East Town Pirates Review

A ship arrived in the port of Stowmarket on Friday and a crew of motley pirates invaded the local grog hole with lust and abandon in their eyes. The x marked the spot and the Pickerel Inn was their target. The East Town Pirates had arrived.

The band put on a rip roaring Friday night show full of energy and 'swagger'. The pickerel was packed out with a crew of grog loving land lubbers, a party of parading pirates and merry locals alike.

Local land lover Marc Winterburn said, "I'm so glad I live in a world where a man goes to the toilet and his girlfriend says, "Let me hold your cutlass!" I had a great night out and the East Town Pirates were on top form!"

Who are the East Town Pirates?

The East Town Pirates are a Suffolk based pirate folk punk super group consisting of 5 highly talented and experienced musicians.

Rikki Rumoldew - vocals

Zak Cousteau - drums

Jonnie Murder - guitar and vocals

Kutthroat Kev - guitar and backing vocals

Shameless Seamus - bass and backing vocals

First impressions of this band can be misleading. Although they appear to be a group of foul smelling, grog swilling, boat sinking rascals, the truth is the band are highly articulated and intellectual songwriters with a keen appreciation for Suffolk history. Read on.

The Mystery behind the Lyrics

Following an interview with Rikki I came to realise there was more to this band than meet the eyes. Here's what they had to say about the meaning behind their song lyrics.

"'The Ballad of Tobias Gill' is the tale of a soldier hung for a crime he (possibly) did not commit. He liked his grog and one night passed out on the way home from the pub.

A local girl, Annie Blakemore, went missing. She was found dead. Next to her body was the unconscious body of Tobias. He was denied the chance to run for his life (where a criminal is tied to the stage coach and if they can run all the way to London they are spared) and was hung for the crime near Blythburgh. It was then too late when the sentence was questioned as the girl had no marks on her body. Tobias Gill was innocent!!!...possibly

There are walking grounds near the site where Tobias Gill was hung called 'Toby's Walks'

There is also a song called 'Smuggler's Song' which is a Rudyard Kipling poem that we have put to music. It's basically about smuggling, the authorities and the local community.

We have another song called the 'Revenge of Emmy Tott'.  A tale of a girl abducted by the pirate captain of 'The Amsterdammer'. He held her hostage until one night she cut of his head off. The crew then released her.

Avery is a song about Henry Avery. A double crossing pirate captain that conned fellow captains out of their loot and legged it to America. He missed England and returned to deal with some merchants to help him sell his treasure. The merchants conned him and he was left penniless and homeless. He died on the streets and his body was thrown into an unmarked grave.

We also sing about John Dobbs. We sing about his bones rattling from his grave. He committed suicide. Back in the day the buried suicides face down with a stake through the heart to prevent their ghost/spirit escaping the grave. The graves were normally dug at cross roads to confuse the ghost if it did escape. John Dobbs grave is in Kesgrave just outside Ipswich, hence the road name of Dobbs Lane."

The future?

The band also divulged exclusive information of their plans for 2012.

Rikki: "We plan on commandeering a pirate ship, although they are quite hard to come by... In the meantime we will be gigging as much as possible."

If you like high energy music I highly recommend seeing this band perform live, they will be playing more gigs around the areas and will hopefully return to Stowmarket soon. If you are interested in hearing some of the East Town Pirates swashbuckling music then please visit their online Facebook and Myspace pages by clicking the links.

Check out the east Town Pirate's photo gallery from their Stowmarket gig here.