Shanty Night 2012: All For Me Grog

Shanty Night 2012 - Gambling Bar Room Blues

Shanty Night 2012 - Mingulay Boat Song

Shanty Night 2012: Johnny Gone to Hilo

Shanty Night - this Thursday!

Liz and Sue at Swan Acoustic Session in Addingham, Yorkshire

Well, thanks to Brian Wylie from Addingham, Yorkshire, we can now all share what sounds like a thoroughly delightful evening at the Swan Acoustic Session:

From: b.wylie@ghdhair.com

To: julietdoyle@hotmail.co.uk

Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2012 17:05:08 +0100


Subject: Liz and Sue at Swan Acoustic Session in Addingham Yorkshire


Hi Juliet, just a quick note from the organiser of above session. What two lovely people in Sue and Liz and fine ambassodors of your session, they came along last night and we fully enjoyed their company. I presume it was their honeymoon but they didn’t let on and we had some great craic through the evening. Please pass on an open invitation to any of your people to drop in on us if they are in the vicinity or if they need a bed for the night in transit “oop North". Our website and blog is at www.swanacousticsession.squarespace.com  and you can read of Sue and Liz's exploits.

Kind Regards

Brian C Wylie


Email b.wylie@ghdhair.com

Here are some extracts from the Swan Acoustic Session blog (you can read the whole account of the evening here ):

Well what can I say, it seemed like an age since we stepped through the portals of The Swan in Addingham for our fortnightly music fest. After the usual beratings for not being there we settled in the corner to await which folk would turn up, and lo! Two Southern Belles came sauntering through the door like bloodhounds on a trail these two well-travelled ladies has sought us out on the T’interweb and forsook the Punchbowl at Silsden for a night at the Swan. Well better luck next time eh!!



Liz Cannon and Sue Eyers were staying at Ingleton and were from Dahn Saff in a little place called Mersea Island…………………………. Nope I hadn’t heard of it either but apparently they have a similar set up down there so Sue and Liz thought they would try their luck. As the rest of our merry band trooped in they soon became aware that “The Craic” is always mighty at The Swan as one ribald comment after another ricocheted around the room as both Johns, Kath, Andee, Mike and Deborah (nice to see you again) Masterson seated themselves along with Sue and Liz to see what unfolded .
. . .
The aforementioned Liz and Sue were next up to close the first half, with guitar and mandolin and another first for the Swan a concert flute. Having admitted to finding a performance set up rather than the sing-a-round they were more used to down Saff! They launched into “Aint Misbehavin” with a smooth ease. This was followed by a Johnny Cash number, a song apparently from a womans perspective from the mighty man in black entitled “Let the Train blow the Whistle” with a fine imitation at the end of aforesaid train whistle from Liz. Excellent stuff Ladies and thank you for making the 45 min journey from Ingleton and more to come in the second half.
. . .
Liz and Sue then prepared to round up the night and their first visit (hopefully not their last) to The Swan acoustic session in Addingham Sue on Flute/mandolin and Liz on guitar and vocals finished a lovely night off with a Christy Moore song “Ride On” before leading us on a sing song with “He’s in the jailhouse now” which brought our evening to a more than satisfactory close. Thank you everyone for turning up,Sue and Liz for their excellent effort to seek us out and their performance, to uncle David for his sterling efforts to Ian for the ales and to all reading this come along experience and enjoy “LETS KEEP IT LIVE”

Thanks Sue and Liz for being, as Brian puts it, such fine ambassadors for the Coast Inn Session (and for alerting a few more people to the very existence of Mersea Island!).

And thanks also to Brian, who subsequently sent the following email, with a warm Yorkshire invitation to everyone at the Mersea Session:

From: b.wylie@ghdhair.com



To: julietdoyle@hotmail.co.uk


Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2012 07:15:38 +0100


Subject: RE: Liz and Sue at Swan Acoustic Session in Addingham Yorkshire


Hi Juliet, thanks for the kind words, I hope they enjoyed their stay “oop North” and had a great time. Our session is the first and third Tuesdays of the month and like yours is an eclectic mix of all music. Please extend to your musical group our extended hospitality to anyone travelling in the Yorkshire area to pop in or stay a while, my wife and I would be only to glad to put fellow muso’s up in transit or to provide a base for folks to explore Yorkshire.


Kind Regards
Brian C Wylie
Email b.wylie@ghdhair.com

So if any Coast Inn friends have plans to head 'oop North' and fancies dropping in at the Swan, Addingham, it looks as though you can be assured of the same warm welcome that Sue and Liz received!

And of course, the invitation is reciprocated to everyone at the Addingham Session, should you ever find yourselves in our part of the world on a Thursday night. Our session is very eclectic and varied - one never knows who'll be there from one week to the next, or how many musicians, or what kind of music will predominate. But it's always good fun!

Love Songs Session for Liz and Sue

What a wonderful evening!

Here are some pics that Chrissie took:

And the photos below were NOT taken by Chrissie (important to make that clear, as they're rather poor!):

If you took any photos at the Love Songs Session, do please email them to me and I'll post them here.

Love Songs Session - Thursday 21st June

To celebrate Liz and Sue's tying the knot at their Civil Partnership Ceremony earlier that day, we thought it would be good to give that evening's session a love-song theme.

So please bring along your favourite love songs to play and sing, and let's make this a romantic night to remember.

The Old Nickelodeon Sound

Here's a nice little video featuring Mersea singer Steve Travis, made to promote his brand new Sea Shanties CD.

Watch out for the interior shots of the 'Jolly Sailor', which, along with its clientele and landlady, might seem strangely familiar.

(Oh, and keep an eye on the barrel - who's that 'playing' the concertina?!)

'Pub session' at the Mersea Festival, 2 June 2012

Thanks to everyone who came along to the 'pub session' at the Black Diamond Accordions Acoustic Tent at the Mersea Island Food, Drink & Leisure Festival on Saturday.

Thursday 31 May 2012

Thank to Christine Macintyre - on a visit to Mersea from Argyll - for some of the pics above.

New Ceilidh Club for Mersea

Greg and John have started a new ceilidh club on Mersea Island. Called (with some inaccuracy) the "First Friday Ceilidh Club", it will be launching with the Regatta Ceilidh Band providing the foot-stompin' music, on Friday 8th June at the MICA, 8 pm. See poster below for full details and diary dates for the rest of the year. Please tell all your friends, and bring along everyone you know!  Suitable for anyone between the ages of 8 and 108, it will be huge fun, as any of you who've been to the annual Regatta Christmas Ceilidhs will know.

The club has its own Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/MerseaFirstFridayCeilidhClub . If you're on Facebook please nip over and 'like' it to show your support.

Mersea Island Food, Drink & Leisure Festival 2012

All Coast Inn Session musicians are invited to play in the Acoustic Tent at the Mersea Island Food, Drink & Leisure Festival on 2nd and 3rd June

Sponsored by Black Diamond Accordions, the Acoustic Tent will offer two day-long programmes of widely varied acoustic music on the lower lawn at Mersea Vineyard.

At 2.30 pm each day, we'll be attempting to re-create a 'Typical Thursday Night at the Coast Inn' for half an hour, so please come along with your instrument/s - and your family and friends - and join in the fun.

Admission and parking are completely free and the festival offers two fantastic days out for all the family.



Links for further info:

Mersea Island Food, Drink and Leisure Festival website http://www.mersea-fdl-festival.com/ and Facebook page www.facebook.com/pages/Mersea-Island-Food-Drink-Leisure-Festival/116347698378527

Session Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/pages/Mersea-Session/118091451568964

Black Diamond Accordions: http://www.blackdiamondaccordions.blogspot.com/

An invitation

The Coast Inn and the Session in the press

Lots of good publicity for the Coast Inn and the Session in the press this month.

In Essex Life, the "Here's Cooking With You" slot (p 121 of the April issue) features Belinda.  The piece is largely about the Coast Inn's justly famous menu, but the Session gets a little mention in Belinda's answer to the question "Any celebrity moments you can share with us?": "I remember a night when Billy Bragg joined in with one of our acoustic evenings here . . ." 

The March/April issue of Colchester Circle - a vibrant new free magazine with a wide circulation in and around Colchester, and which is now available on Mersea - carries two Mersea-related articles. One (on p 30) is the first of a regular series featuring the island. Shanty Night at the Coast Inn gets a brief mention. 

Also in the current issue - a familiar face (!) on pp 20-21, in a feature based around Black Diamond Accordions' forthcoming "Lunch Time Show Off" - at 15 Queen Street, Colchester on 19th April.

Finally, the most recent edition of the island's own free paper - The Courier - features the Session in its series of articles about Mersea music and musicians. There's a brief history of the Session in its current and previous incarnations, and quotes from musicians explaining what they most enjoy about Thursday nights at the Coast Inn.

Thursday 1.3.2012

Thanks to Chrissie Westgate for this lovely collection of photos from 1st March