Last Friday, Tenby and District Arts Club was royally entertained by the Vagrants Crew, a group dedicated to singing sea shanties and other nautical songs. They formed in 1983 and have travelled to festivals in many countries.

On a ship, shantymen were the sailors who gave the rhythm for the job in hand on the ship, and different songs developed suitable for each job - pumping shanties, stamp and go shanties and many more. On board these would have been accompanied by a penny whistle or concertina if they were lucky, but the Vagrants Crew use these and other instruments in their own interpretations of these songs.

The evening began with a couple of Cornish tunes and moved through a Thames barge song, a couple of a cappella numbers, and some very well known songs that soon had the audience singing along - including Donkey Riding and of course What shall we do with the Drunken Sailor?

By the end, the audience was on their feet giving a standing ovation!

Tonight (Friday), Margaret Acors will give an illustrated talk on Andalucia. This will be in St. Johns Church Hall, at 7.30, and will be £2 for members and £4 for non-members including tea/coffee and biscuits at the end. Everyone is welcome!