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.
Great to be performing at the famous Railway Cider Festival from 2pm. Cider, the Motleys - what could possibly go wrong?
Fundraising concert - details tbc.
We'll be singing at this ancient ceremony which blesses and reclaims the waters around Brightlingsea. See us from noon by the Hard and possibly out on the water after the ceremony.
Singing over lunch during the village Jubilee celebrations.
The event is part of the school's Queen's Platinum Celebrations.
A return visit - overdue thanks to the pandemic – for one of our favourite gigs of the year.
Shop and shanty! We'll be out with our friends from Brightlingsea RNLI collecting for our favourite charity.
Our second visit to this popular event. We'll be there in the afternoon.
We're honoured to have been asked to provide the after-dinner entertainment at this prestigious event.
Delighted to have been chosen as the opening act at our great local music festival. We're on stage from 12.30pm
We'll be roaming the quayside throughout the afternoon.
A return visit for an evening concert with our friends The Felix Stowaways and The Hoolies.
Very pleased to be back again by request at this fantastic event! Details of when and where we'll be performing later.
Joint fundraiser for the Essex Wildlife Trust and the RNLI. More details will follow.
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 a lot of publicity in the press, on radio and TV (video of our appearance on BBC Breakfast below). Click the tab below to read the press release that accompanied the video.
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.
