Long, long ago, a group of like minded chaps hit on the idea of singing sea shanties for fun. Despite it being a late night at the yacht club, most of us remembered the idea the day after and thus The Motley Crew was born.
From there we’ve gone on to sing at fetes, smack and barge matches, regattas, dinners, weddings, parties, shop openings and numerous other events. Highlights include performing at the London Marathon, the Cutty Sark, the Harwich International Shanty Festival and the Colchester Oyster Feast. We get together at Christmas to sing traditional wassail carols, too.
We've supported lots of charities over the years, but our main charity is the RNLI (as most of us sail, we figure it's a good investment) and we've raised thousands of pounds for this worthy cause.
We don’t take ourselves too seriously. Audiences appreciate our robust, light-hearted style and so long as we all enjoy ourselves and the RNLI gets a few more well-deserved pennies out of our efforts, that’s all that matters.
If you'd like us to sing at your event, please drop us a line.
We'll be out and about around town with some shanties and festive tunes from around 6pm, ending with a singalong at the Railway Tavern
Join us for some festive tunes as the lights are switched on around the Hard
Our first gig for events company OEM Live. A matinee, time & tickets tbc.
We'll be singing from the balcony at 3pm.
We'll be performing at this charity event – which collects toys for deprived children – at around 8pm. There may be wassails!
Private event for the doughty ladies of St Osyth
Our first performance for this prestigious society – and our first on the big stage at the Princes Theatre!
We'll be back with our friends the Felix Stowaways and other crews for an afternoon of shanties and catching up.
When the NHS approached the The Motley Crew in March 2021 to come up with a sea shanty to promote Covid-19 vaccinations, we put our thinking caps on and came up with Just Get That Jab and Go.
Sung to the tune of the Wellerman, with arrangement by our own Chris Bloor and lyrics by Motley SWAG (shanty wives and girlfriends) Melanie Bridle, it was recorded and mastered by Ray Hayden of Opaz Multimedia.
Our tune, set to a video recorded in various locations around North Essex and Suffolk – including our home town of Brightlingsea – gained nationwide press, radio and TV coverage, including two live breakfast tv appearances on the same morning. A video of our appearance on BBC Breakfast below) is below.
If you'd like us to perform for your event, please drop us a line using the contact form. Be sure to say what the event is, who it's for and give a date, time and location.
We'll get back to you as soon as we can.
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