We asked Jon to tell us something about himself .. 
so here goes …
I come from a musical family. Church choir membership was part of growing up. I was a boy soprano, then a light tenor. My father and mother both had great voices and sang as a tenor and soprano duo around the Plymouth area in the 50’s. Gilbert and Sullivan and Ivor Novello were their fortes.
I was into Joan Baez at 11, Bob Dylan and Simon and Garfunkel a little later. My father, a long time sailor, recommended Cyril Tawney. Folk 66 in Plymouth Guildhall saw Cyril, Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick
on the same bill. I was hooked! Sincerity Hall was my folk club, Brenda Wooton and John the Fish were regulars, along with Cyril. West Country folk music became, and remains one of my main interests.
At St Luke’s College, the Jolly Porter was a wonderful introduction to harmony and unaccompanied singing. Is ca Fayre were my idols there but also the many local singers who had a real integrity that I felt much recorded folk music lacked. I stopped playing guitar and began researching local songs. Charlie Yarwood, Sean O’ Shea, Howard Springer, and Eve Bennett and myself became Hobbajohn’s Cross, the College folk band of the early and mid 70’s.
I moved to Penn in Bucks and sang semi professionally with Helen Culf. We sang around the Aylesbury area and featured mainly bawdy songs. Later I began specialising in shanties and music hall songs. My family background was a great help here. Cape Horners were my great uncles! I already knew many shanties!
I trained in Ireland and Oxford to become a teacher of the Deaf. On returning to Plymouth I sang Irish songs I had picked up in Dublin and the family shanties. Joining Hanging Johnny was a natural progression. We made 9 CDs with 18 tracks on each one. Our performances influenced groups in Holland and Germany, Two visits to Port Issac helped in the formation of Fisherman’s Friends too. We appeared on European TV and we even recorded shanties for the Last Night of the Proms.
The fun continued when Hanging Johnny morphed into Flash Jack, the arrangements were more complex but the joy in performing with vigor, pace and fun remained.
I retired from the shanty world in 2024. As the song says, “I got wore out!”
However the wonderful welcome I received on a visit to Bodmin Folk Club refreshed my Folk buds and I am back singing again with renewed gusto.
A new musical adventure awaits…….
Well, we for one are proud to have Jon as one of our very talented members.
We meet in an upstairs room but there is a stairlift if required. There is no bar so byo but we do a great line in tea and biscuits.
