I'll leave it to someone better qualified to flesh out the whys & wherefores of The Maritime England Suite, but basically it's a 40-minute sequence comprising PB's settings of Kipling, traditional and other lyrics arranged by Dolly Collins and performed by the trio of PB: voice / Dolly Collins : piano / Ursula Pank (nee Smith) : 'cello. It existed as a cassette-only edition with a photocopied cover, copies of which are scarce (and those extant are fading fast...) but the music is of a perfect and golden charm that will enchant lovers of songs of the sea and beguile even the most casual Bellamist. The hard-core, of course, will already have it, but here it is anyway, in two parts:   

Peter Bellamy : Maritime England Suite - Part One

Peter Bellamy : Maritime England Suite - Part One

Note: This is a basic transfer of a very old unbranded cassette copy as sold by PB at his gigs. No attempt has been made to clean it up at source (no Dolby certainly!) or otherwise enhance it on the computer other than to fix a patricularly messy edit & fade it out at the end of The China Clipper which cuts out on the cassette. One hopes the masters are extant and that plans are afoot to release them officially, but as life is generally too short for the awaiting of such miracles, enjoy this in all its lo-fi glory.

File expires on 22nd November, so get it while you can!

Part One:

Song of the Red War Boat (Kipling)
Sir Patrick Spens (Trad)
Sir Andrew Barton (Anon)
The Spanish Armada (Anon)
The Zealous Puritan (Anon)
The Dutch in the Medway (Kipling)

Part Two:

We Have Fed Our Sea For a Thousand Years (Kipling)
Andrew Rose & the Cruel Ship's Captain (trad)
The Death of Nelson (trad)
The British Man of War (trad)
The China Clipper (Tardiff)

All settings Peter Bellamy / arranged by Dolly Collins