Shanty Jack

For the past three decades, no maritime or shanty festival in the U.K. or Europe has been complete without the appearance of Pete ‘Shanty Jack’ Hayselden. A Yorkshireman by birth, he has been working for nearly 30 years in tugs on the Humber. He used to be a keen yachtsman, but nowadays he has no time for that as music has taken over. Nevertheless, it is his intention to get his own boat finished so that he can spend retirement sailing from festival to festival to visit all the multitude of friends on the ‘shanty scene’…Well he can dream!

Jack has not only appeared at various festivals throughout the UK and Europe, he has been responsible for establishing the Hull Sea Fever Festival and regarded by many as the premier U.K. festival.

As well as appearing as a solo artist, Jack has joined with local friends, Paul Gough and Robin Garside to form the trio, Monkey’s Orphan.’ In the Royal Navy in the 19th century, monkey’s orphan was the name of the ship’s fiddler, who performed the same function in the Navy as the shantyman in merchant ships.

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