The Beyoncé of the Shanty World – Tom Lewis in Conversation

Hi, it's Art.

You're listening to Shipshape and Bristle Fashion.

Ship Shape and Bristle Fashion.

From evil gold to wonderful heaven Haul the line, secure the barrels down below Find and tie and lash em this vessel, she is certified ship shape from Bristol Fashion.

Ahoy there and welcome to episode 21 of the of Shipshape and Bristol Fashion.

I'm Oggy and I'm a member of the Port of Bristol Shanty Crew and your host of this lovely podcast.

If this is the first time you've found us, then this is one of many great episodes where you get to hear about us, the Port of Bristol Shanty Crew, but also lots more about the world of Ashanti singing.

And if you're a regular listener, thanks for coming back.

It's great that you're here and I'm confident that you'll enjoy this episode.

On this month's episode, we have pure shanty royalty, I would say the Beyonce of the shanty world.

We have Tom Lewis, who is a good friend of ours at the Port Bristol Shanty Crew, and he has agreed to come on board and to be interviewed by our very own Mr. Steve, the Reverend Hawkins.

But first we're going to pop down to the Signaler where we get to hear about what we've been up to during the summer months.

Yo ho ho.

It's the Signaler here with all of the news from the point of Bristol Shanty Crew.

You may hear from my voice that unfortunately I've picked up a bit of scurvy.

And so I think this is going to be a short post as my voice won't last too long.

The main thing that I'd like to pick up from the last month's activities has nothing to do with us singing or a gig.

It's just to say how proud we are to have been nominated for the local Pride of Bristol award to be one of the four regional finalists.

Unfortunately, we won't be taking a big trip to London, but it was great just to know that people think so much of the work that we're doing and actually to have Harry with us.

Our inspiration on the day that we filmed down at the SS Great Britain.

So to all you lovely people in Shantiland out there, we thank you.

We'll keep doing what we're doing.

We'll keep pushing towards our financial targets.

It's now 50,000 and is getting closer and all driven by helping people like Harry.

In terms of actual gigs, over September, we did a few.

We went to a village hall in Wanstrew to raise some money for the local church.

We sang in September on the 20th at Nova Scotia as part of the Bristol Shanty Festival and indeed had two sets the next day in the harbor side and included a bit of a sing round after the final set at the Cottage Pub with the Rusty Tubs which went down really well and everybody enjoyed it.

October is going to be reasonably quiet which is good because where you'll get then the Christmas pre Christmas activities in November and December.

So October is really mainly private gigs in the Bristol Masonic hall for their widows and for a Trafalgar night.

And we are returning to the SS Great Britain on the 16th of October in the evening.

So that's really it.

My voice is not going to last much longer.

I'll keep this very short and say goodbye.

So it's me signing off and see you soon from the Signiller.

Oh Ash, I hope you do start to feel a lot better very soon.

And to reiterate what he said, a huge thank you to you, the listener and of course all of our supporters who clearly has backed us all the way for the regional panelists to even put us into a possible selection to go to London.

Clearly we didn't win but we obviously wish good luck to all of the people that are moving now to the London show to become fundraiser of the year as part of the Pride of Britain award.

I cannot even imagine what it would have been like to even be on the panel, to even select who could be possible finalists across the entire of the country.

But we as a crew are very humble and very honored to be even selected to get this far.

So this is the moment you've been waiting for.

Let's pop down to the crew room where Steve, the Reverend Hawkins is ready to talk to the one and only Tom Lewis.

Well everyone who's listening to this ship shape and Bristol fashion, I've been a. Oh, Tom Lewis is one of my heroes I'm afraid.

Sorry Tom.

You are because when I first started chanty singing oh 35 years ago.

I.

Heard about you and I started listening to your albums and I was just blown away.

So to actually be talking to a living legend is a great thrill for me.

Now I came across this look on.

Where was it?

Hang on.

On.

Oh yeah, on Wikipedia.

Oh good.

You don't believe anything is on there.

Well I know but I'm going to read this to you Tom, because it's, it's really nice and it might help the, the listeners learn a little bit more about you.

It says Thomas John Lewis, now you.

Got that bit right.

Yeah.

A British singer.

All right, and not Canadian, because the Canadians keep trying to, you know, adopt you.

But anyway, I've got to tell you, Steve, the longest I have ever lived anywhere in my life is Canada.

Oh, I didn't know that.

Oh, well, in that case, you're sort of.

I was 40 to the time I was 70.

Yeah.

I lived in Canada the previous 40 years.

I was in.

I was in Northern Ireland, in Belfast, I was in Gloucester.

I was being shipped hither and yon around the globe by the Royal Navy.

I could claim to be living in Gosport or Helensburgh or anywhere else, but the only place I can claim to have been living for 30 years is Canada.

Right, okay.

I didn't know that.

That's interesting.

Yeah.

Did you enjoy being in Canada, then?

Oh, very much.

Very, very much.

It was 30 years of adventure and enjoyment and going places that I never thought I'd go.

Seeing sights I never imagined that I'd be seeing.

Meeting people that you just couldn't have dreamed up and.

And great experiences.

Yeah.

I mean, it was.

It was just.

It was 30 years of privilege.

Great.

I'm so glad.

Really brilliant, Tom, to hear that.

Well, I shall carry on with your Wikipedia entry.

No, no, no, no.

He says, a singer and writer of nautical songs and sea chances, some of whose works have become, quote, folk standards.

He's been recorded by over 40 other artists.

Yeah.

Because it hadn't reached 50 yet.

And it says.

And has been called one of the finest exponents, whatever that means, of contemporary nautical songs.

I think I must have written that one.

Yeah, I think you do.

I mean, do you reckon yourself there, Tom?

Because it sounds pretty accurate to me.

Yeah.

Let's just really, before we begin, I mean, I'm sure we'll cut this bit out, but I just need to tell you, the first time I met you, was it Upton Upon Severn?

Oh, yes, the year after the floods.

Yeah, it was, yeah.

At the festival there.

And I was a bit nervous that evening about going on, and we were in a church hall or somewhere on a stage, and I went out and with me lads and I had to sing Marching Inland.

And I looked out at the audience and you were sat there and I went, oh, my God, it's Tom Lewis in the audience.

And I'm singing Marching Inland, which I managed to do.

And afterwards you came up to me and you said, well, he said, you didn't sing it quite as.

As I would have sung it, but it wasn't too bad, mate.

Thank you very much for singing it.

And I was very touched by that, Tom.

So, I mean, Tom, how did you get into all this?

How did you.

I knew you were a submariner, but how did you get into music?

How did you get into folk and shanty music?

Well, I suppose there's been folk music around my life from much earlier than I.

Than I could actually realize, because I come across songs and tunes that I realize I knew as quite a small child, but I was always into music.

And my mother was a lovely singer and she encouraged me to sing.

And when I say she encouraged me to sing.

One night, coming back on the trolley bus from the centre of Belfast, my mother had taken my older sister and myself to see a movie in the centre of Belfast.

And on the way back, we had the upper storey to ourselves.

And I went to the front of the bus and was just hanging onto the rail, looking out.

They said I could drive the bus.

That was what it was.

I was about.

I was about 7 or 8 at the time.

And I just started spontaneously to sing.

Shine on, shine on Harvest moon up in the sky I ain't had no.

Loving Since January, February, June or July and I sang the whole thing as far as far as I can remember, pretty much perfectly.

I've reprised the movie in leisure years and found that that only comes into the movie twice.

And yet I'd learned the lyric and the melody in those two times.

The next Sunday.

This is how you get your recruits, Steve.

The next Sunday, my mother put me into my best bib and tucker, walked me up the road to.

To the local church.

And I was at a church service for the first time in my life.

And at the end of it, she took my hand and walked me home.

I thought, well, that was a bit of a strange experience, but that's all right.

But the next Sunday, the same thing was happening, only when the service was over, instead of taking me and walking me out of the church, she walked me down to the front and stood in front of the choirmaster and nodded to me and said, he can sing.

Not forgetting we were in Belfast.

You know, the accent for people in Northern Ireland, no matter what their mood is, when they open their mouths, they always sound angry.

So the choir master took me up to the organ and he pressed the key and it went.

And I said, sing that.

And I went.

He said.

He said, be here at seven o'clock on Thursday night.

I had no idea what was happening service then.

And suddenly I was in the church choir and it was all downhill from there, really.

But I did.

My mother then took my sister and I to live in Gloucester with a fellow there and one of a series of succession of uncles that I had.

And.

And she.

And so then I sort of quite naturally gravitated, having been in Northern Ireland Presbyterian Church, I naturally gravitated to the C of E1 down the road from where we were living in Gloucester.

And suddenly.

But in this one, I had a little ruff around my neck and was wearing a.

Surplice.

And of course, I can remember we used to play cricket, the choir boys.

You know about that one where the sermon comes on and you sort of.

Every ball bowled is when the minister sort of says a certain word.

If he then goes on to something like, verily, you're out, you know, so.

So that says balls bowled and run, runs scored and.

And wickets taken.

And we weren't paying any attention except.

Except to the words that we had to.

Yeah, on the.

On the sheet.

Yeah.

I mean, it's funny though, Tom.

I mean, I was church choir boy and it's amazing, I. I mean, in our group, in our shanty crew, it's amazing how many of them were actually choir boys.

I think that's where our singing started and, you know, progressed from there really well.

You know, the.

Of course, a lot of the.

A lot of the harmonics and harmonizing singing in.

Especially in.

In British folk music bears all those hallmarks of.

Of religious singing and choir singing.

Yeah.

So anyway, at the age of 16, I went off to be an engineer and apprentice in the Royal Navy.

That was 1959.

And by autumn of 1960, I was at HMS Caledonia in Rosyth, which is hard by Dunfermline.

And in January or February of 61, I started going to a little jazz club in a dank dismal cellar in Chalmers street in Dunfermline.

And to be honest, the girls thought they were all very posh, but up on the wall of this.

This venue would say that was the.

Tuesday night was the jazz club, Thursday night was the folk club.

And I really didn't know what that was, but I went along on Thursday and found out that I enjoyed the music more.

And the girls would talk to you.

So I was lost and I started going.

But what I didn't realize then and only realized years later, was that the Howff Folk Club in Dunfermline was one of the hotbeds of the folk revival and of the Scottish nationalist revival.

But I was actually literally sitting at the feet of giants.

There were all these people later, they were actually names These people were names.

Did you come across Ewan McCall at all when you were there?

Ewan McCall.

I happen to know a lot of Ewan McColl songs, but not all the way through.

Ewan McColl had the habit of.

Because he was living in Edinburgh at the time and he was in the habit of having a half finished song, but he wanted to see how it would go down with audiences, so he came over.

He would often drop into the Hauff folklore and sing Half a Soul.

And I remember all those.

But later on they were his standards.

I am a wagon driver, boys Bill Healy is me name Year in, year.

Out I rolls about in the heavy.

Transport game that keeps me wagon rolling, boys however tired I feel I been serving up me 21 years behind the steering wheel and.

Yeah, so he used to drop in a lot.

Alex Glasgow at the club.

Yeah.

Okay, here you go.

Louis Killen.

All right, you're going to get some music here.

Louis Killen dropped in one night.

Walamu is the booked guest and I've got a. I've got an accordion around here somewhere.

That one, yeah.

And he stepped forward with his little concertina about his third or fourth song and started to play a tune and sing a song and I nearly fell off.

And these are old church pews, by the way.

No, back to them.

But suddenly I was transported back to Children's Hour when I would have been about 12.

So that would have been about 1955.

And there was a children's soap opera that would come on every week on Children's Hour and it was called Green Sailors.

Trying to remember the name of the.

Gilbert Hackforth Jones.

Thank you very much.

Who wrote a whole series of these books about these kids having nautical adventures.

And whilst I can't remember the storyline of any one of them, I do remember that it was introduced with a lovely lilting melody played on what I later came to realize was a piano accordion.

And it was.

But the BBC sound engineers had woven into this the cries of seagulls and masts creaking and ropes slapping and wind sighing through the rigging.

And very, very evocative and hugely imagination stirring for a 12 year old boy.

And then Louis Killen stepped forward and sang the theme to Green Sailors.

I'm not going to do the whole thing, but.

Farewell and adieu to you fair Spanish ladies Farewell and adieu, you ladies as Spain We've received orders to sail home to England.

We hopes in a short while to see you again.

And.

And I was.

I thought, wow, that was a folk song.

I was listening to that when I was.

Wonderful kid.

That's wonderful.

Absolutely brilliant.

Then.

So.

And people were coming along and singing Cyril Tony songs.

Now.

I didn't get to meet Cyril Tony for about another maybe 15 years or more.

I actually joined the Navy about two months after he purchased his discharge.

I mean, there is somebody who nails their colors to the mast.

He actually paid £200 to leave the Navy early and become a professional folk singer.

My God, really?

I mean, you gotta have faith.

Well, you're a great guy.

Only, I mean, you know, we all learned from Cyril.

Well, yes, and so.

So he was never.

He was never booked, I don't think.

Don't.

He ever went up to Scotland in those days, but people were singing his songs, so.

So I got to know his songs.

And it was only years later that we.

We met and struck up a lovely friendship, you know.

You know, you had all this sort of background of singing and the folk club and see songs and Cyril Tony and Ewan McCaw.

So.

When did you decide that you'd like to stand up and sing a song at a club or your first performance?

When was your first performance?

Can you remember?

Okay, my first performance, and it was actually a folk song, would have been in about 1954 in Gloucester in the Irish Club.

And they were having a singing competition.

The Irish are very fond of competitive music.

So I was entered into this thing and there I was, maybe 11, if I.

10 or 11.

And I was in.

And they asked me what I was going to sing.

I said I was going to sing the.

I was going to sing Galway Bay.

I was going to sing Galway Bay.

And there were then these worried looks on the faces of the organizers.

And the judges said, which version?

I didn't know there was another versions.

And what they were worried about was, you see, I said, but for the strangers came and tried to teach us their way they scorned us just for.

Being what we are.

That was the version I knew they were afraid I was going to say the English came and tried to teach us their way.

All right.

And I can't remember.

I don't know if I won that one or not.

You can't remember that?

I can't remember now.

So I probably didn't.

But that would have been my first time.

And then really, I didn't try putting myself forward at the How Folk club at all.

But later, in about 1967, 68, I was out in.

I was out in Singapore with my.

With my first wife, Kate, who was from Dunfermline, and And we actually.

And that was where I ran into Johnny Collins.

And Johnny Collins asked if Kate and I would.

She was Kathy in those days.

She's.

She's found herself now.

And he asked us if we would sing a song and, or one or two.

So we actually sang duets there and.

And lo and behold, I think we sang two songs.

The first night.

He asked us and as we were leaving, he handed us an envelope and there was £5 in it.

And I said, blood, what's this?

He said, oh.

He said, nobody sings for free in my folk club.

He said.

Johnny Collins.

And he.

He and I.

So he and I spent two years together out in Singapore and then until I left for Canada in 1983.

There were very few years when I didn't meet up with Johnny and sing and go to his gigs and things like that.

So that was a huge influence on me.

And if he and Jim McGeehan hadn't recorded the Last Shanty, we probably would not have been talking here tonight.

Well, you never know.

I think we would.

I think we would, Tom, because you're not.

Not just the Last Shanty.

We got Sailors Prayer, we got Marching Inland, we got loads.

I think you would have broke through whatever.

I don't know.

I don't know.

He was.

He was a huge influence on my life.

You were also at the Red Lining Christchurch to see Johnny when we.

The night we met.

Did you hear that?

Oh, really?

Yes, yes, that was the night that, that Lynn and I met in.

In 1976.

Yeah.

And I was.

I was actually preparing myself for life as a.

As a single man again and giving.

Giving Kate and her new fella some sea room.

And so I had thrown a sleeping bag in the back of the car and I heard that Johnny Collins was on down at the Red Lion Folk Club in Christchurch.

So I went down there and I met this lovely young woman, much younger, I have to say, who, who had come to see her friends who were the.

Who were the house band, the old pull and push with Paul Hutchinson, of course, so.

Now Balthazar.

Yeah.

And.

And so we.

When we.

We've been together really ever since.

Oh.

So folk music's got.

Got a lot to answer for, a lot to thank it for, I gotta tell you.

Now, now, Tom, you know, you.

We just touched on, you know, you're well known for your songs.

Okay.

I mean, we sing them, everyone's loves them.

So when did you first sort of think, you know, I might have a go at writing some songs?

I did have a go at writing.

A song.

Shortly after Sort of becoming a.

Becoming a regular singer at Johnny Collins Folk Club in.

At Changi Hospital, the Other Ranks Bar.

It was called Anafel Inn, Awful Inn, but it was actually named after the Anafeles mosquito, which is the one that malaria.

That's it.

And I thought I'd like to try and write a song because this guy Cyril Torny wrote songs and was singing some of his.

And I did sing a song and I sang it once.

It was dreadful.

It was just.

I try now not to remember was so bad I can't quite forget it.

But I never.

I never, never go anywhere near singing it.

You bear the scars.

Yeah.

But later, much later than that, actually, shortly after meeting this lady over here.

Lovely woman.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, so she.

I find it very amusing, but she must have been my muse as well, and so.

Sorry.

Awful.

That was dreadful, wasn't it?

Yeah.

You see, at the time I was serving, as.

I served most of my.

My naval career in diesel submarines.

And of course, when you're.

When you're in the engine room and stand between two big V16s throbbing around and there are various harmonics and rhythms actually in the air, you know, this Cyril actually used a lot of that for his songs.

And so I suddenly thought about the fact that here I was a sailor, but I didn't know anything about tying knots.

I didn't know anything about sailing actual.

Using the wind to make you go anywhere.

And I thought, a sailor ain't a sailor anymore.

Yes, it all came from that.

But if that song hadn't happened, as I say, my life would have been completely different.

And I'm sure it wouldn't have been half as enjoyable as it is.

Can I ask you a quick question?

Because one of the.

I hope so, because you're supposed to be interviewing.

Oh, right.

Okay.

I wonder what I was doing.

One of the songs that I remember, one I know is Diesel and Shell, and I wondered what the shell was, you know, shale.

During the.

During the Second World War, oil was a bit hard to come by because people were trying to stop stuff being transported across the oceans.

And it was found that you could get usable liquid hydrocarbons out of the shale oil that's all over the north of England.

If you compress it hard enough, it will actually weep a clear oil.

But it's not much good for driving diesel engines.

But it's a very good.

Is a very good substitute for sperm oil.

We'Re always looking for.

Yeah, well, they were always looking for it because, of course, sperm oil, the compass floated on sperm oil.

But what they found it was really very, very good for was cleaning the corticine decks, the linoleum decks on ships and submarines.

But it also had a very distinctive aroma.

And on a surface ship, of course, with great ventilation, that will soon get taken away.

But on a submarine, where you're literally an enclosed space, the two odors that are there permanently are diesel oil and shale oil.

But of course, the diesel oil is just getting pumped around an engine.

But the shale oil, they were actually taking and putting it into the atmosphere by rubbing a thin sheen of it over every place that a foot can trod on a submarine.

Because I have to tell you.

What's the smell like, Tom?

I mean, was it.

No, I never smelled it.

All right.

Gone by the time I.

It was.

It was.

Oh, that was.

That was Second World War stone.

Yeah.

Well, I think up.

Up to the.

Up to the early 50s, they were still using shale oil, but it was.

They.

And we used to.

Used to joke about it and saying.

They say cleanliness is next to godliness, but in our case, cleanliness is next to maintenance.

Okay, let's talk about your songs.

I mean, I sing quite a few of them, but is there one that's your favorite at all?

Probably Radio times, you know, I mean, Last Shanty.

As I say, I wouldn't be here if it hadn't been for Last Shanty.

Great song.

And strangely enough, whilst.

Whilst a lot of people are complaining, a lot of musicians are complaining that they're all over the Internet and they never get any money, I have to say, in the past 10 years, the royalty situation has.

Has blossomed for me.

And that's.

That's really.

I mean, kids not going to make us rich, but.

Well, but we did.

And this probably has nothing.

This is more to do with my pension from the Royal Navy.

Thank you very important, very much, you taxpayers out there.

Yeah, thank you.

We just.

We just bought an apartment in a.

In a.

In a sort of castle, a chateau in.

Near Carcassonne.

And it's not for the summer.

It's to get away from the rain in the Irish winter.

Well, exactly, yeah.

I mean, it does rain a lot in Ireland, doesn't it?

I mean, it's like the emerald oil, because it bloody pisses down all the time.

Yeah, yeah.

And if you look close, the green is actually lichen.

It's not shamrocks at all.

Oh.

Now look, Tom, you must have done.

I know you have done a lot of touring, you know, I mean, we're.

Asking about a favorite song all right.

Oh, yeah, it was.

Yeah, you're right.

I think, I think one of my.

It's songs.

I am thrilled when people like my songs, thrilled when people record my songs, but I'm most thrilled when people sing my songs or join in on my songs.

And so apropos as a child listening to Children's Hour and I talk about Andy Vai and.

And nobody, I'm so old now, nobody remembers who Auntie Vi was.

And I say, it's Violet Carson.

And they say, oh, Ena Sharples.

I said, no, Auntie Vi.

Because Violet Carson had a whole radio career before she was ever tapped for Coronation street.

And she used to play the piano and sing on BBC Home Service before.

She was drinking milk stout in the Rovers Return with a hairnet on.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That was the second.

That was the second career.

So.

So I. I wrote a song about my affinity for the.

For the.

For the non visual world of radio, which.

I mean, I watch lots of videos, yes, I do that, but give you much room for your imagination to fill the gaps.

Whereas that's all radio does is just stir your imagination for you then to fill in the spaces.

So I wrote this song called Radio Times, which I have to explain to American audiences that Radio Times is an iconic program.

Schedule Magazine, I think it still is.

And yeah, it is, yeah.

But we listened to the radio when we were girls and boys Our mums and dads said modern tunes was not but dreadful noise still we kept the wireless on to hear our favorite songs we learned the words as best we could and then we sang along with Bill Haley and the Comet Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee, Gene Vincent, Buddy Holly and the Brothers Everly they showed us new horizons opened up a brand new world and the Beach Boys introduced us all to California girls.

So join us in the song Raise your voice and sing along like our ancestors before us when it comes round to the chorus find the key of harmony and join us in the song.

Love it.

You see, and I tried it.

What I was actually doing was tracing in lyric my.

My journey from an 8 year old kid listening to the radio to doing what I do.

And I've realized throughout all this past 40 or 50 years that life is nothing but a series of connected accidents.

We call it life, but it's all these little things that you're not planning and they take you to the next thing you're not planning, which Lyn knows now.

I'm going to.

I joined the Navy in May 1959 and on the second day there we were sitting in this lecture hall about me and 100 of my entry into HMS Fisker in Tor Point in Cornwall.

And a very imposing gentleman came onto the stage and waited until full silence was there and then said, a plan.

We all sort of bounced back in our chairs.

A plan is a basis for orderly change.

I put my life by that.

Oh, right now, Tom, I mean, you're known for your touring, for appearing here, there and everywhere.

I. I've often wondered, you know, how do you get from place to place?

I mean, where do you live and where do you stay?

Do you get digs, hotel or, or what, you know.

Well, of course I started doing this in North America.

We were living up in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia in a tiny little community, literally scores of miles from anywhere.

And when I.

Actually, Lyn and I decided to step off the edge of the earth and we bought an old camper van and it took me four days to drive to the first gig.

Gee.

Which was in the Pursuit of Happiness Cafe in Liberty, New York, up in the Catskills.

Yeah.

And we slept in the van that night while it was snowing in the car park of the cafe while it was snowing outside.

And we made $25 and a few drinks and fish and chips and we sold one cassette.

And the next night we were paid $25.

We didn't get any.

Any food or drink and we sold one cassette.

By which time Lynn was thinking I left a unionized job with good benefits for the best.

Yeah.

A good pension.

But luckily the third night was the charm and it all.

It all picked up.

But so there when we were there, when we were touring, it was great.

We loved being in the camper van in our own space.

That was it.

We had the walls around us.

We were totally self sufficient.

We could cook meals, we could make tea or coffee.

We could.

We could sleep.

Yeah.

And you, you know, you were sort of thrown physically together, which isn't a bad thing, is it really, Tom?

No, no.

But.

But there again, a lot of our friends find it quite strange that we do absolutely everything together.

We're, you know that they go off and have sort of girls weekends and boys weekends and.

Sounds to me, obviously she's the love of your life, really.

Well, she is this.

Yeah.

She's made my life.

If my life needed to be saved, she saved it.

But she's made it possible to be what it is.

She's given me her permission and her cooperation and her assistance and her pushing.

He's got a lot of other questions.

She says she's been shy now.

So all our touring was in North America.

Well, 90% of it.

Sometimes she had to fly places and stay in hotels and things like that, but all of it was campervan stuff.

But in the uk, living even for a few days at a time in a campervan on the road is not much of an option.

So we've slept in very gracious people's lovely spare rooms, which in France, by the way, it's not called a spare room, it's a Chambre des amis.

Oh, a room of friends.

Friends.

Room.

Friends.

Yeah.

Yeah, I did it.

I did it.

Which we love.

And we've slept literally on floors.

We've slept on bunk beds, and I don't think we've ever actually slept on us a tea.

Except the bed settees.

But.

But lately, I have to say, people, probably because of my terribly advanced years, a lot of.

A lot of gigs are finding hotel rooms for us, which is very, very nice.

Although, you see that.

That leaves.

I'm getting now into social politics here.

Anybody who thinks that people who are given hotels to live in are living the life of Riley has never lived in a hotel.

It is awful.

It's better than sleeping on the street.

Yes, but hotel rooms are not designed for people to live in, only in desperate circumstances.

And migrants and refugees are in desperate circumstances.

Absolutely.

Just.

It's just getting people riled up by saying, oh, they're living off the fat of the land in the.

In.

In luxury hotel rooms.

No, they're not.

All right, I'm gonna stop now.

No, you're right.

You're right, Tom.

I mean, thank you for saying that, because that's important thing to say.

All right.

Have you got any sort of hobbies or interests outside of music?

No, I'm boring, honestly, you know.

Yes, I have a hobby.

It's music.

It's songs.

That's my.

That's my hobby.

I got an interest.

Yeah.

Yes.

Music and songs.

I've got an interest in that.

Yeah.

I mean, how lucky can you be when.

When whoever, you know, maybe it's some big old bearded guy in the sky have decided that I can.

I can keep myself and.

And.

And my.

My.

The love of my life from.

From becoming homeless by doing something that I love and that I'm not bad at, you know, it's.

Yeah, you're right.

I mean, poor.

I mean, when I look at people that have to go to jobs that they hate, I think, oh, God, that's true.

Day in, day out, day in, day.

Out, you know, I Mean, when I went to Canada, I didn't go to Canada to do this, went to Canada to be in Canada.

But in order to do that, you've got to actually make some compromises.

And we actually bought a small light engineering welding machining shop.

But the trouble was it was in the middle of nowhere and there was no light engineering, welding or machining required.

Yeah, a better businessman I am not.

And really what we call the universe, and you're welcome to call it God or whatever, reached down and said, well, I tell you what, you could go around and make people happy by singing to them and they'll give you a bit of money.

It won't be much, it'll keep the wolf from the door.

And that seemed like, well, you know.

Tom, what I say to you, you know, is you've got a gift and I believe it's a God given gift and you've made the most of it throughout your life and you're continuing to do so.

But anyway, it's getting a bit serious, isn't it?

So.

All right, now what about your, your fans?

Because I'm one of them and there's loads of them out there.

Have you got any sort of memories of a significant interaction you ever had with a fan?

Okay, well, I'm going to give you a generalized thing and then I'm going to give you a specific thing.

All right.

Generally I love hearing from people.

It's.

Nowadays it's very often on, on email, sometimes Facebook, which I, I'm dreadful at Facebook because I've really got interest in it.

But what I really like is I now get families, I get three generations of families getting in touch with me and they've all got stories and some of the stories are 40 years old and some of the stories are a couple of weeks old and I love it.

The fact that I've managed to, to reach out, I'm not saying many, you know, a few dozen, a few score of families have me in their family background and my songs in their family background and they sing them on car trips and they tell me all about that.

That's wonderful.

That brings me so much pleasure.

That is just as much income as a festival paying you a few hundred quid.

However, there was one time I had a tour arranged for me up in the Northwest Territories and the Yukon and the Alaska Panhandle.

I mean, I mean, who, who, what sort of job am I going to get that takes me there?

I mean you could, you could start taking those apart and find that they're stitched together.

With the word adventure.

It's great.

So I was actually, I came back off this trip and Lyn couldn't go with me on that one.

And I was telling her all about it, and it was great.

Just all those strange communities outlying.

So I was back, and about two weeks after I got back, we went down to the post office to collect our mail.

I told you, we lived almost literally in the middle of nowhere.

Went down to the post office, collected our mail, and there was an American stamp with Juneau, Alaska on it.

And Juneau's the capital of Alaska.

It's still quite a small town.

And I opened it and there was this letter.

And it came from a woman that I had never met, but she had been to.

She had, for some reason, come along to my concert.

And what she said in the letter was that she had never met her father because her mother and her father split up when she was very young.

And all her knowledge of her father was from her mother.

When she came along to my concert and hearing the stories and the songs I was singing, she suddenly got this idea, maybe I don't know everything.

So she had tracked her father down, not having been in touch with him for, I think, over 20 years.

And she signed off, said, so I'm going to meet my dad next week.

Wish me luck.

And to think that, to think you'd have that sort of influence on somebody's life, hopefully for the good.

That's, you know, thank you very much.

Whoever, Whoever did that.

Yeah.

Blimey, Tom, that's a, that's a hell of a story.

That's very, very moving.

Yeah, well, you know, so, you know, there's, I'll never know she didn't get in touch again.

I'll never know what happened.

I'm certainly hopeful that she'll be.

That maybe it led to something good in her life.

But there's that and then there's hearing from the parents and grandparents of kids and people do bring grandchildren to my gigs, introduce me.

That must be so brilliant.

It goes on.

I mean, the thing is, Tom, I guess, I mean, the songs that you've written, and they're gonna go on, aren't they?

You know, when you and I, when you and I have, when you and I have shuffled off this mortal coil, your songs will still be sung.

They will.

You know, I, I, I don't think.

Please forgive me in my, as far as I can work out, when I shuffled off, then as far.

It may not be the end, I don't know.

But I'm prepared for it to be the end.

But to have somebody after you've gone singing your songs, that's immortality enough for me.

That's the.

The hope.

Reminds me of a song you wrote, actually.

The Song Goes on, is it?

Or something like that.

I didn't write that.

No, that wasn't you.

Oh, right.

That was Mick Ryan.

Mick Ryan, actually, He's of Irish stock and he lives actually in the same street that Lynn was living in when I met her down in.

And he was on his way.

He was being driven by his.

Then by Pete Harris up to Cecil Sharp House for a day of memorial for Cyril.

Tony, he was in the car with Paul Downs.

And so he took a piece of paper and he scribbled down these words and sang it for the first time at this concert called Remembering Cyril.

And that is it.

For the song goes on in the songs we sing.

And when one song ends, then another song begins.

For the singers who are gone will be singing once again when we sing the songs they sang.

Oh, I mean.

I mean, yeah, A little work of genius thrown off in a car.

And the Polish guys that I don't sing with enough, but I love them dearly.

There's five of them, they're great singers and players.

In Stetson in Poland, they heard that and they just.

We've got to sing this.

We've got to sing this.

I mean, they, they.

I think they love their shanties in Poland, don't they?

I mean, I don't know what it is, but you.

You scratch.

You scratch a Pole and you.

And you get Joseph Conrad.

They.

They love Joseph Conrad.

They.

They think he's the greatest national hero ever.

You know, as a.

Oh, I'd love to go over there.

I mean, I'm sure they must have shanty festivals over there.

Be lovely to go over with the Port of Bristol Shanty Crew.

Definitely, though.

I had a guy.

Sorry, Tom, I'm not gonna.

No, no, come on.

I had a guy knocked on my door the other day.

Deliver.

He was a delivery man delivering something from Amazon or whatever.

And I had my Porter Bristol Shiny Polo on.

And he goes, oh, Porter Bristol Shani Crew.

And he was Polish.

He said, I've heard you, I've been to your concerts.

Brilliant, brilliant.

I thought, wow, he's Polish and he knows all the shanties.

You know, he loves all the shanties.

It's so ingrained in.

Ingrained into their culture.

And it's.

It's quite.

It's quite new.

The.

It's only in the past sort of 50 years that this Happened.

But it's no multi lineup concert in Poland now is.

Is complete without at least two shanty groups really.

They'll have people rapping, they'll have people, they're doing all sorts of things.

But.

But they've got to have a shanty group.

Here's a nice story and I know because you like Johnny Collins, you'll like.

I Do, I do.

On.

On the day before Johnny shuffled off.

Yeah.

He and Jim McGeehan were in not Stitching, I've forgotten where it is.

On the Baltic.

They were in Gdansk and they spent the afternoon on a sailing ship out on the Baltic and Johnny and Jim were singing and then they went back to the hotel, got changed and were taken to the Seamen's Club in gdask.

And Johnny and Jim did a great concert there that night.

And when they'd finished, they came out and they stood on the steps with the guy who was.

Who had organized the whole thing.

So there's just three of them there.

And they flagged down a taxi.

The taxi came screaming into the curb and they got in and they gave them the name of the hotel.

And so off they go across the city of Gdansk and they're chatting, they're chatting there.

And the taxi driver heard him talking in English.

So he said to them, he said, what are you doing here in Gdansk?

And Johnny said, well, he was probably actually his host who said, well, we've been doing a sea shanty concert in the Seamen's Club.

And the guy, the taxi driver, suddenly, just without intention, is a damn tough life full of.

So the four of them.

Johnny had less than 12 hours left on the planet and he's in a taxi with two Polish guys and his best friend and they're singing, rolling down, going across.

You couldn't make it up.

I mean, that is brilliant.

The whole interview was worth it for that.

That is such a. Oh, moving.

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.

Oh, God, I'm quite moved by that actually.

Yeah.

It's nice to think that.

That Johnny enjoyed it right to the end.

Yeah.

Yeah.

None of us can ask for more.

You couldn't have written that, could you?

I mean, what.

Oh, anyway, sorry, I'm getting a bit emotional now.

Right.

But what do you feel about.

You mentioned it in a sense, but how do you feel about people like myself who are sort of like, just have a go, singing your songs?

Are you sort of okay about all that, you know?

Absolutely, absolutely I am.

Yeah.

I'd rather somebody.

And this is not, not apropos you or anyone, I would rather someone was Singing one of my songs badly than not singing it at all.

I've got a.

Here you go.

Here's another little story.

The first time that I went into a recording studio and it's very makeshift recording studio in Port.

Lost it.

Port Orchard near Seattle.

And we just got this motley crowd together and we just sung Last Shanty.

That was just very first recording of it.

And my good friend, sadly departed, Steve Lawlor, who's been around the music business for years, and he had been singing on it, but he was keeping me on track because I didn't know what to do in a recording studio and Steve was taking care of business.

And we got three good takes.

And he said, Tom, Rob Folsom, whose studio it was, was a coffee addict.

And he had the greatest, greatest coffee, freshly ground coffee, and was having a cup of coffee.

And Steve Lawlor said to me, said, tom, don't ask me to explain it, but that song is going to take you places and it's going to go places that you couldn't even imagine.

I said, what do you mean?

He said, I don't know what it is.

He said, but I've been around a while.

That song has the indefinable factor.

He said, it's going to go around.

He said, but I have to warn you.

Yeah, he said, I have to warn you.

You won't always like the clothes your children wear.

What did he mean by that, Tom?

He meant that people would take that song and put it in places I didn't expect.

Yeah.

And I wouldn't always.

And I wouldn't always like it.

And, you know, and 95% of the time he's been wrong.

A lot of people have actions that they use to.

That we do.

And it always.

I just want to go, oh, no.

And yet I'd much rather people were singing that song and using whatever actions they want.

Want.

As long as they're fit for.

Fit for children.

We sing that song and the audience, they.

They love the.

They love the actions.

Though.

That's what I'm saying.

Everybody.

Everybody's got their own.

Their own take on this and that.

That was what Steve was saying.

He's saying, you won't always like the clothes your children wear.

And I mean, that's.

That's a family saying.

No, that is a good one.

That's a good one, actually.

That's a. Yeah, that's worth taking on board, that one.

All right, we're getting towards the end now, Tom.

If you could have dinner with every.

With a musician, living or dead.

I was hoping you weren't going to.

Get to this one because I, I looked at that one on your list.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And.

And that was the one that I couldn't figure out an answer to.

Oh, all right.

I'm gonna say.

Yeah.

Very, very weird here.

Billy Joel.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Songs.

I love his performance.

Yeah.

I love his passion that he puts it, puts into those things.

His songwriting is out of this world.

Yeah.

It's just.

Wow.

And just recently there's been a three part bio documentary.

Documentary on the Internet or on some television thing somewhere.

And it is incredible for the fact there's so little music in it.

They, they will do half a verse of one song and then referencing that and talking about.

I saw him, you know, I, I saw him at the Glastonbury Festival, really, a few years ago, and he held the audience in his hands.

All right.

And these are not just people my age.

These are people like a third of my age.

And they were mesmerized and they knew all the words.

I mean, these are people.

19, 20, 21, 22.

Yeah, he's.

He's something special.

Whenever, whenever we're leaving a gig and, and get in.

In North America especially, and driving our camper van somewhere, we would always play rock and roll.

Yeah.

With the, with the.

You know, it's midnight, one o' clock in the morning and we're just going along the freeways.

And Billy Joel was often.

Queen was there.

Billy Joel was there.

And one that would just really hit us, where we lived is home can.

Be the Pennsylvania Turnpike Indiana's early morning Too high up in the hills of California Home is just another word for you.

Yes.

Oh, I remember.

That's a good.

All right, we're gonna have to wrap it up soon.

I could talk to you for hours, Tom.

What's.

What.

What's the best piece of advice you could give to people that are following after you?

You know, people that.

Not quite like myself, but people that love the sea.

We love singing about the sea and all that, and they feel they want to sort of contribute in their own way to that tradition, then do.

Do whatever they feel like doing.

But here is my caveat.

Please, please, please.

Hear the song.

Love the song, learn the song, then sing the song.

I think that wraps it up.

Tom, you're a star, mate.

Derek Gifford has just left us.

I don't know if you know Derek.

I didn't know Derek.

Three Sheets to the Wind was.

But, but he was a great solo performer and, and he's just left us Cut.

Cut us off.

Whenever.

Whenever you.

Whenever you do.

This is.

This is for Derek.

Okay.

Come on.

May the road rise up to meet you?

May the wind ever be at your back?

May you find old friends waiting to greet you There on the outside track.

We're gathered together old times to remember?

Tis but for ourselves we would grieve so we'll sing you a chorus and bid you farewell?

Fair winds and the following sea?

We'll sing all the leaf and a parting glass?

We'll raise up our voices in song?

No sadness today for the one who has passed.

Celebrate with a voice glad and strong.

A catch in the throat, a tear in the eye?

But no funeral dirge will this be.

We'll roar auld lang syne as a victory song.

Fair winds and the following sea?

And those of us left here will miss a true friend who shared with us good times and bad?

Raising a glass to your memory will say We've known you why should we be sad?

We honor a life that was lived to the full?

We honor a spirit now free.

You'll all be remembered whenever we say Fair winds and the fallen sea.

You'll all be remembered whenever we say Fair winds and the following sea.

Can't do much better than that.

Thank you.

It's been an absolute privilege.

I'll tell you what, Tom, I was very nervous before this because I've never interviewed anyone in my life.

Really?

I thought you were the interviewer.

You.

You made it.

Well, I'll never forget it, mate.

It's been a privilege.

Thank you so much.

Well, thank you, chaps.

What a great interview.

Really insightful to hear.

Kind of what makes the inner workings of Tom Lewis.

It was really just a joy to hear some of the songs that Tom Lewis sang.

Didn't expect that at all.

And it was just a joy to even be part of that interview.

So thank you, Tom, for talking to us and please do continue to be a lifelong friend of ours at the Port of Rittle Shanty Crew.

Now, listeners, if you are keen to hear more about Tom Lewis, then I will include his website within the show notes.

That's the best place to go to to find out where he's playing next.

He literally travels around the world and so you never know where he's going to be.

But his website has all of that information on board.

So that's it for this month and I hope you really enjoyed it.

If you did, then please do leave a review either on your podcast app or on the website that you're listening to right now.

We really do appreciate any feedback on what this episode did for you and anything you'd like us to do in the future.

I've got plenty of stuff that we'd love to do, but if you there is something you would like, then please do of course let us know.

And of course do pop over to our website, pobshantecrew.co.uk where you can donate to the Teenage Cancer Trust.

But also you can also access our wonderful merchandise.

We now have over 30 different designs of T shirts that all play on the different shanty songs that we sing.

So if you're looking for something to give for Christmas or even for yourself, then do please head over to that website now.

So that's it for this month.

Thank you for listening.

Fair winds and following seas and we welcome you back next month.

Ship shape and Bristol fashion boys along the harbor side from Avon Gorge.

Two under four will even haul the line Secure the barrels down below Wind em tie and lash em this vessel she is certifying Ship shape and Bristol fashion so haul away me laddy boys Haul away you're free Haul away me li boys and save a drink for me Haul away me laddie boys Haul away your free Haul away me laddy boys and save a drink for me.