Update on the Mayor's Special Fundraising Session - 11th November

The Mayor and Mayoress, John May and Marion Jarvis, have come up with lots of ideas for 11th November, including some special requests for their favourite songs by particular musicians, which they will make known to those people in person.

The Mayor will outline the kind of evening he envisages during the interval at this week's Session. For anyone who won't be there, a summary of the issues discussed at today's meeting can be found on the Facebook discussion page .

Audience tickets will be on sale at the Coast Inn from Thursday onwards at £4, all proceeds from which will go to the Mayor's special charities, Essex Air Ambulance and St Helena Hospice.

There's going to be a raffle on 11th November, too. John is asking local businesses for prizes, and has already received some generous offers (eg a meal for two at one of Mersea's favourite restaurants). But so that the raffle table is absolutely laden on the night, how about everyone involved donating something - even something very modest? - perhaps a box of chocolates or a bottle of wine or beer or bubble-bath, a home-made cake, a jar of marmalade, a pot-plant, an unwanted gift. Let's see see what we can come up with to make a really good display and sell the maximum number of raffle-tickets.

Hope all the regular musicians and audience will feel inspired to come along and help make this a really memorable one-off fundraising night for two charities especially dear to local hearts.
 
(If you're not a musician and fancy helping with a bit of organising on the night (furniture shifting, selling raffle tickets, ushering people to their seats, etc), please let me know.)

Thursday 23.9.10

This week's pics are by Juliet and Juliet. As usual - a few tasters here and lots more in the Gallery .

The Mayor's special Charity Fundraising Session - 11th November

Update on Greg's announcement following a meeting with Belinda: The Mayor's Charity Fundraising Session on 11th November will take place in the restaurant and tickets will be £4 (available from the Coast Inn from 1st October, or on the door).

All proceeds will be split between the Mayor's chosen charities - Essex Air Ambulance  and St Helena's Hospice  - both of them very popular and immensely worthy local causes.

John May has been one of the Session's most loyal and regular supporters right from the start, so please do come along and support his charity fundraising initiative in return. A raffle will be held - all donations of prizes, large or small, will be very welcome. And any other ideas to maximise the fundraising potential of this special Session will gratefully received. (Email us or leave a message on the Facebook page.)

(NB The front bar will be open, free of charge, as usual, for anyone who simply wants to go to the Coast Inn for a drink and not take part in the special Session.)

Harwich Sea Shanty Festival 2010

Free open air entertainment, concerts, music sessions, classic boats, traditional maritime crafts, Napoleonic displays, pub sessions and singarounds - absolutely masses going on over the weekend of 8th-10th October. See the Festival website for full details.

Annual Chelmsford Morris Ceilidh

I've been asked by Bob Sawyer of Chelmsford Morris  to give this one a plug:

Thursday 16.9.10

This week's pictures are by Peter and Hilary. A selection below - lots more in the Gallery .

Roman River Festival 2010

Quick plug for the eleventh Roman River Festival, with ten concerts of music old and new by world-class musicans in churches and village halls along the Roman River - starting with Bach at St Stephen's, Great Wigborough and ending with a Tango Evening in Fingringhoe Village Hall. There's also a family concert featuring Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf at Abberton & Langenhoe Village Hall and a morning of Baroque violin and harpsichord at East Mersea Church.  Full details of all events in the Festival are over on the Mersea Island Live Music  website.

Announcing the Lord Mayor's Show!!

Not quite sure what it's going to be called, so The Lord Mayor's Show is a working title whilst we sort out the details. At last night's session, John May, the Mayor of West Mersea, addressed the assembly and announced that he would like to take over the Mersea Session for one night only for a charitable event, raising funds for his two chosen charities, Essex Air Ambulance and St Helena Hospice.

This idea was warmly received by everyone there, and the date of Thursday 11th November was fixed in the diary. Belinda has kindly offered to let us have the restaurant area behind the main bar to maximise the attendance (and therefore fundraising potential). Juliet is working with John May re organisation, so watch this space, but in the meantime, get the date of Thursday 11th November into your diaries and practice, practice, practice!

Thursday 9.9.10

Lots more over on the Gallery page.

Coming soon to a town not far from Mersea . . .

Colchester Free Festival 2010 is a one-day music and arts festival in Castle Park from 11am to 7pm on Saturday 18th September and forms the finale of "Colchester!" - a week-long "grassroots celebration", with events taking place throughout the town, from Monday 13th September to Saturday 18th September. See the Free Festival website for full details of all the events and bands.

The Great Amplification Debate . . .

. . . is under way over on our Mersea Session Facebook discussion page.

This is a really important issue, and central to the direction the Session will take in future, so please, whether you are a musician or a member of the audience, have your say now. The Session is a community activity, and everyone's voice counts.

So join in the discussion on Facebook, or leave a comment here, or email us (contact details on sidebar down there on the left), to make sure that your views are heard.

Thursday 2.9.10

Pictures this week by Juliet Young, who also took some good ones of last week's Session, which are now on the Gallery page.

Thursday 2.9.10

Did anyone take any photos last night that we could post on the website?  I wasn't there myself. All contributions gratefully received - please email them over! Thanks

Thursday 26.8.10

This week's photos were all taken by Brian  (who would like to thank the kind person who handed his camera in to the bar staff after he accidentally went home without it!)

Thursday 19.8.10

Lots more in the Gallery.

Shanty Night feedback

Some feedback about Shanty Night received by email and on our Facebook Page  (if you're on Facebook, please add yourself to our fan-list if you haven't already!).  All further comments and suggestions welcome - whether you were a regular or a visitor - please leave comments here or on Facebook or email us. Your views will all be hugely useful when planning and improving next year's Shanty Night.

Bill: A few suggestions to improve Shanty night (possibly other sessions too)
- Give out chorus sheets of the regular songs ; helps the visitors/listeners feel more confident about joining-in.
- try to ensure a body of strong voices close together (who know the songs) to help achieve a 'critical mass' of sound to combat over-loud bar chat.
- encourage an ethos of hushed listening for solo singers / musicians whenever possible. (very difficult in a bar, but well worth the effort methinks)
- resist amplification (except Bass)
Hope you don't mind me offering these. Cheers Barnacle Bill x

Caroline: It was an excellent evening - enjoyed by all. thanks for organising, can't wait for next year!

Brian: Excellent night. I didnt get round to doing all the songs I had intended as got caught up with conversations mainly with visitors who to a person were very impressed with the talent on this Island. 

John: I am generally in agreement with Bill's ideas although I am a little unsure about the song sheet suggestion. I think it could be something you might do on certain occasions but not all the time. Getting people to listen is always a difficult one. As a society, music is very often something that goes on in the background and conversation continues. I think people have to be educated over a period of time. Some will never understand. I do think folk need to know what it is they are coming to listen to or do. This being the case, they are more likely to understand the conventions such as listening. Some people that night might just have popped in for a drink although it would be hard for someone not to know what was going on. I would be against amplification. I do think the crowded nature of the bar did add to the atmosphere. Your rendition of 'Senandoah' that evening, Bill, was I thought, brilliant.

'Could shanty be the new rock 'n' roll?'

This is the question posed in the current issue of Coast Magazine, in an article entitled 'Songs of the Sea', based around the huge success of the Cornish shanty group Fisherman's Friends, who recently receved a gold disc for 100,000 album sales.

The article goes on to mention Jon Boden, the album Rogue's Gallery, and Norma Waterson. Strangely, Mersea's very own Shanty Night does not feature in the list of notable shanty festivals around the country. But, who knows, maybe next year . . .

(Mersea DOES in fact appear in this month's Coast - but not musically - there's an article about the Packing Shed as part of a series about endangered seaside buildings.)