About Lytham St Annes Shanty Crew

Here’s how it all started…

If you’re in the South West, you can’t throw a monkey stick without hitting a shanty crew. In the North West, not so much. In 2015, Joel Wrigley decided it was high time the Fylde Coast had a crew of its own.

Press-ganging a crew

Somehow, Joel persuaded some of his friends to join him, despite the fact that precisely none of them had ever sung sea shanties before.

Joel was joined by Steve Green, Julian Bowden, Mike Leach and others who were part of that first ‘generation’ of the Lytham St Annes Shanty Crew (yes, we know it’s the most ‘does what it says on the tin’ name for a crew, but it sort of stuck).

Since then, there’s been an ebb and flow of crew members. We’ve lost one or two overboard (including Joel, although he still stops by every now and again for old time’s sake. That’s when Clive Marquis-Carr became captain of the ship). We’ve also press ganged one or two more into joining us. You can meet the current crew here.

Lytham St Annes Shanty Crew – original lineup L-R: Russell Quigley, Julian Bowden, Steven Green, Stephen Larkin, Clive Marquis-Carr, Joel Wrigley, Roy Turner, Mike Leach, Stephen Poole. Also, Chris Simmons.

Raising money for the RNLI

We’ve done gigs as far north as Maryport and as far south as St Ives. We’ve played to a field of literally no one (we still have PTSD from that). And we’ve played for festival crowds of thousands, including a memorable day sharing the bill with the mighty Jools Holland.

Some of our favourite gigs are our regular Monday night ‘open rehearsals’. Between the early May bank holiday and August bank holiday, you’ll find us at or near the boathouses in St Annes or Lytham. You can come and watch those events for free – all we ask is that you make a donation to the RNLI. You can find the summer programme of free shows here.

You’ll also find us gigging regularly across the Fylde Coast and beyond. To book us, please get in touch.

Lytham St Annes Shanty Crew roll call!

We’re grateful for the contributions of all our crew mates throughout the years, and it’s only right that we give them a shout out!

Stephen Larkin

Stephen Poole

Russ Quigley

Ken Russell

Chris Simmons

Roy Turner

Joel Wrigley

Elizabeth Young