Your name:
Dave Partington.
Where are you
from?
Born in Liverpool, but Bristol is my adopted home.
Name
of band:
The Roaring Trowmen.
Who
else is in your band?
Bryn Stephens, Chris Jarvis and Gwyn Wilkinson.
How
would you describe yourselves and your music?
We are four hearty men who sing sea shanties and songs
of the salty deep, with passion, energy, glorious harmonies and humour.
Who
are your main influences musically?
Stan Rogers, Fay Heald, The Young ‘Uns, The Wilson
Family, Rolf Harris, and SO much more!
What
do you hope to achieve in music?
To just slightly re-define what people expect from
a sea shanty group, to make it fun, irreverent, but bring in melting harmonies
and define our own unique versions of traditional songs.
What
has been the highlight of your career so far, and why?
Running a workshop at a men’s singing festival,
teaching 50+ men to sing a sea shanty that I’ve only ever heard previously sung
by four voices, then conducting them and hearing it sung back to me by
50 powerful pairs of lungs! Awesome.
And
what’s the moment you want to forget?
The petty arguments due to division of admin work
for the band.
If
you had to pick just one of your songs to represent your music, what would it
be and why?
Our version of ‘South Australia’, because it’s so
well known, but we put our own spin on it, fill it with ‘Trowmanisms’ and
delivery it with power and energy.
Where
can we listen to it?
Where
can we find out more about your music?
Anything
else you’d like to say about your music that I forgot to ask?
My history in singing is interesting. Started with
family when I was three. Recorded a record with them when I was four. Sang with them,
church choirs and school choirs till I was 15…… then had a 25-year break!
Started again in 2002 with a 15-piece a cappella group, sang to a total in
excess of 50,000 people over six years of gigs, joined another a cappella group
in 2010, but only got into sea shanties in 2013. Now it’s all I do!
