One of the highlights of our year is always the Falmouth
Festival, and 2012 was no exception.
We were slightly short-handed this year with Bruce, Carol
and Mike away doing what Tars do best-sailing their boats! But with the five voices of Clive, Robin, Peter, Ian and
Rob and Jane and Beth supporting us on guitar, fiddle and whistle we put on a
good show which was well received.
Another difference in 2012 was that we did all three of
our sets on the one day (Saturday 16th June).That left us with
plenty of free time over the weekend to use our free beer vouchers, to be
tourists and to enjoy the other performers.
We opened on the Custom House Quay stage at lunchtime and
immediately afterwards Peter and Clive found themselves being interviewed for a
live broadcast by BBC Radio Cornwall. The interview was closed with a rendition
of the “Farewell Shanty”-it seemed the right thing to do at the time!
Later that afternoon we were back on stage at the Events
Square (outside the National Maritime Museum). The weather had been threatening
all day and our opening number coincided with the heavens opening-but that soon
passed and the audience stayed, and even grew. In the audience was Hughie Jones
who was with The Spinners for many years and who was performing at the Festival
this year. He was gracious enough to smile his way through our renditions of
two of the many songs he wrote: “Ellan Vannin” and “Whip Jamboree”.
We were allowed in from the cold with our final set in
the evening, in the warmth of the “Five Degrees West” pub. We had chosen some
different material for this indoor set, including some numbers new to us and
our audience. This produced another pleasant surprise- a couple of the guys
from “Fishermen’s Friends” were listening (and joining in at times) and they
made a point of saying how much they had enjoyed the set afterwards. They
particularly liked the fact that our material is so varied and goes beyond the
core of traditional shanties. Perhaps they are jealous? Perhaps their contract
requires them to sing “South Australia” every time they appear in public?
Poor things!
So a great time was had by all. Roll on 2013.
photo courtesy of Pete Langford
photo courtesy of Pete Langford
photo courtesy of Pete Langford
