Hastings Shanty Singers

It all started in another pub in 2009, a Pirate Day after party with some shanty singing. The Stag isn’t a big pub, but it, and the garden were rammed full of pirates getting a little grumpy as there’s no shanty man. There’s this tall bloke sitting on a bench, with his wife, neither dressed as pirates, and neither had any idea what was going on. Jeanette, the lady wife, piped up that her husband, the tall bloke, knew some shanty’s and would they mind if he sung? The answer was a resounding yes. He started singing, and what a voice, it also turned out he knew an awful lot of shanty’s and had once sung them on a semi professional basis. Now in, what he thought was going to be, retirement Tom Kelly was rediscovered and put to task.

A hasty discussion ensued and we asked Tom if he would be interested in leading a shanty session at the pub? He said yes and thus the Hastings Shanty Sessions first came into being. The first session saw about 40 people in attendance and this settled down to a hardcore of regulars. Under Tom’s guidance we all learnt some songs, then learnt how to sing them and eventually we all found songs we knew, and which mainly suited our voices.

We formed the Hastings Shanty Singers group, 11 strong at the beginning, practiced every Friday, as well as singing on Thursday nights. We sang at many events and were good, considering that Tom was the only one with any experience.

Tom Kelly, Jon Tigwell, Mick Bovey and Scot Reid left HSS to form RX Shanty and went on to become a successful group.

HSS slowly dwindled, and then folded.