Johnny Collins (10 May 1938 – 6 July 2009) was an English

folk singer Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

based in London, England, specializing in traditional

maritime music This is a list of performers who focus on maritime music or who have at some point made notable contributions to that genre. Traditional-style performers *Jerry Bryant (songwriter), Jerry Bryant, singer-songwriter from Maine, also performs histo ...

and

sea shanties A sea shanty, shanty, chantey, or chanty () is a genre of traditional folk song that was once commonly sung as a work song to accompany rhythmical labor aboard large merchant sailing vessels. The term ''shanty'' most accurately refers to a sp ...

Biography

Collins was born in

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

, England and adopted by a railway worker and a music teacher living in

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

. He joined the British Army in 1956, where he learned to play the guitar in jazz and folk clubs while posted in London. He was posted to Singapore in 1959 where he began performing in bars and cabarets in his off hours, and was posted to Hong Kong in 1965 where he performed in large concerts with other folk performers in the British and U.S. military. He also performed on television and radio (including the "Voice of America in East Asia") and played venues like the Hong Kong Hilton. In 1967 he was posted again to Singapore where he began his own folk club at the ''Anophel Inn''. Tom Lewis and

Pam Ayres Pamela Ayres MBE (born 14 March 1947) is a British poet, comedian, songwriter and presenter of radio and television programmes. Her 1975 appearance on the television talent show '' Opportunity Knocks'' led to appearances on other TV and radio ...

performed there, among others. He was demobilized ("demobbed") in 1968, and he began to perform full-time. In 1983 he and Jim Mageean, performing as a duo, won the Intervision Song Contest in

Rostock Rostock (; Polabian language, Polabian: ''Roztoc''), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (), is the largest city in the German States of Germany, state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the sta ...

, in

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

. Later, in 1987, they were invited by the East German government to perform at a

sea shanty A sea shanty, shanty, chantey, or chanty () is a genre of traditional Folk music, folk song that was once commonly sung as a work song to accompany rhythmical labor aboard large Merchant vessel, merchant Sailing ship, sailing vessels. The term ...

festival in Berlin commemorating the city's founding. Collins and his business partner Joyce Squires, assisted by Bernard Peek ran The Singing Chef. This service provided a wide range of home-cooked food at smaller folk-festivals throughout the UK. On occasions Collins sang on-stage wearing his chef's toque supported by backing singers (The Cheffettes) drawn from his kitchen brigade. Although slowed down by health problems, Collins continued to tour and perform worldwide up to the time of his death. This included the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Poland and France as well as making frequent appearances in his native country at

Cutty Sark ''Cutty Sark'' is a British clipper ship. Built on the River Leven, Dumbarton, Scotland in 1869 for the Jock Willis Shipping Line, she was one of the last tea clippers to be built and one of the fastest, at the end of a long period of desig ...

Tall Ships Races, and maritime festivals at Hull, Lancaster, Bristol, Dundee, Maldon, Portsmouth, Gosport, Greenwich and Chatham.

Death

He died on 6 July 2009 while on tour in Gdańsk, Poland, aged 71.

Partial discography

*''Traveller's Rest'' (1973) *''Johnny's Private Army'' (1975) *''Make the Rafters Roar'' (1979) with Jim Mageean *''Free and Easy'' (1982) *''Live at Herga!'' (1982) with Jim Mageean *''Strontrace'' (1983) with Jim Mageean *''Pedlar of Songs'' (1993) *''Coming of Age'' (1996) *''Shanties and Songs of the Sea'' (1996) *''Now & Then'' (2000) *''Good Times'' (2008) with Graeme Knights and Jim Mageean

References

External links

feature article by Mike Raven in ''Living Tradition'' magazine - Issue 27, June/July 1998
* of Johnny Collins performing song by

Shelley Posen Shelley (I. Sheldon) Posen is a Canadian folklorist, singer and songwriter, a member of the folk trio Finest Kind, and a former writer of the 'Songfinder' column for ''Sing Out!'' In the 1970s, while still a graduate student, he was the Directo ...

, ''

No More Fish, No Fishermen No More Fish, No Fishermen is a song whose lyrics were composed by Canadian folklorist and singer Shelley Posen, about the demise of the Newfoundland cod fishery in the 1990s. Although it was written in 1996, it is often assumed to be a tradition ...

'' * 1938 births 2009 deaths English folk singers Maritime music Singers from London 20th-century English singers {{UK-singer-stub