Coblers
Monday
Whitby’s Sea Song and
Shanty Group
March 2010
Our year was supposed to start off not with our usual first outing of the season, the Moor and Coast Festival, but a much anticipated gig at Thorner Beer Festival. Unfortunately we had to back out at the last minute, two members of the group having been incarcerated in The James Cook Memorial Hospital only a few days before the event. As Ken Stocks was unavailable also we had to cry off, though we had been brushing up on our repertoire of repetitive Drinking Strains. Like the true troupers that they are both appeared the following week at the Final Moor and Coast Festival.
The Coblers first Civic duty of 2009 was Whitby Swing Bridge Centenary Celebration.A party held in early August to celebrate the 100th Birthday of the famous Whitby landmark. The ‘Coblers’ performed during the Afternoon and for the grand finale were joined by children from the Paul Nicholas School of Acting. Suitable attired in Victorian dress, the children performed enactments to our rendition of ‘The Drunken Sailor’.
Whitby Folk Week.Despite the scheduling clash withThe Regatta’, the Friendship Rowing Club did us proud over the Weekend and on Monday letting us use the upstairs ballroom, complete with bar staff, for our daily Sing a round during their busiest period of the year. Owing to family illness and subsequent bereavement, Redcar Mike was unable to be with us but Ken and our old friend Mike O,Leary Johns was with us most of the time,(see photo above).
The Singarounds were some of the best we’ve ever had, where everyone came from on the Sunday is still a mystery.The upstairs ballroom was filled to capacity with folk seated on the large windowsill and it was standing room only on the stage.
Since we have been running the Singarounds in the Friendship we have yearly steadily built up a number of daily regulars who support us throughout the week, many thanks to all of them.
Over the August Bank Holiday Weekend, we performed at the Coastal Flavours of Whitby Festival. Funded by the Yorkshire & Humber Seafood Group the event was a celebration of Whitby’s heritage and its fishing industry.
Celebrity TV chef Ed Baines took centre stage in the Food Theatre and Coblers Monday along with an assorted array of Street Performers entertained the crowds.
NEWS 2009