Jack Forbes

Jack Forbes was a member of the Hoy Shanty Crew and Slow Loris. Jack passed away on January 30, 2016.  He was the author of the much-covered modern maritime song, Rolling Down the River, which he wrote for a BBC radio ballad, Wind Over Tilbury, about the switch from the old labour-intensive London docks to mechanised container ports and the upheaval it caused. [Some text compiled from The London Sea Shanty Collective.]

Jack Forbes was a stalwart of the club and had been involved with music in and around Southend for decades, as a performer, promoter, song writer and spectator. He has written many, many songs, often with a local flavour, covering the cockle industry in Leigh, Kent and Essex bargemen, the Old Leigh Regatta, and pleasure trips to Southend. He was half of the duo Piertalk with Chris Jones, a member of The Shanty Crew, he played with Slow Loris and had two stand alone shows with them, and many collections of songs and stories, including “Rolling Down the River” and “Down the Hill to The Old Town”. The former contains the song people don’t realise somebody sat down to write, “Rolling Down the River” itself, a rousing shanty about a trip to Tilbury with the OCL. You can find dozens of different versions on YouTube.

His Leigh-on-Sea and Essex credentials are impeccable, but he was born in Scotland. [From Essex Sounds, 3 July 2016]

The Echo features a kind tribute to him.