December Shanty Session Report
As I was away for this session I asked for a member of the group to write this month session report. Many thanks to Leigh.

Chris Hare came along for the evening which was a nice surprise.  He talked to us about he song he has recently learnt which has many verses. He sang a few of them for us 'Goodbye, Fare Thee Well'.



Emily taught us a new round 'To Portsmouth!' from Ravenscroft's Pammelia 1609

To Portsmouth, to Portsmouth, it is a gallant town!

And there we will have a quart of wine,

With a nutmeg brown diddle down.

The gallant ship the Mermaid, the Lion hanging stout,

Will make us to spend there our sixteen pence all out!

 I passed round the marlinspike for everyone to hold. It is surprisingly heavy and would be handy for repelling all boarders as well as splicing rope. I waved it aloft at the appropriate moment of the chorus when we sang Old Fid.

 As we are so near to Christmas the evening ended with some carols  - Sweet Chiming Bells, Pentonville and Hark the Herald. As we had sung our two different versions of While Shepherds Watched, I suggested we also sang the "On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at" version. To our surprise Emily had never heard of 'On Ilkley Moor' - she must be too young! - so we sang a her a bit of that too and the evening ended in jollity and disarray.

SEA SHANTY CONCERT, ST MARY DE HAURA CHURCH, SHOREHAM-BY-SEA
Saturday 25th January 2020

This unique event at the wonderful St Mary de Haura Church in Shoreham-by-Sea, with its great acoustics, showcases three key Sea Shanty Groups from West Sussex, seen for the first time at the same venue. Admission is free! The performers are: The Secret Shore Singers, The Duck Pond Sailors, and The Wellington Wailers! The event is not only an opportunity to raise your voices and raise the roof of this iconic building, it also provides an opportunity to collect for two very fine and worthy charities: ‘Olly’s Future’, A charity supporting suicide prevention initiatives and training and The R N L I Lifeboats! There is also a ‘possibility’ that more informal singing may ‘breakout’ after the formal event, as the groups take refreshment in one or two of the fine hostelries in Shoreham-by-Sea!

2020 Shanty Session Dates

First two of 2020 Shanty Sessions programmed into the diary. January is on 21st and February is on the 11th. Dates added to the diary. Both sessions are at the Ye Olde House at Home commencing at 8pm.

Portsmouth Dockyard Victorian Christmas Festival

Portsmouth Dockyard Victorian Christmas Festival 30th November
A great day out at Portsmouth Victorian Christmas for Secret Shore Singers. The day was bright and chilly but it did not let the singing spirits drop. 3 performances took place onboard HMS Warrior in the Rope Deck from 11:15 to 14:20 with intervals between to ensure the festive spirit happening around the Dockyard. The final set of the day took place in the Queen Victoria Pub; a pop up pub is the shadows of HMS Victory. A quick adjustment on the selection of songs to ensure the large audience(150+) could lose themselves in the wonderful sound coming from the stage. A great day out enjoyed by singers and punters alike.

Extra October Shanty Session

Extra October Shanty Session 26th October
This evening we concentrated on perfecting the shanties we will be singing at the Portsmouth Dockyard Victorian Christmas Festival this Saturday.

First up was Roll the Old Chariots sung with our usual gusto but a bit quicker.  Next was Randy Dandy-o with special emphasis on getting the harmonies right. Then we moved on to the Mermaid which we will all sing on Saturday rather than solo men on the verses. Before the break we did Mollymawk, Here’s a Health and Bonny Ship the Diamond.

After the break we stormed through Haul Away Joe and Spanish Ladies. Then slightly adapted Sweet Ladies of Plymouth, renamed Sweet Ladies of Portsmouth and somewhat abridged for Saturday’s performance, was run through.  We finished off, as we seem now always to do, with Time to Go Now.

Portsmouth Dockyard Victorian Christmas Festival

The timings and locations for the Dockyard Performances are now on the diary page. Please ensure that you give yourself plenty of time to prepare for the performance; 10 minutes before the performance ready to sing is suggested.

Access to the Dockyard will be via Victory Gate (nearest gate entrance to Portsmouth Harbour Station). On arrive announce which group you are with and they will check your name off. You will require photo ID for proof of free entry.

Please dress appropriate to the weather but consider the theme of the event Victorian,Christmans or Sailors, its up to you.

Songs Sets are as follows

Warrior Performance 1

Roll the Old Chariot

Spanish Ladies

Haul Away Joe

Mollymawk

Randy Dandy-O

Warrior Performance 2

John Kanaka

Littlehampton Collier Lads

The Mermaid

Bonnie Ship the Diamond

Its Time to Go Now

Warrior Performance 3

Roll the Old Chariot (or Here's a Health)

Haul Away Joe

Mollymawk

Randy Dandy-O

Its Time to Go Now

Queen Vic Pub

John Kanaka

Littlehampton Collier Lad

The Mermaid

Sweet Ladies of Portsmouth (Plymouth)

Bonnie Ship the Diamond

Please note that these songs may change depending on how practice session goes on Tuesday, hopefully they won't though.

Worthing Sailing Club Shanty Workshop

On a cold and wet evening we all ventured out to support Emily in providing a Shanty Workshop to Worthing Sailing Club this Thursday. The weather did not deter club members and around 35 people turned up, including a few from the Secret Shore team to support the well received event. A number of songs were taught during the 2 hour workshop, including 'Roll the Old Chariot', 'John Kanaka', 'Mingulay Boat Song' and 'It's Time to Go Now'. All of the songs sung with great gusto and enthusiasm. Emily's ability to get a group who have never sung these songs together and by the end of the night produce such a great sound never ceases to amaze us all. The end of the evening was finished with the whole group standing around in a circle and singing to each other. What a brilliant evening; let's do it again sometime.
So people of Worthing when you are next passing the Sailing Club don't be surprised if you hear voices singing from the rigging; you now know the reason why !!

Victorian Christmas Festival - Portsmouth Dockyard

The attendance list is now closed. Details regarding the event will be provided at sessions on 20th and 26th at YOHAH. This is to encourage members to attend the practice sessions prior to the Dockyard Festival on 30th November.

Extra Session for November

As we have this lovely sing at Portsmouth coming up and as last meet up was the first we've had for a fair while, an extra practice session has been planned so we can feel a bit readier for the 30th!

Due to availability of the practice venue we have arranged an additional date. It isn't a Tues, as there are darts on the evenings. We have therefore gone for the following day so, it is on Weds the 20th Nov instead.

 We do hope that's ok for most of us, many apologies to anyone for whom it doesn't work.

 So our next gatherings are:

Weds 20th Nov

Tues 26th Nov

 And then Portsmouth on the 30th.

 Final details for times of sets are being planned at the mo.

What we do know is that there will probably be 4 sets, all on the Warrior, of about 15/20 minutes in length.

Worthing Sailing Club Shanty session.
On Thursday 14th November Worthing Sailing Club will be having a Shanty Session hosted by Emily. Though not a planned SSS event we have been invited along. This is a free event and will be hosted in the clubhouse. Event will commence at 7 45pm.

Southdown's Folk Festival
Another Festival successfully completed, this time at the Southdown's Folk Festival in Bognor Regis on Saturday 21st September. The Secret Shore were joined by 6 other groups singing throughout the day. Other Shanty groups from the local area included the Duck Pond Sailors and the Selsey Shanty Men. Individual singing sessions took place at the Southern Precinct end of London Road which were well received by visitors to the Festival. At the end of the day a Mass 'Big Sing' event took place involving 7 singing groups who performed their own individual songs and then two groups songs to finish off with.

September Shanty Practice Session

Seventeen of us gathered to sing on Tuesday. Not so many as usual, which may have been just as well since Emily had again kindly invited us to practice at their place, the Old House at Home being unavailable.

We ran through some of the more recent songs, Randy Dandy, Old Fid, Bold Riley, The Mermaid, MollyMawk and Northwest Passage. It was decided to try Bold Riley with the men singing the verses and women joining in the refrains. This seemed to work quite well.

After a break for refreshments which included a delicious toffee apple tray bake and home grown grapes – and feeling by now extremely relaxed - we sang MollyMawk very quietly and gently.  Before singing The Grey Funnel Line ourselves, we listened to a quick burst of the song on YouTube, as performed by Maddie Prior and June Tabor and an interesting version with the unmistakable voice of Dolly Parton with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris! We ended the evening with the beautiful Mingulay Boat Song.
Thanks to Emily, Jonny and the girls for allowing us to invade their home again.

Worthing Light Festival
Another local event supported by a good number of performers from Secret Shore. The Worthing Light Festival took place over the weekend of the 13th/14th/15th September with a day of performances by different groups outside of the Coast Café. Though not the most conducive location for singing the 17 performers who turned out gave their all which was well received by the organisers. We must had been ok as they have already asked as back next year. Discussions will take place how to improve the singing location though. A big thanks to local photographer SOPHIE HOLDEN for supplying us with and giving permission to post the wonderful photographs of us singing in support of the event. Check out the Gallery pictures.

Southdowns Festival

For the set for this Sat we'll use the one we did at Littlehampton, I think it contains all the ones we feel are currently our easiest and strongest ones.

So the list will be:

Sweet Ladies

Roll the Old Chariot

Rollin Down

Mingulay

Littlehampton Colliers

John Kanaka

The Bonny Ship the Diamond

Here's a Health

It's Time to Go Now

We're singing in the South Precinct, 1.30pm til 2.15pm so lets gather there a bit after 2.

The next event is the Worthing Light Festival. We will be performing from 2:30pm on Saturday 14th September. The aim is to meet up at Splash Point at 2:15pm. We will decide on the songs/shanties prior to our performance.

Newhaven Maritime Festival

Newhaven Maritime Festival
A great day at Newhaven Maritime Festival supporting the Shanty Workshop provided by Emily Longhurst at the RNLI Headquarters in Newhaven. The day started with a 3 hour workshop for 50 participants learning 6 sea songs and shanties. The roaring sounds of the songs echoed across Newhaven Harbour. In the afternoon the session started with the workshop participants being joined with further members of the Secret Shore group going through all the songs from the morning session. Afterwards the Secret Shore provided a further set of songs/shanties to finish off the afternoon. A great time had by all.

Littlehampon Waterfront Festival 2019 Gallery

Newhaven Maritime Festival

Newhaven Maritime Festival

Saturday 31st August

On Saturday 31st August Secret Shore Singers will be providing support to  Shanty Workshop run by Emily Longhurst at the RNLI Building, Riverside S, Newhaven between 10am and 10pm. The workshop will be teaching songs already know to the group

Following the Secret Shore will be performing at 2pm outside of the RNLI Building if the weather is good or inside of Meeching Hall BN9 9QQ) from 2:30pm if not. The intention is to meet up at the RNLI Building at 1:50pm and head to whichever location is best suited for the weather. Those workshop participants will be invited to sing with us during the performance

Songs for the performed will be chosen from the set list used for Littlehampton and Arundel.

Parking: Here is some info from Rhoda the organiser:

There is a public carpark very nearby, just a 2 min walk. Unsure if it's just for 2 hours though. Also town centre parking in a multi storey, that's about 5 mins walk away. And parking next to the Hillcrest Centre (Bay Vue Road) 8 min walk. Plus on street parking if lucky in Meeching Road, South Street, Fort Rd etc all very near by.

If you are thinking of coming on the train it is an easy walk from the Newhaven Town station too though there may be some works on the lines so good to check first!

Full details/arrangements have been sent attendees via email. If you are not signed up for the performance, drop us an email and come along.

Littlehampton Waterfront feedback

The following email has been received in response to our performances at Littlehampton Waterfront Festival.

Just want to say how great the shanties sounded at Littlehampton yesterday. It was quite strange being a spectator and not a singer, but we enjoyed the chance to listen from "out front". Congrats to everyone. The singing really captured the character of the different shanties, sung with such energy or emotion depending on the subject, and we  could hear every word in spite of all the bustle and noise going on around us! Brilliant.

A big thanks indeed, well done all of you for you Stirling efforts on Sunday - Emily & Dave

Arundel - Change to Timing

Change to Performance Timing

Please note that the performance timing has changed slightly. We will now commence our performance at 12:30 instead of the original time of 12:45, however it will still finish at 3:15. Can all please ensure that your are in the Jubilee Gardens 10 minutes prior to the commencement of the set. Sorry for any inconvenience. 

Second Big Sing Song

The second of the group 'Big Sing' songs are now detailed below. 'Sing you now After Me' is an English Round collected in the 15th Century by Thomas Ravenscroft who lived in Sussex. It is one of a large collections of Rounds celebrating the joy of singing together.

Sing you now After Me

Sing you now after me,
And as I sing sing ye,
So shall we well agree,
Five parts in unity,
Ding dong ding dong ding dong ding dong bell!

Listen Here