy who.

He used to be the head of media up at the Falmouth University locally.

Okay.

And so one day he said, oh, Rich, did you want to come up for a lunch up at the university?

And it is that classic, no such thing as a free lunch.

No, I don't know what it was for at all.

Literally no detail.

It was just asking me just to have a chat.

So sat down, had some food, and then he said, oh, you know, we got into it, talked about the shanty, said it's getting a little bit big at the moment for us.

And it was 25 groups then, so.

And he said, look, I know things are developing.

You've got to improve the quality, you've got to improve the professionalism, but also keep that ethos about what the shanty is firmly about.

Yes.

And so he asked, is it.

Is it possible?

Would I take over it?

Yeah.

Because we do various other things in the town, day to day, of course, through the calendar year.

So we looked about what things we could do.

So then I had to sort of pause for a moment.

It's much smaller than what it is now.

And I thought, well, look, we can put these areas into it, we can tweak with it.

I mean, there wasn't even a website then, in fairness, there was a Facebook page and that was it.

Literally, there was nothing else.

So it was very much about developing the brand logo, developing the website, developing the social media in its infancy.

I mean, Hayley's taken it to another level in fairness and credit.

Credit to Hayley's work.

And of course, Adele's backed up with that and all the different things.

It just gets better and better collectively.

Exactly, exactly.

So.

So we looked at it from there.

We started there and thought, right, okay, these are the areas that we really like.

These are the areas that we need to develop.

Not in a negative way to VAM shout because they did a phenomenal job in terms of the volunteers, but as things develop.

What you have to be sure of with an event these days is all the boring, mundane things behind the scenes, the health and safety, the rules and regs, keep the government Happy, you know, all that kind of stuff.

Yeah.

So everything like that, really, to make sure that it developed.

So we started tweaking it, we started developing it.

Really what we could do to make that difference in terms of that sharpness, as I said, behind the scenes, but still keeping what.

What shanty is about.

And that's kind of where it started from.

So I kind of gave myself a personal objective to.

To double the size of the event within three years and we tripled it, which was phenomenal.

And, you know, some people really liked it, actually.

Really small, of course, but of course not going to give everyone happy.

You can't get.

Yeah.

So then.

Of course.

And then.

So it's developed.

We could have 150, 160 groups that would like to attend.

Now.

We have to be sensible, you know, 85 is enough, you know.

Yes.

All those beer tokens.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

Pasty tokens.

Beer tokens.

But also the logistics of actually just getting everywhere, you know, yourself as a performing group in terms of, you know, where you're going to perform, what you're going to do at the right times and.

And Kevin and another Alan that work that out is, I mean, credit to them.

It's.

It.

Is it.

People really do.

I cannot, you know, endorse them enough because to get that information and to work out who's going to be where, when, and.

And that you're happy with that, you know, and that you've got enough time to also enjoy the festival.

Of course.

Of course.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And with the 778 performers, I think it is, and then 240 children on top of that, you know, it's bonkers, really, sort of thing.

So it is amazing.

And of course, you've got the kind of accolade that you're kind of one of the biggest, if not the biggest international shanty event within Europe and maybe even the world.

Yeah.

I mean, you might know better than me.

Yeah.

I mean, I think we're.

We're quietly confident if it's not.

It's.

It's in the top handful in the world.

I mean, you know, with it, you never know.

Definitely.

And there's all.

There's other maritime festivals.

There's a brilliant maritime festival in Brest and France, you know, that's a huge event that happens every few years, but quite different to this, to be fair.

But in terms of, you know, you only.

I'm sure you well know the amount of shanty festivals that are popping up everywhere now.

And it's that what's unique about it is the fact that it's free to attend in a current climate that's challenging for everyone.

Literally, it's the gala concert, which is size, was sold out last night and, you know, everything on top of that is free to attend.

So we want to support the businesses, we want to support the community.

We want people to enjoy themselves.

Of course we do.

But ultimately, there are lots of events across the country, unrelated to Shanti particularly, that are really struggling in terms of their ticket sales because of what people can afford to do.

And that's, you know, that's not.

It's not.

That's not a draw climate we're in right now.

Absolutely.

So.

So I think that's.

People have locked on to looking about what we've done in Falmouth, and that's flattering.

You know, I said, I'm not saying we get everything right still, things that can be better.

We're only humans.

Yeah, we're only humans.

So.

So, yeah.

So when that develops there, we look at.

To keep on tweaking each year.

How can it improve?

What can we do to tweak it?

There will always be things, as you said, you know, we talked about.

But that's.

People have really noticed that.

They really grasp that, you know, it's the live stream, which I'm sure.

Pray Haley's probably mentioned them.

No, no.

It's new this year, isn't it?

That's right, yeah.

And we've noticed how close you get.

So.

So we're on this evening on the sea salt stage, so we're clearly very aware the camera gets very close.

So.

Yes, yes.

So makeup.

Yeah.

Is there a makeup department?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I've only had mascara on once in my life and last time I actually.

I closed my eyes when I did it and I couldn't open them again.

How do you deal with that?

I do not know.

Yes.

Credit to you guys.

Yeah, so, yeah, so that's.

That's very much a trial for this year, in all honesty.

The.

The quality.

I mean, you might want to have, if you get a chance, have a look in this.

In the.

In the mobile studio that's behind the stage.

It really is kind of you cutting edge, really.

We're really impressed with it and.

But it's very much a trial and, you know, in terms of that to making sure it's right for this year and then I'm sure it will really develop and a lot more people, you know, we're.

You know, I'm quite realistic if even if the numbers on that are quite low because it's about getting the quality right before we develop it into next year and beyond.

Just improves accessibility, you know, I know for my crew, we've got 13, but we've deployed about six.

The rest of them have all got lives and they're all doing stuff, but they're watching.

They're watching on that live stream and it just enables them to be part of an event that they would love to be part of, but that live stream provides that opportunity.

So.

Thank you.

Yeah, no, no, great.

Absolutely.

And, and, and it's.

It's interesting with that because most places we're talking about, you know, events, so you pay to go to them.

This is actually the other way around.

We were talking about this the other day.

You know, sometimes the live stream's free and the event to pay to, to go to.

But we wanted to trial this.

Of course, it costs some money and.

And we've got to make sure that we cover our costs.

But I'm really keen and I'm sure we will.

Absolutely.

A couple other people said, oh, can we have them?

Numerous venues?

Yeah, we've got to be sensible, of course, but I'm sure we will, you know, or the quality of the footage that I've seen so far, I'm sure we will do it again next year.

And Carol's in the five sides last night and they've clearly already got a montage of a loop video there that looks just phenomenal.

It just looks great.

It looks really good.

Yeah.

So the question is, next year or the next five years, what's the plan?

Have you got big hopes?

So.

And I get that ask this question quite a lot, in fairness.

And lots of people said, oh, so you've got to this level and you're going to keep on developing, keep on developing.

We again, as I said, repeat, we have to be sensible.

You know, 85 is about the right number.

You know, somewhere between sort of 75 and 90 is about the right number of groups of what we can accommodate.

There is always more venues that want to be included, of course, but the tricky thing is you add one more venue that actually has to add quite a few more groups if they want a whole weekend of performances.

So is it more of the same?

Yes, to an extent, yeah.

Quite honestly.

Why break the mold?

Exactly, exactly.

And then there will be some tweaks, there'll be some changes having the Falmouth involved this year in terms of the Falmouth Hotel.

Yeah, they've been a small venue in the past within the hotel, but this is obviously completely different now.

And out on the, on the, on the grass area in front and such an iconic venue.

Oh, that experience for us yesterday was phenomenal.

It's really nice.

Really nice indeed.

And they looked after us very well.

So.

Brilliant.

Brilliant.

Yeah.

So they're really, really linked in with the festival.

They love it.

Of course, it works well for them financially.

Absolutely.

Should be.

So.

Yeah.

So, you know, you never know, there might be something that pops up.

I mean, we weren't necessarily planning to do the live stream until earlier this year, but we thought, well, look, if we can make it work, if we can make the numbers work, then we'll do it.

So that will develop.

And I'm sure there'll probably be some other things as well that we do, but with that balance of always making sure that we are the best that we can possibly be and, you know, the festival as a whole, the quality behind it and everything that we do is top draw, you know, and that's really, really important for us.

Perfect.

Well, guys, I really appreciate the time that you spent with me and I know your radios are off.

However, I'm very aware that you might have things to do right now, so thank you so much and we're going to look forward to the rest of the festival.

Now we're going to record some of the audio and listeners.

What you're going to hear now is some of the interviews with people that are here, some of the crews, and some of the songs that have been sung this weekend.

Thank you, guys.

No problem at all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I have recently been appointed to as Falma town crier.

And I am absolutely honored that this is my first ever official cry.

I could not think of a better.

A better event to get it kicked off.

So let's get it started.

Oh, yay.

Oh, yay.

Oh, good people of Falmouth, welcome guests from near and far.

Come forth and hear these words proclaimed.

On this 13th day of June in the year 2025, we stand upon these historic shores proud to open the Falmouth International Sea Shanty Festival.

For over four centuries, the songs of the sea have echoed through the salt soaked soul of Falmouth sun by sailors, fishermen and townsfolk alike.

Over the next three days, we honor and celebrate that tradition.

Voices will rise and spirits will soar as shanty crews from across the globe fill our fair town with harmony, history and heart.

From the streets and the keys to the harbor and the moors.

And don't worry if y' all don't know the words.

Sing the Chorus and act confident May laughter ring, tankards clink and tales be told as we celebrate the music that bounds sailors together and stirs hearts still.

Let the singing commence, the festival begin and the joy be uncontained.

God save the King and long live Falmouth.

Will know the reason shall glory and shall glory God His 20,000 glory strength we will know the reason why God will.

So I'm bumped into these guys who currently his name is Squeaker.

This crew here is wearing an amazing orange outfit.

Tell us who you are and what brings you to Falmouth Chanter Festival.

Oh, we are Amstung Spaden from the Netherlands on the northern part.

And we come visit our family here, the Cinti Singers.

We are a big family and we sing here for the people and we enjoy it here.

It's the second time we've been here and it's a party.

Very cool.

And do you have a name as a shanty crew?

Armstrong's patent.

Armstrong's Patent.

There you are.

It's fantastic.

Yes, it's written everywhere.

I was blinded by the orange.

That's what it was.

But yes, it is written all over you.

So.

So great stuff.

So the second time you said you've been here.

Yes.

Excellent.

So it must be good you've come back again.

Yeah.

Nice stuff.

And what are you looking forward to the most whilst you're here?

To meet all the groups and we are singing together and we all speak the same language with music, it's great.

That's the fun.

And we want to bring the tradition to the people.

And.

And is Shanti singing a big thing in the Netherlands?

Yes, we also organized our own Festival.

We have 40 groups all over the world.

It's okin Appingedam.

It's in the northern part and it's in August alter the last weekend of August.

Ah, well, that's really good.

And so I'm guessing you're on Facebook or.

Or you've got a website.

The festival name is B Dive Way.

Vdive.

Vdive.

Yes, Nice.

Well, I will make sure I include that in the show notes.

Thanks for talking to us.

Nice to see you all.

Last time, everybody.

Feel your home, boys.

Let her go, boys.

Sailing homeward to make a la.

Oh, the smartest clipper you can find Hiding a hole where you must run, Smartemps.

In the blue star light Clear away the dragon Let a bold line run for the Margaret M's on the blue star line.

Hey.

Oho.

Are you outstrine?

Never a day behind the time Clear away the track Let the bold line run.

What's your name and what brings you here to the Falmouth Shanty Festival?

I'm Shelley the Blade Shiraz.

I am part of the Pirates of St Pyrran and we've been coming now for 17 years and enduring every year, I guess.

Absolutely.

It gets better and better.

There's more of us.

We are a charity fundraising group.

Everything we do goes to charity.

So we already go.

We already fund for the lifeboats, we do the Children's Hospice Southwest and also Cornwall Air Ambulance, all very worthwhile charities.

I'm standing with two of them, of course.

And you are wearing an incredible outfit.

So tell me a little bit about yours.

If you're keen to talk to me, tell me all about your outfit and what it all means to you.

Well, I'm the super fan of the Pirates of Saint Piran.

I see, a super fan, which means you've got to dress up just like them.

Well, they made me some of the outfit, which I've gradually replaced because it was years ago.

They made.

It must be about 10 years ago.

More than 10 stayed in the hotel where we were all staying.

No, we'll rephrase that.

They stayed in the hotel I'd been staying in for several years before that.

You're learning about stuff already.

Whilst you're here, what have you been looking forward to the most and what have you looked forward to so far as part of the festival?

Well, obviously, I look forward to the Pirates, of course.

Of course.

That's what you're here, Mr. Superfan, and the fine weather.

Yes, listeners, let's be mindful that day one, which was half a day on the Friday, it was pouring with rain.

As they say in Cornwall, it's liquid sunshine.

But today it is slightly better.

It's going to get better and better.

We just enjoy coming down and meeting all the other shanty groups, because it's the only chance that you get to do that.

And if my listeners wanted to hear more about you, is there a website, a Facebook?

Is there a place that they can kind of interact with you guys to learn more about your crew?

There most certainly is.

If you go on.

I think we're on Instagram and all the other places we're on Facebook.

You can search for us, the Pirates of St Pyren.

You'll find us anywhere nice.

Fantastic.

Thanks for talking to us.

All right, thank you.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

How's everybody doing on a wet, soggy Friday evening at Shanty Cornish sunshine.

Nothing wrong with that.

And we, you know, It.

It just says a lot that people are still coming out for the shanty festival despite this wonderful weather that we're having.

But, you know, we appreciate every single one of you.

I hope everybody's having a really great time and.

And the weekend, it's.

It's just looking better and better.

So, ladies and gentlemen, I'm not going to stand up here too long because I know these guys have a lot to say, but please give it up for the Port of Bristol Shanty cruise.

In South Australia I was born Eve away Haul away In South Australia I'm Cape Horn we're bound for South Australia all away you rolling kings heave away haul away all where you hear me sacred Bound for South Australia we are the Les Venus du Matelot French group from Les Sables in Vendee.

And we tried to sing a Chantilly song with a new vision, a new version.

Oh, that's great.

With three voices, polyphonic, and one guitar and only.

And with two girls.

It's very important.

You're a very lucky man.

These gorgeous ladies with you.

Sometime.

It's a little hard for me, but you've got to rough it sometimes, buddy.

So how many sets do you have?

Any gigs you've got this weekend?

We have in the wall.

Weekend.

Yes.

8.

8.

8.

They're getting their money's worth out of you guys, then.

Sorry?

They're getting their money's worth out of you.

You're working hard.

You're working hard.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

But.

And we tried to.

To.

To get a lot of money for rnli.

Fantastic.

Really good.

Absolutely.

It's a very big pleasure to be here, really.

Falmouth for us, really, it's the best festival.

Really.

Really.

Singing.

It's perhaps three times.

Three times the three years last year and the other we sing here and.

Fantastic.

Yeah, the spirit.

The spirit is fantastic.

Exactly.

People.

People are fantastic.

Well, it's been great to talk to you guys.

Have an incredible weekend and we'll hopefully hear you somewhere.

Oh, thank you.

Thank you.

Bye bye.

Well, I'm Robbie Cant and we're part of the OR Sea Shanty Society and this is our first time performing.

I've not been down before, but a group of us have been down because our friend James lived here for two years and he said, oh, you should come down.

It's a great festival.

It's all for the rnli, which is really important, both for here and in Orkney as well, of course.

So, yeah, we're coming down performing this weekend and it's fantastic.

And tell us about your outfit because you're all got these wonderful kind of rugby.

So the rugby shirts have got the Orkney Sea Shanty Society emblem on them which my sister designed.

And then on the colors are the color.

Colors are the ornate flags.

So yellow, blue and red.

Yes, yeah.

And how big is your contingent?

Well, there's about 18 of us plus the parents some appearance.

So about 20 year old of us.

So that's fantastic, isn't it?

And you guys look amazing and it's nice because one unique thing is you're all very young or couldn't possibly comment.

I think it's very important.

I think we underestimate the Shangti engagement with young people these days.

Yeah, no, it's great.

I mean we all do a lot of singing and stuff anyway and we kind of grew up winning the folk music and stuff.

It's quite kind, of course, quite good for us.

So.

And all just kind of came together and no look really much forward.

They look fantastic.

Well, thank you very much for talking to us.

To get back to your crew who are having photos taken.

So.

Yeah, yeah, you take care.

Thank you.

Yeah.

So Saturday morning here we are at the.

The.

The festival event where basically there's going to be a parade, a parade of all the crews through the center of Falmouth.

And I'm joined by the representation of the port of British crew by Ollie, of course known as Shanty Boy.

And of course the one and only Chilly.

How are you both this morning?

Loving it.

Absolutely loving it.

And this shows the true international aspect.

We've got the Dutch, we've got the Swedes, we've got Scottish people, we've got.

Who?

Italians.

Italians.

I think we've got some Spanish and Italian people here.

They've even got the English here.

Yes.

And they, they brought street lights with them just to make sure they know.

Oh, that's too deep.

They've got good technology here.

They've even got Wi Fi Shanti Boy.

How you doing, buddy?

I'm doing really good.

I'm thinking of talking to a lot of groups here and I'm talking to a lot of people and I'm also thinking of singing with some groups as well, like Ksenyin, who I love dearly, who you may see going on in the show.

And yeah, I would love to talk to anyone who's willing to talk to me in any part of way.

Excellent.

And I think the Port of Bristol Shanty CR have managed to infiltrate Shanty Boys image now, haven't we?

Because what is he wearing he's wearing the latest gizzard in the world of shanty kit, where we've got my Port Bristol Shanty Crew own shirt.

Yeah, he's now on brand.

We haven't changed his hat.

Though we did try and sell him yesterday, Mike, but you know we did.

It's never gonna happen.

It's never gonna happen.

My Cornish tie hat's staying on me even if you usb.

But you're wearing a red one, so they can't miss you.

And importantly, when you're being our roving reporter, at least I know who you are.

Well, I'm gonna.

We're gonna get ourselves ready, aren't we?

In position.

We gotta flex up a bit.

Yeah, we've got to flex.

Gotta make a bit of space because there is only three of us.

Be very present.

I might even get the joy of speaking to Betty at some point.

Listeners, you'll hear about who this person is.

I saw Betty last night.

Very beautiful.

She's a very lovely lady, isn't she?

It's very lovely.

Anyway, as you can hear, they are just starting, so let's go.

So, whilst we're walking along in the parade, this beautiful group called Wrecked Again is behind us, I'm told.

I need to talk to you.

We'll walk together.

Tell us a little bit about your crew.

Hello, we are Wrecked Again from Cockwood in Devon.

And this is.

We are.

We are Falmouth Virgins.

We're popping our fan with cherry today.

Are you.

Are you enjoying yourself so far now that the rain stuck?

We're having a brilliant day.

It was so wet yesterday, wasn't it?

Yes.

As they say locally, it's liquid sunshine.

But I'm glad that today is so much better.

So tell us a little bit about how your crew formed and was created.

So we're a group of friends.

We sing together in the pubs and we've upped our game.

We now go out and about to festivals and we have a good time.

Yeah, we just.

Yeah.

Friendship and.

And the Perverse at the Hartvilles.

And why shanty?

Is there a kind of nautical theme to all of you?

You just thought, you know what, it feels good to sing Shanti.

We live near Cockwood Harbour and.

And that's about it, really.

And it works for you.

How big is your crew?

12ish, I think.

Nice.

Nice.

And it is.

It's.

It's great.

Not right now, but in.

In Falmouth today.

Yeah, that's good.

That's really good.

Really good.

And I guess, like many crews, you fundraise and raise money for charity Bits and bobs.

We volunteer our time to charitable events generally.

Yeah, that's.

Other groups of fundraising.

We'll go and join in with that.

Really good.

Really good.

Excellent.

And I'm liking your banner.

Tell us a little bit more about this one.

Toby, tell them about the banner.

Toby, tell me about your banner.

Well, we decided we should have a banner for this parade, of course.

And at about 10 minutes before leaving home, knock together this thing.

It's very Blue Peter style, but an incredible looking banner.

Because it means that you were invested.

Yes, exactly.

And.

And it is a creation.

If you look carefully, you'll see how it represents Munch's the Cry.

And we're trying to express here the kind of essential tragedy of life.

Who's singing now?

My listeners clearly won't be able to see it.

So I'm looking at it now and I'm seeing some wonderful.

I've seen your T shirt.

Tell us about it completely.

So my listeners can understand.

The T shirt is one of our standard T shirts and people are wearing.

You know, our group are wearing them today.

The scarf is something that we wear around our necks on occasion.

Nice.

The head is made of a Jiffy Guy bag.

Yes.

Yeah.

Stuffed with bubble wrap.

Nice.

And then a bit of black cut up to make the hair.

Very nice, Very nice.

Some eyes that are a bit too wide apart.

One too many Cornish ciders.

What?

Sorry?

One too many Cornish ciders.

Yeah, maybe.

And a screaming mouth which is meant to represent singing, but looks a bit.

He's hailing.

He's hailing.

Lovely.

Nice to talk to you, buddy.

Thank you very much.

Hello again.

So who am I talking to today?

Well, first of all, I'm Mike and they call me Engineer Mike for a bit.

For.

Because I am an engineer but on board a boat and a shanty group, you've all got names and we are different names.

I think he's the midshipman and we sing with Briars Boys.

Now, Briars Boys is a group of 10 guys and we're named after the daughter of our leader who was named after the island of Briar in the isles of Scilly.

We all live in and around the West Cornwall.

Not.

Not outside of Cornwall.

We are Cornwall group.

Okay.

Effectively we're.

I actually live in Falmouth where we are.

So, you know, I'm from the Falmouth area.

He's out towards Helston and we've got some.

One guy is even as far west as Newlyn, you know.

But we've Been singing together for about nine years all Cornish traditional songs and shanties.

And we've done loads of different events and festivals over the years.

We also have been invited to sing at the tall ships race in Falmouth, which also took us to the tall ships race in Lithuania last year to open the ceremonies in Lithuania.

So yes, we do travel, but, you know, basically we are based in Cornwall.

So why do you think she shanties are so popular to everyone and why do you think it's so important?

Well, first of all, sea shanties have obviously been around for hundreds of years and they were there to gel the crew of the working on board the old sailing ships.

But because of that rhythm and that inclusiveness and the ease of singing, they've become popular songs.

They got lost over a period of time, but through the magic of the Internet and the Wellerman and the Fisherman's Friends and locally the Augie Men and us Briars Men and many other groups, we.

We've all brought it to life again, you know, and the Internet, the kids, the young people that are involved in shanties now is far, far greater since the Wellerman came in.

In fact, in Lithuania we were stopped by, it was pouring down the road one day and we went into a restaurant and a man came over and said, I'll pay for all your beers if you will sing the Wellerman song for my daughter who loves it in Lithuania.

Yeah, I do think it's all inclusive.

Like I'm currently 14 years old and I still love sea shinies to this day.

Yes, there was a.

There was a boy who asked his dad to bring him down from London yesterday.

He came and saw us.

He wanted particularly to see Brian's boys in Falmouth at the shanty festival and his dad brought him down from London yesterday.

So could you also tell me how you guys did.

Tell me how you started.

But like, could you also tell me what's next in the bar in the Briars Boys?

Like what you're next doing?

Well, next.

Where are we going next?

I know we.

We sing quite regularly for all different events, including weddings and 50 gigs a year.

Yeah, well over 50 gigs.

That's a lot of gigs.

We've actually.

We sing for a group of tourists that come in from America every Tuesday.

Tuesday and it's on Fridays.

We've got some more coming up, which is gonna.

My.

My colleague here, Phil, is going to be looking up the calendar in a minute.

But we've done weddings locally.

We've done most festivals, most she shanty festivals.

And a lot of support for charity events and even the mining community.

We did a Falmouth hotel gig here on last week with, with the Cornish mining community.

So, you know, that sort of thing we get, we.

We've booked up.

I think we.

The.

The most we done was last year was 82 gigs.

82.

Wow.

I don't know how I can live that long.

How could you do that for so long?

And you're an engineer.

You still do have a job.

Yeah, some of them were retired, but, you know, I still work and, and sing, but it is my.

My love and my, my hobby to sing with my mates.

Do you have any plans for, like, what's the next iteration of the Briars Boys?

Well, we're not trying to get too famous, put it that way.

The likes of the Fisherman Friends and the Augment have got.

The Auggie Men are playing Glastonbury this year.

They're great guys.

Glastonbury?

Yes, they're going to be at Glastonbury this year.

The Auggie Men did it a few.

Sorry.

The Fisherman's Friends did it a few years ago.

The Augie Men have got there.

I don't think I want to go to the Glastonbury.

My legs are too short.

I'll get stuck in the mud.

Yeah.

So thank you for talking to me today.

I hope you guys have a good rest of your day.

Well, you enjoy your trip back to Bristol.

Have a good time.

Okay, so we have bumped into the Stehomers, which are friends of ours at the port, officially crew, because of course we're going to come and support you shortly at your own festival in Western Super Mare.

Hi.

Yes.

Our festival is the 1st to 3rd August.

We've got 60 bands, over 15 venues, loads of bars on the Italian Gardens, we've got loads of food, but.

And it's a free event, so please come along.

It's going to be fun.

It certainly is.

And we always like supporting you guys.

And of course it's nice to go to Western because it's just on our patch, really.

More importantly, I'm guessing you're raising money through this, the shanty festival.

Yeah, but our main charity that we raise money for is the rnli.

But the Lions Clubs help in collecting the funds going around with their buckets and so they get 50% of the profits out of it.

So it's, it's, it's a great event.

This is our fifth year, which is quite amazing.

Really, really good indeed.

And how many times you've been here To.

To.

To Falmouth.

This is my third year at Falmouth.

Thoroughly enjoy it.

You enjoying it so far?

Oh, definitely, yes.

Yes.

Is there a particular crew or act that you're really looking forward to hear and listen to?

I can't say there's anybody in particular because I just love listening to everybody because they've all got their different versions of the same shanties.

It's fantastic to listen to them.

It's nice to come to an audience that actually have deliberately come to hear us rather than just entertaining the random people.

That's true.

And we know that all the shanty bands are performing for free and they do it because they enjoy it.

And if we enjoy it when we're singing and then it reflects on the audience because they can see us enjoying it.

And even if we mess things up, they think it's fun and we think it's fun.

So it's great fun.

Yeah, really good.

Indeed.

Now, if the listeners wanted to find out a little bit more about the Steepholmers, I'm guessing you've got a website or a Facebook page.

Yeah.

I mean, the actual festival is wsmshantyfest.com steepholmers.com for our own website, find us on Facebook.

Just look for the Steepholmers.

Putting it in Google.

You'll find us.

Beautiful.

Thank you very much.

Enjoy the rest of the festival.

Thank you very much.

Well, it wouldn't be Falma Shanti Festival without, of course, Betty.

Betty has joined us.

How are you?

I'm great.

Absolutely brilliant.

And the sun is shining today.

Oh, it's beauty.

It can be rain, snow, a blizzard or whatever.

This shanty would go ahead and it's just absolutely phenomenal.

I hear there's a bit of a bet on with all the crews to try and raise more money than you.

Do you think we can achieve?

Well, you never know.

I. I lay the gauntlet down a few years back and it's never been beaten yet.

I guess when it.

When it does, I'll buy him a bar of beer.

I don't think anyone ever will beat you.

Oh, we don't you never.

Never say never.

I'd love it if.

If one of the groups could come up with a.

With the goods.

And it's all.

It's all for a great cause and it's the RLA and I, we all do it for the right reasons.

And yesterday going around with.

With the bucket, I actually spoke to four people that the lifeboat had saved their life at sea.

That's amazing.

That's five now.

Yeah.

Chilli from the Channel.

Yeah, actually, yeah.

Trawler I was on started sinking.

And to see them come over the.

From New Haven, to see them come over the horizon when the waves are not even breaking for the boat, they're going straight over.

You know, about the beauty of seeing that lifeboat coming at you.

And.

And that is exactly what the other people said.

It was absolutely.

Yeah.

Word for word, they said, you can't think of anything better to see than.

Than that.

Than that lifeboat coming at you.

I'm a life member now.

I had to.

Betty, if you had to sum up, what does Farmers Shanty Festival Festival mean to you?

What would you say?

I got to be honest, I do a lot of work for the children's hospice, but the shanty festival, I have to stumble by it by chance, really.

And the rest is just history.

I wouldn't miss it for the world.

The shanty festival here in Falmouth is now Betty's home, like, for.

Yeah, of course, of course.

That date goes on the calendar every year, so.

Good.

So.

And of course, the wonderful Will Keating is now singing on stage.

So we're going to let you go in and enjoy that with the kids and.

And we'll talk to you sometime soon.

Well, Will is a great friend of mine as well.

He was.

I.

He's one of.

He was one of the reps for one of the local breweries.

And I got to know.

I got to know.

His real name is Dave, of course, but, yeah, but we all know him as Will.

And what a.

What a buster.

And what he's done for.

For Shanti and.

And Cornwall and.

And the Augie man is unbelievable.

Really.

Well, in reality, you are part of fixtures and fittings of the Falmouth Shanty Festival, aren't you?

Everyone knows you internationally.

They know you.

So they keep telling me.

I have people coming up to me and.

And they've been collecting all their pennies and loose change all the year, and then they're bringing.

They're trying to track me down too far with a carrier bag full of it.

If they only went and had it cashed and put it in notes, they would say, and then.

And then, yeah, these muscles are phenomenal.

She's looking amazing with those muscles.

But I normally do a forfeit at the end of this festival by swimming in the arbor, but this year I'm going one better than that.

We're going.

It's.

It's next.

It's Sunday week.

Okay.

But we're swimming Castle.

The Castle.

So it's a mile swim so from Pendennis Castle here in Falmouth to St. Mo's Castle.

Yeah, it's a.

It's a mile swim.

It's all in aid of the rni.

So we're going to.

We're going to launch that one at three o' clock or a three up a three time today on the main seat.

Stay.

So it'll be a little of a spoiler for us.

So the QR code will be up so people can hopefully put some money at it.

Beautiful.

Well, Betty, it's been great to talk to you.

Enjoy the rest.

And you, you guys keep up your good work as well.

Thank you very much.

Take care.

Same.

Brilliant.

Thank you.

Captain.

Being a valiant man and a well dressed man was he said it never will be said to be lied like dogs and avoid them manfully.

Follow me Right bow leather o RIP leather o Ripe old leather o Day.

Here we go.

See how the mason says call the captain ashore.

So it's.

It's Saturday, the first full day.

Friday the 13th.

Is it?

Oh my.

No, that was yesterday.

That was.

Yeah, it's the morning after.

Oh, the morning after.

Well, here we are and we're sitting inside a rugby clubhouse because both Chili and I are roughing it this weekend.

Rough as.

Roughing it.

Rough as.

And, and we're camping.

The rest of the crew are in their beautiful hotels, which is.

Which is great.

Having a foot massage as we speak.

They're in the sauna.

I can see Nobby there now.

No, I don't.

No, I don't want to do that.

And we're gonna have our breakfast.

A breakfast of champions.

I think it is a rugby champions as well.

Yeah, definitely chilly.

How did you sleep?

How did you sleep?

Do you know what?

I think that alcohol did work.

It was a sort of an aid.

An aid memoir.

And we'll go out to the.

To the masses.

But it was very nice.

The dawn chorus for the seagulls, the ranger in the night, the.

The pitter patter of the torrential rain.

Or somebody stood with a hose pipe on the tent.

That does help you go off.

I think it may be that someone didn't quite get to the toilet in time.

Maybe that's what it is.

I mean, you know, you're in kerno when you get woken up by the seagulls.

Indeed.

And they were in full force, weren't they?

Very much.

Very much so.

We're very thankful to.

To the International Falmouth Shanty Committee for providing us those sleep and aiding beer tokens.

I think.

God bless Them?

Yeah, they're very good, aren't they?

Very good.

Very good.

We are.

Clearly.

We've done two sets now.

How have they gone for you?

Do you know, when we turned up at the Falmouth Hotel, that was our first gig and it was rain and it was very soggy.

You had people sat out in underneath the canopies down there and the sort of little benches and thought, not sure how this is going to go, but being shanty folk, they're used to roughing it, I think.

Well, it would appear so.

But what a wonderful reception.

The hotel was superb.

The staff were very helpful and.

But wasn't it a great experience on that stage?

The sound engineer full marks.

You.

You made us sound good.

Apparently.

That was.

People come up saying, you know, unlike the usual, can you go, please?

I mean, after three years, maybe we are.

Maybe we're getting better at these things now.

After three years.

Guys, we are navigating our cooked breakfasts as we speak.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

They've just arrived.

No, you are right.

I. I think it was an incredible experience and one of which we'll remember for a very long time.

Absolutely.

Because I say it's it.

You don't really hear your yourself when you're up on stage.

We've really not got a grasp of what you sound like.

But the sheer number of people who came up afterwards saying, that was absolutely wonderful.

They enjoyed us.

Well, that pays.

That makes you.

It gives you that extra oomph, doesn't it?

It does to just continue performing.

And then our second gig, which was when we arrived, very clearly a very.

A very trendy young person's pub.

I was going to say that.

A studenty young yogi, Yankee, sort of hip place.

And internally you think, oh, is this going to be a receptive crowd?

And as we arrived, the crowds got greater.

They just grew in mass and.

And there's clearly a local Bristol gang that are following us everywhere.

Yeah, absolutely.

The police, I think they call them.

But no, no, they.

They were.

And it's great to see them because they really are enthusiastic.

Yeah, very enthusiastic.

And that was a great gig.

Oh, amazing.

Yeah, it blew us away.

Blew us away.

Anyway, Chilli, let's get on and eat our breakfast.

Let's eat that beautiful breakfast just been brought to us.

Sa and now I'll sam.

So whilst wandering around here at Falmouth, we are bumping into people that are just really enjoying the festival.

It's packed, there are so many people here and I'm recording today on Sunday and It's equally as packed as it was on Saturday.

I bumped into these lovely people that are sitting here enjoying the beautiful view that is Falmouth out to sea.

There's some tall ships, there's people sailing.

It's just great.

However.

Hello, guys.

How are you all?

We're very well, thank you.

And we're thoroughly enjoying this event.

Great.

How far have you traveled to get here today?

Well, actually, we live just round the corner.

Fantastic.

This is just a local event for you, then?

Yes, it is, yes.

Are you big fans of shanti music?

Absolutely.

We are learning the words every year and after 21 years, you might have got a few now because that's how long we're going on here.

We know Cornwall, my home.

Is that your particular favorite?

I do like it.

And they all sing it.

I think I'm singing that this afternoon when our final set.

So.

Looking forward to that.

We only hold it.

Well, it takes a lot of risk singing out here.

A particular act or songs that you've enjoyed so far.

Well, we particularly like the concert in the Princess Pavilion on Friday night.

And I have to say, the Sloop Froggy Dogs were absolutely brilliant, but so were the other acts, but they were particularly the ones that have come highlighted.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's really good.

And have you eaten your body weight in pasties and Cornish cream and ice creams and all of those wonderful things?

We're working our way around the stalls.

Yes, we tend to do that all year round.

Oh, such hardship.

We're looking forward to Briar's boys at 1:30.

Lovely.

So you're sitting here ready to get in as and when you're ready?

Yeah, absolutely.

Good stuff.

Well, thank you very much for talking to me and enjoy the rest of the event.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Sharon.

I'm Jo.

So why do you think that sea shades are so important to everyone?

It's definitely the coming together of all ages, all shapes and sizes.

We're all smiling and having fun.

Absolutely.

And we're from a group called the Seabird, so the letter Sea birds.

And we meet once a week to rehearse and we have a bit of a chat about this, that and the other, and then sing, breathing practices and all sorts.

It's a really good way of spending time with people.

And what got you guys all interested in sea shanks?

I think we all like singing.

We all really enjoy singing, but it was because there's no rigid structure to shanties.

You can change them and adapt them.

Be really creative.

Yeah, definitely.

And you don't have to be perfect.

Absolutely.

I've.

I've had my fair share of mess ups when I'm sitting in my sea shanies.

We all laugh it off.

We all laugh it off.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

So thank you for speaking to me today and hope you guys have a rest.

Have a good rest of your day.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Wait, actually, where can I see you guys next?

We're performing outside Sea Salt at one one o' clock and then Penny come quick at five thirty.

Yeah.

And then Flushing later at eight thirty this evening and anything else like festivals?

We're doing TR cottage's Fun Day and that's a charitable event next Sunday in Newquay.

So it's just a small, small little festival.

Yeah.

Well, thank you and hope you have a good rest of your day.

Thank you Oliver.

So fresh off the stage is Barnacle Boys.

They sounded fantastic.

I've grabbed one of the members.

Just introduce yourself.

I'm Stu.

I'm one of.

I'm the newest member out of the five of us here.

I've still been in the crew a year and a half but I'm fairly seasoned.

But.

But you sounded great.

How is the festival going for you?

Oh, it's amazing.

We did, we did the seesaw stage yesterday in the afternoon.

How was that?

It was incredible.

I've.

I've never performed on a stage that big before with an audience that big either.

Yes, I was, I actually went for a little run around the area to what I thought was scouting out the stage.

Yes.

I went to the wrong one.

Oh.

By the time I got there I was like wow, this is a lot bigger than the one I thought it was gonna be.

So the nerves.

But I think we did really well.

We got so many positive compliment compliments afterwards and it's good that the, the shanty audience are just there to keep us going.

Yeah.

As soon as they get involved it raises our spirits as well.

Yeah, definitely.

Kevin always says you show us some love and we sing even better.

It's always his thing.

And how true that.

That is a recept.

How many times do we as shanty cruising in front of an audience that aren't always there to see us.

No.

But they are here to see us which is so good.

So good indeed.

Highlights of the weekend.

Cuz you've only got one more set to go.

We have only got one more set.

We're at the front at 4:00'.

Clock.

But yeah, it has to be the season.

Of course it does.

The pavilion was beautiful as well.

Just, just the setting of the pavilion.

Pavilion.

That was.

That was gorgeous.

It felt like you were like, I know Jake Bud is playing there soon.

Beautiful.

Just beautiful.

Isn't it?

Beautiful.

And have you managed to get to see any other shanty cruise singing?

I know it's busy.

Yes, yes, we saw.

I saw Bar's Privateers or I think it was the 10 o' clock slot on.

Or 8:30, I can't remember, in the Grapes.

And they commanded the audience as always.

They were.

They were awesome.

They were so good, aren't they?

And it's great to be rubbing shoulders with a whole plethora of different experience, isn't it?

And we can all learn from each other.

Yeah, yeah.

And we're all uniquely different, which is great, of course.

Beautiful.

But it's been great talking to you.

I'll let you get back to your crew.

Good luck with your next.

Thank you very much.

Take care, buddy.

Who am I speaking to today?

My name's John from Barrett's Privateers and Sarah.

And I'm Andrew.

Could you please tell me, how did you guys start?

Yeah, well, we all met.

We formed about five years ago just before COVID but we've been singing together en masse with a group of other people really for many years in the pub shout scene.

But we, we kind of found that the nine people who turned up every week, we were the ones that always turned up.

And so we.

It just drifted into shanti singing.

Really?

Yeah.

So what, so you guys just came back from singing on the big stage.

How was that?

It was fantastic.

Wasn't was a really good thing to get the audience participation shout singing, which is what we come out from, is a Cornish tradition that's been going for many, many, many years.

It was.

It became quite limited in the 70s, but has grown again and grown again.

And now when you look at the International Shanti Festival, when it first started, they had four Cornish creeps.

There's now over 70 coming here this year.

So you can see the change it has in Cornish singing.

And this man here, Gidz, who is our lead singer, he was one of the people who.

Who's really starting the process again.

Well, for Sophie's Cornwall, we have to be perfectly honest.

You know, Sophie's Cornwall is.

There was a time, although we all used to sing in different places, we used to meet up for St. Perrin's Night and have a good sing song.

And then out of.

Out of St. Perrin's night came a whole group of singers, about 25, 30 or something like that.

And then there Was a group of us nine that actually sort of loved the singing.

We thought, we can do better than this.

And then we formed a group.

You probably already this child.

Pretty much, yeah.

Yeah, we formed the group in 2019 and it went from there.

And of course then Covid came along and.

Yeah, the dreaded Covid.

The muck things up a bit.

The dreaded covert muck things up.

We had a nice year off.

Yeah, we kept practicing throughout that year.

We used to go into kids garage, opened up the double doors and we used to sit two meters apart and sing.

Absolutely Freezing through the winter.

I can still see Jack now with hot water bottles all over him.

Singing in a garage trying to be two meters apart, you know, and then some.

One day we had our sound recorders come up and they set the system up and for the first time we heard it come live through a speaker system and we thought, wow.

I think that's what really spurred us on then, to go ahead with it, because the sound was great.

That was great.

We've had a great journey, actually, you know, great fun today.

It was on the stage.

It was fantastic.

And we had a couple of great sets last night at the Grapes and Indie Dog.

I think it's important to say that we were very lucky in as much as.

And at that time, it was a bit unusual.

We had girls at the top end, us guys in the middle, and then we got this amazing base.

And so, you know, this.

We've got this.

Yeah, we've got this extreme from the basso profundo right up to the top end.

So we cover.

We cover everything thing, really.

You see, with Barrett's Privateers, nobody takes any notice of the bit in the middle.

It's the girls on the end and it's the big faces on the other end, you see.

So.

So when you watch Barrett's Privateers, it's almost like having a game of tennis.

You can see people in the audience with their heads going from side to side because one minute is the base, one minute is the girls.

Nobody takes any numbers of the other guys in the middle.

Waste of time.

Yeah, we're a waste of.

Absolute waste of time.

So what.

Where else can people see you?

Apart from the International SE Festival?

Probably l' Oreal next year.

We don't know about that yet.

No, we don't know.

But we have been to Laon.

Well, let's hope we'll be.

We'll be at me Shanty Festival for a start anyway.

And Boss Castle Chelsea Festival.

That's.

That's coming on that'll be a crap.

But if you really want to know where we are, if you find us on Facebook.

Everything is always on Facebook.

We always post it up nice early so that people can make plans to come and see us.

Yeah, yeah, I'm on Facebook as well.

Follow us on Facebook.

Something worth mentioning actually is later.

I don't.

You have to excuse me because I don't know the date, but we're at Corn Glaze, the caverns near Lisgard.

And the acoustics there are absolutely unbelievable.

Yeah.

Check the Facebook if you get a chance, come to that.

But book early because it.

It gets sold out every year and you don't really, you know, the pop not being funny, not blowing wind up my own bottom, but the popularity that is becoming of us.

It doesn't take long to fill 400 seats.

They go really quick.

Yeah, yeah.

So what's going to be the future of Barracks Privateers?

Yeah, what can you do?

It's very difficult because, you know, there is a lot of us that.

Within the group that are retired, but there's also those who have to work for a living, you know, and because of that, they can't commit to it so much.

And it's also a case that it almost seems really to be able to progress forward.

You almost got to have put it in the hands of agents because they are the guys that push you forward.

They have.

They, you know, the big.

The big festivals, they don't come to us in individuals.

They don't have time to that.

They have to go to an agent and say, okay, give me.

Get me a group of shanti singers or get me a group of pop singers or whatever.

So they go to the agents.

So that might be the case.

So as much as we stay together, you know, don't get me wrong, we've had our problems, you know, as you do.

We all have our grievance.

Yeah, of course you do, you know, but you pull through it.

It never gets better than what we got with this.

That's what it boils down to, you know, and there's no.

There's no.

Not a reason in the world that we shouldn't stay together.

Hell's chief, I'm the oldest now.

I'm now 67.

And Jenna is what, 29 now?

Is she just 29.

And she was 23 when she started.

When she was 23.

Never sang.

I mean, never.

Never sang on a stage in her life before that, you know?

Yeah.

For a lot of us, it's part of our life there to be Perfectly honest, you know.

So, you know, the future.

Yeah, the future can always.

It can always get better.

But we can't push it too far because of the fact that you never know.

You know, you have to hold back it.

Listen, all this, it never puts food on the table.

That's what it boils down to.

You do it for a love of it, you know, you do it for the love it.

You charge here and there.

You have to.

Else you'll be doing Granny's 60th birthday every day of the week, you know.

Having said that, you know, we.

We do do a great deal for charity like this.

We weekend.

Absolutely fantastic.

They raise so much money for rnli and all the festivals that we do, actually, all these shanty festivals within Cornwall and even the ones that we do in Devon, they're all done for charity.

We don't get paid.

I mean, they give us a few beers, they give us a past here.

I think that's the right payment.

Well, it could well be.

And certainly they're not lacking in groups and what they got 80 plus groups that are here.

So, you know, we do it.

They have a specific charity?

Not really.

Really?

To that extent, no.

Fun enough.

We did a lot of work with the Cornwall Air Ambulance just recently.

Yeah, well, actually.

I mean.

Did you say.

But we did a song for the Cornwall Air Ambulance recently and got to.

We rather.

It was an amalgamation of other groups in Cornwall.

But that was a song called Sing at Home and a CD in the downloads, I think.

Yeah, number 11 in whatever charts.

How many CDs do you have so far?

I don't know how many they sold.

They raised something like.

I think it was 2 million for it.

I think it was.

Thanks for the area.

That was an amalgamation of a lot of groups, all local, that all joined in.

It was all Cornish groups.

A great thing.

Do you guys have any, like physical memory be there or stuff like that?

We got CDs.

We.

We've recorded two CDs.

So we.

We.

Our.

Our first CD was Go Shed no Tears, which is from the song.

The very famous song, Bar Privateers.

And then.

Yeah, you got it.

That's right.

And then the Second one was 1778, which of course is in the song all the year was 1778.

You know your shanties.

He doesn't.

He knows.

Yeah, I know them.

I know them.

So.

Yes, and we recorded those.

Recorded them down at Parentporth.

What was this Student.

The Cube.

The Cube studio.

Fantastic guys down there.

Did a great job for us.

Even if you do say Yourself.

They are two good seats.

Oh, yeah.

Two good cds.

Purely acapella.

We don't have instruments and nothing like that.

Purely acapella.

You know, I've listened to the CDs.

They're really, really good.

Thank you very much.

All the songs are, I would say, are really good.

Good.

Yeah.

And we do pride ourselves on it.

Yeah.

I think what.

What you guys are good at is that you're good at differentiating from real life to.

To.

To.

To cd.

You're still the same even if you're.

Even if you're singing from CD to real life.

Our main purpose.

Well, not our main purpose, one of our main purposes.

When we recorded that cd.

Right.

Insane.

We wanted it to sound like a live cd.

And that's exactly what it was.

That all nine of us stood in the room and we sang live and we wanted that.

That live feel.

We didn't want to over engineer it.

So we're happy that that's what we.

Mostly one take, weren't they though?

Pretty much one or two.

We did a couple.

We have a.

We because of who we are sometimes because of the amount of good groups.

We're probably up.

Up at the top as far as shanties are concerned.

Probably up in the.

Probably top ones in Cornwall.

There are others above us.

We.

We.

We suffer sometimes because of the fact that we haven't got that brand as certain groups do in Cornwall.

You know, I won't mention any names, you probably know who I mean, but Fisherman's Friends, as it happens.

Yeah.

Good friends of ours.

You know, don't get me wrong, they have that brand and I mean, you know, it is what it is.

You know, they're able to go out and do.

Whereas we have got to sort of like have situations like that.

This here to push ourselves really, and do as well as we can.

Yeah.

Then unfortunately, sometimes people go home and say, oh, that good.

That group was good.

That was on this.

What were they called?

I can't remember.

You know, that's why we try to push Facebook.

Sarah does a lot on Facebook and all that.

Yeah, she.

The coverage that we put on.

On, on Facebook, it's phenomenal actually, because it just needs to be put across.

Keep pushing it on people.

Keep pushing, keep pushing.

You probably know that you got to keep.

Got to keep.

You know, you got to keep saying, selling it, you know.

Also I think we're saying is, I remember when we started this, probably you or somebody said, what do we want to get out of this?

And I remember my.

My initial feeling was I Just want us to be the best that we can be.

And in order to do that, we need to practice, which we bloody well did.

We practice and practice and practice.

And that is our goal, is we may not be the best, but we.

We are the best that we can be with what we.

We've got and the time that we've got, but that's it.

And I mean, ideally, you know, I remember saying I want to be one of those groups that people say, right, we're gonna have a festival.

Who should we invite, why we're invite.

So we definitely got to get Privates.

Privateers.

Yeah, that's.

That's what I wanted.

Now I think sometimes, sometimes we get a little bit frustrated when they don't, you know, they seem to forget about there.

Again, it might be like I said earlier on about the agents, I don't know.

But sometimes we seem to.

We seem not to get asked for no reason other than the fact they haven't thought about us or whatever that we find frustrating, to be perfectly honest.

And you know, and is what it is we expect to be because we.

We do practice and we do work so hard.

We expect to be up the top, you know, what's what.

Why do you think Sea Shaners are so important to everyone?

So important or so popular?

I wouldn't say important.

They're probably popular.

Well, I can tell you now that the oldest sea shanty group, I don't know whether you ever knew this, the oldest sea shanty group in Cornwall is Rum and Shrub.

All right.

And then there was a group from up in Devon, from a folk club called Hanging Johnny.

All right.

Is that based on Lever Johnny?

No, just they record a hanging.

Hanging Johnny is a knot on a.

On a.

On a boat.

It's a type of knot.

It's not what you think it is, is it?

Actually a not so they were the next group and before that it was a Harry Browns up in Bristol.

So there's your main three.

All the other groups came along.

Fisherman's Friends, there's no doubt about it, they made it very popular to be perfect.

The Longest Johns, they came in on the back of Fisherman's Friends.

You know, it is what it is.

So it's like I said on stage earlier on Cornwall, it's got this phenomenal ability for singing, this love for singing.

All right, Years ago it used to be Melvorth Choirs.

Now it's not so many Mary Vors Choirs.

It's little groups.

It's set up in pubs as we have and do it that Way, you know, it's just a.

It's just so popular now.

You can tell it here.

85 groups here this weekend.

You know, I think the ridiculous thing about, about this is it's actually become cool.

I mean, I remember when, you know, when we started singing Kids, come on, the stuff we did, you know, it was folk stuff.

It wasn't very cool, you know, but was.

Look at this.

This is fantastic.

What is there like 2, 3, 400 people out there listen to this rubbish and they loving it and why shouldn't they?

You know, at the end?

It's basic sort of the roots really of singing, isn't it?

It's a working man song and that's.

That's the important thing.

And in fact, you know, if you look at the audience, the audience, probably the average age in the audience was probably 30, 25.

30 or that one.

14 year old.

How old are you?

14.

There you are, see?

And here you are doing the podcast on us, you know.

Yeah.

A group of old farts singing shanties.

You know, I just want to be cool, right.

I'm trying to be cool.

But did we look cool?

No, I wasn't.

I was.

I was playing with the poor Bristol at a boathouse.

That's why I had to come down very quickly.

Yeah, you're doing a very good job.

And there's you much of.

Yeah.

So where are you from then?

I'm from Bristol.

Oh, are you?

Yeah.

So how I.

How I know the port of Bristol and I'm doing the podcast is that I went to a lot of shanty events and I started actually here, 20, 24.

Okay.

Singing with Ksenian, who I was singing with the grapes.

And those are the ones I hold deeply in my heart because they were the ones that started me doing this.

That's Harry.

Harry Ruby and Ollie.

Well, there you are, you see, you only got to look at Harry's situation, his dad, who sadly passed away 18 months ago, something like that.

Mike Kessel, Harry's dad.

I used to sing with him probably 20 years ago, you see.

And now Harry's coming up through the ranks.

Yeah.

And you know, and a great voice as well, you know, so, you know, it's what goes around, comes around, you know.

Yeah.

If anything, if any, if in the long run anything should happen to the likes of Barrett's Privateers, the likes of John and Sarah's two children, Jack and Jenna, they've got it there for the rest of their lives, you know, they can, they can do whatever they want.

And they've Got it there for the rest of their life.

Yeah, we try and keep it in the family.

We try and keep it.

We sing in the car together, don't we?

Yeah, yeah, yeah it's there for life, simple as that.

Yeah I do think that she shanes I always like to believe that at some point in your life you have heard a sea shany like yes, it doesn't like you, you like they said, like people used to tell me they used to get in school I used to know John Kanaka in school I used to sing it.

Yeah and I love.

I didn't even notice it was a sea shani until now so I love.

I think I.

About 36 or 37 when somebody said, oh, that's a shanty I didn't have a clue what a shanty was to be perfectly honest back then, you know, you got to be fairly ignorant these days not to know what a shanty is, to be perfectly honest.

Yeah, yeah well, thanks to people as you've already.

I mean you've already said anyway but thanks to people like the Fisherman's Friends who really brought it to the front, you know, lovely bunch of guys up there and.

And you know, they, they.

They've got the two films.

Crikey, you know, they've done really well and then, you know, this was the Wellerman with the.

The Scottish guy.

I can't remember his name.

That's him, yeah, you know and yeah, you've got some great bands out there now that are doing really well.

The, the.

The Longest Dolls are here.

They're here this weekend.

They're doing tours in Australia, America, Canada, you're.

They're all over the world and it's people like that that are kind of forging ahead with it and we're kind of following along behind but, but yeah, it's really come to the forecast, the forefront now and it's become almost.

I did say cool earlier.

I might not have meant that but, you know, it's become popular now, which is great and it is that basic working song business, you know, that's what it's all about.

Everybody's got it in them.

Yeah.

Everyone's at least able to see us sing a seashell.

I was talking to someone earlier on, they said, look, I can't sing a note.

And I said, actually, to be fair, when we go singing in the pub, there's several people in that pub can't sing a note but they're all stood their seat singing away and nobody cares.

They're having a time of their life you don't actually have to be able to hold a tune to enjoy this kind of music.

Just get out there and enjoy it.

Get at the back if you don't want to be at the front and give it a hell.

Just enjoy yourself.

Can you give me any, any person that wants to get in to see shanies?

What would be your number one tip?

Practice, practice, practice, practice.

Yeah, that's it really.

And find some other people of a similar mind, get together and practice.

And then all you do is you apply for places like this and you just come along.

Get out, don't be afraid, get out there, do a bit of busking.

Why not be friendly or be friendly?

Yeah.

I mean this is a great family, isn't it?

I mean all the groups are here, we know most of them and they know us and you know, we all have a pint together and it's just, it's like one enormous big family.

Get out there and enjoy yourself.

Don't be afraid.

That's about it really.

Yeah.

I don't think it's much different.

Yeah.

As John just said, it is very much that situation.

You know, there's no reason why anybody shouldn't, shouldn't be able to do it.

I mean as an example, I met a lady at a birthday party up at Sophie's Cornwall recently.

Lady called Daisy.

She was moving down from up country and has come down here and sure enough she's now singing with acapella moonshine.

Well, she didn't know anybody when she came down here.

You know, life in general, you have to be in it to win it.

You know, you've got to put yourself forward to be able to do it.

You know, it's no dress rehearsal.

You got to be able to do it, you got to be in it to win it and just, you know, it's not going to happen.

Start at home, you've got to get out and do it.

Yeah.

What would you be your number one tip for going like not a performer but like attending sea shiny festivals sober?

I think.

Yeah, that's one of them.

Or you try to get drunk.

Yeah, I don't really know how to answer that question to be honest with you.

Go.

I mean if you're going to go to a sea shanty and you've never been to one before and you don't know what to expect.

Great.

Go with an open mind.

Don't go there thinking it should be one thing when it isn't.

I mean you look around here, you see people dressed in pirates, don't you Parrots on their shoulders.

Also, there's a lot of people dressed up, really, you could say, making a fool of themselves.

But they are having a great time and they're bringing joy to everyone else.

Go with an open mind and join in.

Well, hope you guys have a lovely weekend and I hope to see you more in the future.

Free will cross the table Land to land the Saturday snow Stay and one and all and hand in hand and who shall bid us Sing your brothers and shout alone and shout alone is 20,000 the promise men will go the weasel way Mother drink on the Frenchman's ground and the darkest night I had the privilege of announcing these guys at the Falmouth Hotel yesterday, who was at Falmouth Hotel last night.

I heard that the atmosphere there was rocking between these guys and the Longest Johns and Pirates of Saint Perrin.

I heard that it was.

It was fantastic over there.

So, you know, first.

First year as a main stage, it's nice to see that it's.

It's succeeding.

But, yeah, I had the privilege of announcing these guys and I was.

I was reading the program and I really like their motto.

Fun and friendship, Melody and mirth.

That's a.

That's a good one.

That's a good one.

So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, the Port of Bristish, Bristol Shanty Crew.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are indeed the Port of Bristol Shanty Crew.

And we've been described in a lot of ways.

All right.

And one that I think captures us to perfection was when somebody said the Port of Bristol Shanty Crew.

The triumph of enthusiasm over talent.

Now then, you have heard a lot of close harmony singing today.

You've heard people that would fit in very well to a male voice choir.

We are not like that.

No way.

All right.

We are a little bit rough and ready.

Rough.

We don't sing a lot of harmonies.

In fact, my job is, if anyone does sing a harmony, we stop the song and that person gets shoved off the stage.

Right.

Now, let me introduce you to my dear, dear friend, Nobby.

Die.

All right.

Don't.

Now, Nobby, in spite of his small stature.

Yes.

Yeah.

I'm growing.

You are growing.

It's puberty at last for knob.

Yeah.

And he's going to start us off with a good old song.

It's about 2,000 versions.

This is Nobby's version.

We never quite know what he's going to sing.

It's called Santiana.

Oh, Santiana won the Dr. Jeave away, Santiana and General Taylor ran away all on the plains of Mexico and it's, er.

Up and away.

We'll go up and away.

We'll go all on the plains of Mexico.

We've just come off set here at the Falmouth International Shanty Festival and we've bumped into some super fans.

Super fans.

Super fans.

Tell us who you are, buddy.

Well, I'm called Harry.

Nice to meet you, Harry.

Thank you.

And you're with your friends.

Let's get them involved because they're all giggling.

Yes.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Hello, Leo.

And there's some others have gone to toilet, but we won't talk about them.

They're not here.

Tell us how.

How were we?

Right, so we.

We kept on.

We came.

This is a.

We took their virginity for sea shanties.

Yep.

But we came last.

You confirmed that.

That would have been difficult to explain for sea shanties.

Let me just add.

Yeah, yeah.

But we came last year and you played at fives and I. I think I fell in love, actually.

I'm not too sure, but I did.

Yes.

Nice.

But this year was even better.

The biggest stage is what you need.

It's perfect.

Yeah.

We were so lucky to be on it and for.

So grateful that the guys have let us have that stage.

I deserve the stage.

It was beautiful.

Oh, that's very kind of you.

How old are you, buddy?

How old am I?

Yeah.

I am 24.

Yes.

Sorry, I had to think about it.

It's been a long weekend.

Nearly 25.

And just tell me a question that I have been puzzled to kind of answer is how come young people are so into shanti?

Because it's good for fun, isn't it?

Yeah.

Everyone loves a shanty.

He's never been to a shanty before.

He loves it.

He loves it.

His face is a lot.

Yeah, I know.

He's.

That's his face, anyway.

But this guy, go.

He's got right into it.

He's got right into it.

No, it's just fun, isn't it?

You're like, you know, you listen to one song by the first course, you know it, you know, and then.

That's the point of it.

Absolutely.

And of course, the ale and the cider and all the great bits of alcohol.

It helps.

It does help, but, no, it's the perfect combination, isn't it?

Absolutely.

And where's home?

Home is Dorset.

Dorset?

Yeah.

You come all the way down the farm, all the way down to the.

To the best part of Cornwall.

It is the best bit of Cornwall.

Yeah.

It's not as good as Dorset.

It's not as good as Dorset.

But we'll take it.

Yeah.

And there's your friends there.

They've come back from going to the toilet.

Yeah, I know.

They're all giggling.

We know where you've been.

They found it.

Yeah.

This is her first Sea shanty's been told.

He's taking your virginity.

Sea shanty.

Sea shanty virginity.

Oh, yeah, sorry.

You left out the important information there, didn't you?

Unbelievable.

Unbelievable.

Oh, sorry.

Sorry, listeners got that wrong.

Sorry, guys.

Nice.

Well, we really do welcome your feedback.

You clearly are already a member of our Facebook.

I am part of the Facebook page and you're going to get your first friends on that.

No, I will get them on it.

They will be all part of the crew.

That's good.

By tomorrow night.

That's good.

And this is our podcast as well.

I can't wait to listen to this.

And you'll be on it.

Oh, my.

I'm going to save it forever.

You need to walk around with a black pen now for all the autographs you're going to get.

I'm hoping they should be coming thick and fast.

Yeah, they should do.

They should do.

They should do.

Well, it's been great to talk to you.

Thank you so much for your feedback and we'll always see you soon.

I can't wait.

Cheers, mate.

Cheers, buddy.

I'm Ollie.

Harry and Ruby.

So in this festival, I've seen a lot of new faces, but today I've seen a quite an old face I've seen, which is Ksenian.

And tell me about yourselves.

I'm Ollie.

I sing with Ksenyin.

I've been singing with them for about a year and a half now.

My grandad got me into singing and this festival's been great.

I really enjoyed it.

Very similar.

I've been singing for the same amount of time and his granddad's my dad.

So.

Shall I work that one out?

Exactly.

Hi, I'm Ruby.

I'm not related to them, but they roped me up at the pub and I haven't stopped since.

So how did you guys all start Sea Shanies?

And how did you guys create the group?

Well, Harry started, came up with the idea of it.

I just started going up to the pub with him and it kind of just went off from there.

Really great fun.

I found it.

And starting a group was great.

Just a chance to sing together, really.

So I've been singing since I was 4 and I wanted to form a group of young singers that sang traditional songs and Ksenian happened.

I started really by listening to Longest Johns and then finally was like, come up to the pub and have a sing and, yeah, really interested in it, really.

So, as you, if you didn't know from the last episode of this podcast, I started singing last year at the 2024 Sea Shane Festival, where I actually started with these guys and I've never stopped ever since.

So I've really got to say thank you to all of you.

You're welcome, Ollie.

It was great to have you up there last year and this year as well.

We've definitely come on a lot and actually great singing with you.

We'll have you up again next year.

I hope so.

Well, this has been a great Sea Shane Festival for me and great Sea Shane for all of you.

Can I ask what's been, like, your favourite Sea Shanes you've all sang for me.

It's got to be the Rattling Bog.

Great fun watching people's faces when we used to get faster and faster.

It's great.

It's not a Sea shanti, but we do one called Bedlam Boys, which I just really love the harmonies in it and everything like that.

I quite like sing.

I like Grey Goose.

Harry sings, I think.

Yeah.

Fun harmonies.

Now, if anyone doesn't know Cornish, what does Ksenian actually mean?

Ksenian means harmony in Cornish.

Yeah.

And I bet that shows what all of you are as in a whole.

You are just a big harmony of choirs and a big harmony of people.

So thank you for guys speaking for me today.

Thank you.

So, whilst wandering around, I've seen this chap who incredibly looks amazing.

He's like a pirate and Cornish badges.

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

What's your name?

Well, I'm Jason Wilkinson and at the moment I'm dressed as Pilcher the Pirate.

The pirate, which is something that's evolved over the years.

Yeah, yeah.

Evolved really.

For the shanty festivals, I do a bit of charity work for it, but mainly I help with the shanty festivals, guide people to where the venues are, where people are, where toilets are, whatever, and also collect money at some of them now.

And you also sing.

You're also part of a Santa Cruz?

I am, yeah.

From.

Well, from Myla Bridge, which is only over the water.

We're all, most of us from Falmouth, so I sing with the Lemonaires.

We've been going for nearly 20 years now.

Oh, wow.

It's a good time.

Yeah, it is a long time.

We have a strong group.

We're on the main stage yesterday, 8, 13.

Yeah.

Fantastic gig.

And we're all buzzing because we were streamed globally, so it was fantastic.

It's really.

We sing a lot of Harry Glasson songs, but songs about Cornwall, fishing, mining and our culture down here.

Yeah.

And so good to promote that.

Isn't it so important?

Of course it is, yeah.

We obviously do the shanties because they become popular and people want them, but.

Yeah, we are predominantly old Cornish songs.

Beautiful.

And clearly you're a season shanti.

I'm sorry, you're a seasoned festival goer.

Any particular highlights from this weekend?

Well, other than being on streaming.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, I'm from here, I'm on the committee.

I don't really help organizing it, but I'm there in the background, know a bit about it.

It's just.

It's growing every year.

Yeah.

The.

The beauty of this year is the Falmouth Hotel being a main stage for the first time.

Yes.

Because we've got the Falmouth Hotel, the Princess Pavilion and also the Royal Duchy, which has just joined in that smaller.

But we can get a lot of people over that side.

Yeah.

Of the town.

Beautiful views and it's great for the kids, for families.

Yes.

For the elderly, people with learning difficulties.

That was our opening set in Falmouth.

It was really good.

The Falmouth Hotel.

It was really good to be there.

Shame I'm at the weather at the time, but when we were singing, there was still a good few hundred people undercover cheering us along, which is good.

Well, that's good to hear, because Friday was horrendous, wasn't it?

Yes, it was.

At least Saturday and Sunday, for we've been blessed with such great weather, haven't we been really good.

Anyway, thanks for talking to me and keep doing what you're doing and thank you for everything you do.

Nice to meet you.

Thank you.

Who am I talking to?

You're talking to Chile.

Yes.

So how did it feel being off of the big stage?

Absolutely unbelievable.

When we marched on and you look at that crowd and you feel that vibe out there and you're thinking, we've got to perform, we've got to do it here.

And then, obviously, as soon as we start, he gets in and we go and we just fall back into our normal mode of enjoy ourselves, but give them entertainment.

And I think we did that in bucket loads.

Absolute bucket load.

So I was really pleased.

Everyone out there probably say, what are they doing now?

What are those old farts doing out there?

Listen to them.

But we loved it.

Or I did.

Absolutely, really much.

Do you want to me to pass this to Bill, you could if you want to.

Hi.

Hello.

Hi, Dolly.

So.

So you.

Have you.

You sung with them before doing this festival?

How did it feel?

Yeah, amazing, really.

I mean, this.

This is only like the third or fourth appearance I've had with, with the Boys, but this is the first time I sung on the main stage at Falmouth.

I've been coming here for 13 years and I've always wanted to sing on the main stage with these boys.

It's a real privilege when you walk on that stage and look out.

As Chilli said, there's so many welcoming faces.

It's a great audience.

It's just a real buzz and I just can't see how excited I was with it, really.

So do you think this is the reason why shanties are so popular, that it's such inclusive to people?

The thing is, it's an inclusive music scene, you know, that you don't have to be young to enjoy it or old to enjoy it.

If you look around, there's all ages, there's younger groups from the Longest Johns, although they're an older group now.

Of course they're getting on a bit and there's.

There's old codgers like us, you know, but it just spans the whole thing and everybody can sing along.

Everyone loves the music.

It's.

It's understandable, it's approachable and it's just a good buzz.

I mean, you just come a place like this, there's so many happy faces.

So are you guys playing tomorrow?

Yeah, we're two gigs tomorrow.

Where are we tomorrow?

I've forgotten now.

Indigo.

Yep, Indigo.

And Seven Stars.

And the Seven Stars and more.

Which?

Both.

Both good venues.

So, people, I've got to ask, so are you an accountant or are you a policeman?

Which one is it?

I'm an accounting policeman.

It just doesn't add up.

Yeah, multiplication was not my favorite thing, but I always counted sentences in years and the higher the number, the better it was generally.

Generally the situation.

Yeah, I'm not.

I'm currently going into my GCSEs.

Well, I'm in year nine right now and I've chosen my GCSEs, but I bet.

Matt, why were you drinking that honey rum if you're only in Year nine?

Miss, Miss.

Miss.

He's been drinking rumness.

I have.

You know, I don't want to drink when I'm older.

It's just because my mum told me to.

Someday I will buy never to drink my.

Oh, this is a great roof.

But all I can say is Shouty Boy, your picture, the picture of your face that we got when you tried the rum is amazing.

Do you see how hard it is for us to drink?

I don't know how it is.

We put up with that all the time.

We try to stop people being poisoned.

I bet you have to stop eating chili so many times.

Hey, shut your face.

What?

I would say we have set a great precedent today.

Yeah.

A glass of port before we sing and a bottle of rum afterwards that.

Well, we have got a hell of a reputation to maintain.

What is your motto again?

Skill over the triumph of enthusiasm over talent.

But us, the Revs, that's the Rebs saying, we just connect, really.

We just go along with it just to amuse him.

Really.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I have to say, at the boat house, it was brilliant to have you there singing with us.

Did your grandpa enjoy it?

My grandpa definitely enjoyed it.

Excellent.

He even said he cried a little.

Yeah.

It's just incredible.

Three years ago, who would have thought we'd be on the main stage here, let alone anything else.

Best three years of my life, almost.

Apart from being married for 37.

47 others.

Yeah.

Can I just ask who started the whole nickname thing?

Basically, I received an email from the rev back in February 2022, saying, I want to give you a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Would you like to join a shanty crew?

Because I've known him since 1963, when we started at school together.

I thought, well, he's got to be trustworthy.

So I just said, yeah, why not?

And that's where it all started.

And a number of the crew all had the same.

Or had similar emails at different times, and we just said, why not?

And what a fantastic turnout.

I really hope I get the email one day.

You will get the email one day.

Yes.

But you've got to get through GCSEs first.

Yeah, I do have to get through GCSE.

Unless you pass them, you don't come in unless he passes the GCSES.

Yeah.

GCSEs or no entry, you can't do anything.

You're barred.

No.

Yeah.

Just put some pressure on you.

No, no, no pressure.

Really?

No pressure?

No pressure.

I. I like doing the stuff that I'm doing with Augie and doing the podcast.

We like what you're doing.

In fact, I think you could take over from Auggie at some stage.

He's irreplaceable.

He's just a magic man.

Yeah, yeah.

He's a Cornish pasty, myself.

Give you two the ledge.

That is Nobby.

Hello, Shanty Boy.

Hello.

Lovely to have you with us today.

It's really great up at the Boathouse.

Really brilliant.

And I enjoyed the set on the stage here until I saw a blonde woman in the crowd.

Happened to be my wife, actually, and I forgot the words to Santiana.

And then I came around again.

Nah, they didn't.

Nobody knows.

I didn't notice you're still alive.

How many.

How many seashells have you written so far?

About 40.

Oh.

And I got a whole thing at home about that thick with poems and all that in it, you know.

Yeah.

What.

Can I ask?

What does.

Great.

It's such a pleasure to share a stage with that Cornish bloke of ours, Auggie.

Yeah.

Bet he's a nice guy.

Wonderful.

He's a hell of a nice guy.

Yeah.

And the longer he's with us, the better we'll get.

Yeah.

And I think it helps you expand your reach to other people with this podcast.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Especially Augie, because he has a multitude of friends and connections.

Yeah.

So it's going to be very good for us.

Very good.

And a great Bill Collins with us today.

Oh, Bill.

He taught my son.

Did.

He actually done very well.

Wow.

Yeah.

I'm gonna hand over now to the Rev.

Shanty Boy.

It's good to see you, mate.

Did you realize today, did you notice that we have modeled a lot of ourselves on K pop and Metallica?

Yeah, yeah, I noticed.

Yeah.

I know.

Because we are projecting ourselves more as a boy band than anything else.

Okay.

And I think it showed.

I think it showed.

And as he said earlier on, as Chili said, we looked out at the audience and we couldn't.

I couldn't believe how many were there.

And I wondered how many would be left at the end.

And there were quite a few left.

Quite a few stayed.

No, it's been a great day, Shanty Boy.

Marvelous day for the crew.

Three years we've been going.

Yeah.

And today, to me, was the best.

Yeah.

All the epitome or the pinnacle or the.

The zenith.

The zenith of what we've done.

Everything clicked.

Everybody knew their words, apart from Nobby, which is normal.

And everyone sang well.

Yes, everyone sang well.

Yeah.

Can I just say what's.

I think I know.

A connection to you in some way.

What is that?

Did you baptize me when I was little?

Yeah, I did.

Yes.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I can remember baptizing you because I dropped you and you hit your head.

And it shows.

To be honest, it has had an effect.

And I'm sorry about that.

But, you know, it's a bit.

Oh, that's lovely.

Do you know, I love to meet people.

I baptize sometimes.

I've been.

I've been in the clergy a long time and I. I sort of baptize people, then I prepare them for confirmation and then I marry them, not myself.

I officiate at their wedding and then I baptize their children.

Yeah.

And that means the world to me, you know.

Do you think you.

Sorry.

Do you think you've imparted some of your shanty knowledge onto me?

Oh, no, really, it's my fault, honest to God.

Honestly, really, I'm so sorry.

It's not your fault.

I love what I'm doing.

Oh, I know you do.

And you're great at it.

And we can't wait you to sing with us, you know.

Yeah.

Because I think you'll have a certain dimension.

Because the difference is, you know all the words, you know, which is a real.

A real bonus for us.

Don't happen very often.

No, it's been great.

It's been one of the best festivals.

We've been to loads, Nobby, haven't we?

Loads of festivals.

Because we've been singing together for about 40 years now and he still don't know the words, which is amazing.

It doesn't.

It doesn't.

But you do make up for it by singing the same verse twice, don't you?

Yeah, yeah, it.

That does work, I think, to a certain extent.

No, shanty singing is the best type of singing in the world.

You don't have to play an instrument.

All you got to do is.

Is sing along and you ain't got to be.

Yeah, you know, we're sort of overwhelmed here by fans.

They come from all over just to sort of sit at our feet, don't they?

Really not.

And no.

Do you know, we are actually, Shanty boy, we have had people come up to us who saw us for Bristolians, who saw us last year, who followed us around, you know.

Yeah, they're mainly tone deaf, aren't they?

Yeah, they were here today.

Yeah.

And they were great, you know, I mean, I think the deaf school does a lot for them, doesn't it, really well done, them.

That's what I say.

Anyway, shanty boy, I better say goodbye because I got a bit of rum here waiting to be drunk and as a.

As a priest I cannot turn it down.

All right.

A little bit of communion wine don't do me any harm at all.

Bye bye, shanty boy.

Bye bye.

We have a podcast.

And about last month we actually featured as the number one podcast in the Iranian times.

It's New England Iranian.

We interviewed a lot of people in last month, unfortunately.

Last month we were delighted that Harry Glasson and Will Keating came on and did an interview.

It couldn't be right not coming to Cornwall and paying his tribute to Harry Glassing.

I know you've heard it lots of times before.

Harry's over there, so we're not as good as York, you guys, but we're going to do our best.

Anyway, don't get put off by the dances.

Don't forget that magic toothpaste I spill on capable.

Watch the fishing fleets go Watch the she wheels and keeper as they spar around and heard the men singing as they go wander around and no one will ever move me from this land until the Lord calls me to sit at his house for this is my for this is my Cornwall and this is my home I left childish footsteps in sunset sound I chased the ma I stood on the cliff tops in a westerly glow and heard the waves thunder on the rocks far below and no one will ever move me from his hand until the Lord calls me to sit at his hand for this is my Eden and I'm not alone for this is my formal and this is my home first thing in the morning on chapel car Pray to gaze at the ceilings in the blue far away oh, this is my Cornwall and I'll tell you why Because I was born here and here I shall die no one will ever move me from this land until the Lord calls me to Sina for this is my Eden and I not alone for this is my corn wall and this is my home for this is my Cornwall I'm missing so there you are.

That is the Highlights of the 2025 International Xi Shanti Festival held in Falmouth.

What an incredible weekend it was and a great opportunity to be amongst some truly amazing shanty crews.

And of course there are super fans and people who just love shanty.

It's really good to see you all and.

And if you are one of those people that are listening to this podcast, a massive thank you as you probably got from all the cruising, including ourselves.

We couldn't do this if it wasn't for your constant engaging support and just looking in us and cheering us on in the crowd really does make a difference.

Can I just take this opportunity to thank everybody that spoke to us as we were floating around with the microphone?

You can probably appreciate we got a lot of audio.

Some of it we just can't feature because you'll be here for hours.

I mean, this is two hours already.

But a huge thank you to people who spoke to us and of course thank you to Ollie who has spent the time kind of perfecting his trade by recording people and practicing his interview technique.

And I think we can all agree he is developing really well.

If this is your first time that you've listening to our podcast, then thank you for listening.

If you would like to subscribe, then we are available on all good podcasting applications and if you are on our website, then of course you will see a link to that.

If you're a regular listener.

Thank you very much for coming back and listening to us.

I hope the Chapter section, if you've got a clever podcast app, is helping you navigate this episode and of course all the other previous episodes that you get to hear all the different songs.

So that's it.

Thank you so much for listening once again and fair winds and following seas and I'll see you next month.

Ship shape and Bristol fashion boys along the harbor side from even gorge to underfour we'll even haul the line Secure the barrels down below Bind and tie and match them vessel she is certified Ship shape and Bristol fashion so haul away me laddie boys haul away you're free Haul away me laddy boys and save a drink for me Haul away me laddie boys Haul away your free Haul away me laddie boys and save a Dr.