Auckland New Zealand
The Maritime Crew was formed in 1994 with the primary purpose of entertaining visitors to the newly opened New Zealand National Maritime Museum at Hobson Wharf, Auckland. Since then they have put on a free concert at the Museum every month. They have also sung at boat shows, America's Cup Village, corporate events, wedding and birthday parties, folk clubs, charity events and old folk's homes.
To date they have produced 5 CDs but sadly the very first one is no longer available. One of their current CD's, "Auckland to the Bluff", which has 17 of Rudy Sunde's sea songs, has been licensed to a French company and is now being sold in Europe under the title "Chants de Mer".
They have an interesting and varied repertoire consisting of songs and shanties from around the world. Their New Zealand material consists of traditional material plus modern compositions - some of which have been written by Maritime Crew members. In case any one is wondering what the difference is between shanties and sea songs, a brief explanation follows. Shanties are the work songs that were sung by sailors in the heyday of sail when they were hauling up anchors, raising sail, pumping water out of the bilges, etc. The songs were sung to co-ordinate the work being done. Sea songs, on the other hand, are the songs that were sung by the same sailors in their leisure time.
Rudy Sunde says, "We have been very fortunate in being recognised in Europe for our musical skills. In 2001, we were invited to go to Poland and participate in maritime music festivals that were held in that country. We spent a month in Poland and sang to many, many people. (Drank a bit of beer too.) In 2005, we were invited to go to Europe again - this time going to Germany where, once again, we sang at festivals at Niebull, Kiel and Bremerhaven. (Would you believe, we drank a bit more beer!).
On first August this year - a couple of weeks time - we are off to Europe yet once again! This time we have been invited to sing at maritime music festivals in Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. We will be away for a month and I dare say that in that time we will have opportunities aplenty to sample the brews from the 3 countries. While in the Netherlands we will co-operating with a Dutch group - Folsgear Folk - in producing a joint CD. This should be quite interesting. Only 4 members of The Maritime Crew will be going to Europe and they are Bob Large, Lew Black, Warren Payne and Rudy Sunde. The other 2 members of the group - Alex McLennan and Paul Howarth - can't go because of family or work commitments".
An informal ‘Singaround’ when a smaller group of people meet to share their songs and music.
Last Update: 2007-12-31
The Club was conceived in 1965 when the Clancy Brothers didn't come and someone had the astounding idea of having a sing-a-round thus transforming an audience into a folk group. Formally established in 1966 we're still going strong.