History of the Group: Hi, my name is Phil, I live in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, UK. I am the founder of the shanty group, ‘Letchworth on Sea Shanty Group’. The story of the group goes back further than its actual formation. It was probably over 20 years ago I made a day visit to the Broadstairs Folk Festival. Looking through the program of music for the day, I noticed one entitled, ‘Shanties at the Jetty’. It caught my eye and I thought lets go to this Jetty and see what it’s all about. I had obviously heard Sea Shanties before, but to me it was always a bit niche; after all I was a child of the 1960’s and was brought up on The Beatles, Elvis and hundreds of other musicians. At the Jetty a crowd was gathering, no signs of anyone going to sing anything. Eventually these heavily bearded guys turned up and started singing shanty songs. What amazed me I was soon joining in and so was everyone else. We all had a fabulous time. I had no idea what the songs were about, but they were so easy to learn and enjoy. I always remember that moment. It was electric. All these people singing together; it was truly amazing. We returned again the following year, to the same ‘Shanties at the Jetty’. This time it was even more atmospheric, as waves were crashing over the sea walls!! So there it was. It was years later that on a holiday visit to Weston Super Mare. I parked my car and could hear singing from a local pub. They had the ‘Barnacle Buoys’. And once again we all joined in singing the chorus of each song. So it with that in mind I made a visit to the Brancaster Staithe Sea Shanty festival in 2023 for the day. It was fantastic. I loved it. I came away thinking, I am not likely to be singing these songs for another year until the festival returns in 2024!! It was then I decided to do something about it!!

It was in the early part of 2024 I started to think; how can I get a group together myself? Luckily Letchworth has a superb organisation called the Letchworth Arts and Leisure Group. It encourages people to set up groups of their own. It regularly keeps its members informed via a Newsletter and Website of all the groups available; what they do, where and when they run. I was already a member of a couple of its groups, including a Ukulele Group; which has grown to over 70 members! So I soon found a venue, they advertised my group letting people know when it was on. I started to get enquiries, which was promising. The first meeting in June 2024 I sat there and thought is anyone going to turn up? At the first meeting we had 13 and at the next nearly 30. The singing was sounding good. I spent a lot of time working on the songs sheets to hand out. Finding most shanty songs had varying lyrics. I decided early I would choose a shanty I would introduce to the group. I would play that shanty at the meetings and hand out the exact same lyrics. We would start out trying the new songs with the song playing and we just sang along. Then we would sing it ourselves. Initially I always took the lead or shanty man role. But soon others wanted to give it a try. Confidence in the group gradually increased and by December we were ready for our first gig.

Since our first gig we have gone on to do more. See Gigs page. We have a song list of over 30 songs. See Download lyrics page. We have regular practice sessions and keep in touch by our very own WhatsApp group. We have a Facebook group page and a YouTube channel of some of our recordings and videos. We are a very friendly group and welcome new members.

Wherever we have performed I found people love singing along. That magic that was created at the Broadstairs Folk Festival all those years ago is now recreated locally where I live. It’s brilliant!!