Two Weeks on the English Canals, Day 8

Day 8
Saturday
July 27

     True to his word, Jed, the owner of the taxi company, sent a driver to pick us up in the morning. However, the driver had to go out of his way to accommodate us and he was not happy. In more familiar surroundings, we would have compensated him with a healthy tip, but he refused to accept the money. We have been told that tipping is not customary in England, and indeed that was our experience. A former taxi driver of long experience from Lincolnshire, however, later wrote me after reading this journal that "tips are an integral part of a drivers meagre earnings" so perhaps at least an offer in such situations would be best.
     At any rate, we told the driver that we regretted taking him out of his way and he answered with: "That's all right, it's not your fault." I heard these kind words used often in the UK to good effect.
    We left the taxi and trekked to the Living Tradition Center on the opposite side of the school grounds. We were in quest of the Shellback Chorus.
     The seeds of the Shellback Chorus go back to 1999 when folkie Derek Seed noticed that there was a lot of good talent at the sing-arounds (song circles) to be found at folk festivals. Derek started talking to some of the amateur performers that he had especially enjoyed and had rounded up 27 singers in time for the Mersey International Shanty Festival in June, 2000. Since then the Shellback Chorus has become a staple at folk festivals across the UK. There are usually 35-40 members assembled for each performance. According to several of the singers that we talked to, the participating membership of up to 100 is drawn from all over England. When a performance is booked, around 35 of the geographically closest performers attend. It's an interesting way to solve the travel problem. Recruit local cells of singers to assault the nearest festival with song. Perhaps this is the way to world peace.
     When The Shellback Chorus performs, they are a song circle, a sing-around, on stage. They are a bunch of regular shanty singers who are good at it. The idea works very well and there is always lots of audience participation.

Click here to go to the Shellback Chorus Web site
http://members.lycos.co.uk/shellbackchorus/

    This morning's show was scheduled for 10:30 AM. We were a bit early and were all alone. Slowly, one by one and two by three, the chorus started to appear, recognizable by their Shellback Chorus t-shirts. They seemed a bit surprised to see us, eventually showing us the way upstairs to a fairly large hall. Soon a number of other spectators joined us. It turned out that the chorus was expecting a rehearsal but Festival organizers had scheduled it as a performance. The Chorus handled it with aplomb, informing us that we now had a singular opportunity to witness a real live and somewhat rare Shellback Chorus rehearsal and, after a bit of that, they would perform some too.
    The tenor and tone of the rehearsal took me back to my old chorus days, touching me with feelings of sweet nostalgia. To Sara they seemed like a bunch of barbershop singers singing sea shanties. After a half-hour, they moved more into a performance mode and the hour ended on an upscale note (literally).
    During the Chorus event, Sara ran out of videotape. Oops. I had forgotten to bring more.
    My spouse was resolute in her quest for blank tape. The handy Festival shuttle bus whisked us downtown where Sara located a camera store and purchased the requisite videotape.
     There were dancers in the streets but we would see them the next day, when we visited the nearby Church of St Mary. We wanted to get back in time to catch Tom's next performance. The festival shuttle bus made it easy.
     There was a particularly impressive performance that evening by Mick Ryan and his group. Mick Ryan is a multi-faceted musician and author of a number of acclaimed folk operas. Tonight they sang the sad story of Tyneham in a production called Tanks for the Memories. Since 1683, the small village of Tyneham had been set away from modern times in the unspoiled beauty of a remote valley. In 1943, the military decided the isolated location of the village made it an excellent area for tank training. They evicted the entire town a few days after Christmas, promising that everybody could come back when the war was over. They never let them return. Mick Ryan's talented ensemble spoke and sang of the sadness, hope, and disappointment of the last citizens of Tyneham.

Click here to find out more about Tyneham
http://www.thedorsetpage.com/locations/place/T210.htm

After Mick Ryan's talented and moving performance, we walked across campus again, back to the Arts Centre for some more Shellback Chorus. The Shellbacks sang until 11:00 and then a sing-around started, but Sara and I were starting to drag badly. We grabbed a late shuttle bus, which took us within walking distance of our moorage, our boat, and our inviting bed.