Barnacle Babe et al-

For spontaneous things to happen there needs to be order!

Ponder that one.

There is a vast difference between showing up at the German Hall shanty session for the first time and being a participant for ten years or so. This year seems to have been a success for all, and I suspect it had more to do with how the more experienced participants were acting and reacting than the arrangement of the "deck chairs." But I could be wrong on that, I suppose.

It would be relatively easy for the more experienced singers to dominate the Hall, and some years they have. When that happens it's still an interesting event but frustrating to newcomers. It also would be frustrating to newcomers if no performers showed up but had their own private song parties or went to bed early to save their precious voices for what they were being paid to do. There appeared to me to be an excellent balance this year, and I'm not sure if that resulted from any organized effort or was simply the product of group learning in some less conscious process.

I don't think it was just the most assertive personality types that were leading songs this year. It's certainly an advantage to be assertive but I witnessed many assertive people who were keeping themselves to one song an evening. There were still a few people who would fire off several in a row, and that in my opinion is only fair if a song is very closely related to the previous one being led, an opportunity not to be missed. And there were a few people who seemed to function as "mentors" to bring things back to more traditional shanty fare.

I do agree with Paul that "Good pub sings don't really happen by accident."

But let's continue to discuss how it did happen. It just might be useful if we want next year's German Hall shanty sing to be as successful. Or not!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble