The company (The Wyre Light Orchestra) are:-

Ron Baxter (author, illustrator,impresario and non-singing songwriter)
Sean Breadin (narrator, kemence, Shruti box, vocals)
Ross Campbell (guitar, concertinas, vocals)
Mike Fairclough (banjo, bouzouki, vocals)
Mike France (Indian harmonium, percussion, vocals)
Tony Mason (guitar, vocals)
Rachel McCarron (vocals)
Alan Middleton (ukuleles, vocals)
John Webb (laptop & slide projector)

All the songs except one come from the pen of Ron Baxter, while tunes have been set by the respective singers. While we were working up the show early last year a severe storm stranded the Seatruck company's cross-channel freight ferry "Riverdance" on the sands between Cleveleys and Blackpool after her engines failed off the Isle of Man. Attempts to set the undamaged ship upright again for refloating were undermined by successive tides and eventually she was broken up where she lay, just a hundred yards from where the ribs of the sailing-vessel "Abana", a wreck from a hundred years before, can still be seen at low tide. Rachel McCarron's poignant song "Riverdance" just had to be included.

Opening Song - Beware the Fylde Coast's Sands - Ross (concertina, vocals); Sean (kemence/Black Sea fiddle); the company (chorus)
2. The Saint Anne of Dunkirk - Sean (kemence, vocals); Ross (12-string guitar, vocals); Rachel (vocals)
3. The Employment - Alan (ukulele, vocals); Ross (concertina, vocals)
4. Ocean Monarch - Ross (concertina, vocals); Rachel (vocals)
5. Blowing aka The Great Gale - Sean (kemence, vocals); Rachel (vocals); Ross (guitar, vocals)
6. Child of Hale - Mike Fairclough (banjo, vocals); Ross (concertina)
7. Wyre Light aka Fire on the Lighthouse - Alan (ukulele, vocals); Ross (concertina); company (chorus)
8. Henrietta - Tony, Alan, Mike Fairclough, Ross, Mike France (vocals); company (chorus)
9. The Sirene - Mike France (monologue)
10. Arthur Sinclair - Mike Fairclough (banjo, vocals); Ross (concertina)
11. Peas! - Tony (vocals); company (chorus)
12. God's Gift - Mike Fairclough (bouzouki, vocals); Ross (concertina); company (chorus)
13. Foudroyant (Nelson's Flagship) - Ross (concertina, vocals)
14. The Solicitor - Alan (ukulele, vocals); Ross (concertina); company (chorus)
15. Houseboats on the Wyre - Tony (guitar, vocals); Ross (concertina); company (chorus)
16. Maude Pickup - Ross (concertina, vocals); company (chorus)
17. Stella Marie - Tony (guitar, vocals)
18. Riverdance - Rachel (vocals)
19. Three Boats Sailed from Lancashire - Alan (ukulele, vocals); Ross(concertina)
20. Final Song - Wrecks and Rescues - Ross (concertina, vocals); Sean (kemence); company (chorus)

We haven't managed to get a full cast recording yet (there's always somebody missing!), and the bowels of the Jacinta are not the best place for such a project (large generator the other side of the fish-room bulkhead!) but it's a very appropriate place to do the show. While many Fleetwood fishing vessels were lost far away from home, as Ron's songs bring out, the local, familiar waters could be just as deadly.

Hope this helps, Charley. I've just about completed my festival work and should be able to get on soon with producing the CDs I promised you. I can include a work-in-progress version of the above.

Ross