A tall sailing ship crossing a deep blue sea beneath a golden evening sky (AI-generated image) — AI-generated image

A SAILOR. A SINGER. A STORYTELLER.

Shep Woolley.
Portsmouth folk singer, a life at sea and songs.

Shep Woolley went from the mess decks of the Royal Navy to the folk clubs of Portsmouth: the songs, the stories and the seafaring humour of one of the city's best-loved entertainers.

Hear the recordings Read his story

PORTSMOUTH, ENGLAND ✦ ROOTED IN THE SEAEXPLORE THE STORY

FOLK MUSIC✦SEA SONGS✦TALL TALES✦PORTSMOUTH SOUL✦A LIFE IN A BLUE SUIT

01 / THE MAN BEHIND THE MUSIC

A guitar.
A sense of humour.
A world of stories.

Some men follow the tide.
Shep brought a guitar.

John "Shep" Woolley grew up in the Midlands, the son of a coal miner, and was on a stage before he could read: his Uncle Fred ran the local Working Men's Club, and the boy sang on its free-and-easy nights. He joined the Royal Navy at fifteen and took the music with him, playing ship's concerts, ship's radio and rock'n'roll with a band called Downbeats Ltd.

Folk came later, at sea. Aboard HMS Mohawk in 1968 he fell in with shipmates playing Irish and Scottish tunes, and back in Portsmouth he became a resident at the Sunshine Folk Club in Farlington. He went full time as an entertainer in December 1975: singer, songwriter, folk comedian, radio presenter and, as his own website put it, a lot more than just a shanty singer.

The full story, from the colliery to the quayside

02 / SONGS FROM THE DECK

Pull up a chair.
There's a song in this.

His recordings on SoundCloud

THE LISTENING ROOM

Yeee Ha! You Drunken Sailors

Sailors on a Train · 2016

The player is loaded from SoundCloud only when you ask for it. Open this recording

ON THE RECORD

A few ports of call.

Naval life, folk songs and the humour between them, all still available to stream.

2016 / ALBUM

WHERE THE SEA MEETS THE SONG

The tide goes out.
The stories stay.

NAVAL ROOTS. FOLK SPIRIT. A VOICE OF HIS OWN.

03 / THE SHIP'S LOG

A life.
Many voyages.

From a boy seaman with a guitar to a performer with a world of tales.

The Portsmouth Music Scene archive

1965

A band in Singapore

Still serving, Shep is playing rock'n'roll with Downbeats Ltd. In Singapore he meets Jenny; they marry two years later.

1968

Folk finds him at sea

Aboard HMS Mohawk he joins shipmates playing Irish and Scottish folk music, and the songwriting begins in earnest.

1975

Ashore, on stage

In December he turns professional. Folk clubs, theatres, cruise ships and naval reunions follow, with Pipe Down among the early albums.

1983

A song for Pompey

Pompey Rock becomes a local favourite and makes him the voice of a football city as much as a naval one.

2016

The voyage in song

Sailors on a Train gathers songs, poems and tunes, from Shotley to the Solent.

04 / AT A GLANCE

Shep Woolley, folk singer, at a glance

Ask around the folk clubs of Hampshire and the answer is usually the same: Shep Woolley is a folk singer who tells jokes, or a comedian who sings, and nobody has ever settled which. A reviewer for North West Leicestershire's 'On Tour' programme gave up trying, calling him simply a great all-round performer who does not fit neatly into a single category. The facts below are the ones he has told about himself.

Shep Woolley, the essentials
Topic	Detail
Real name	John Woolley; "Shep" to everyone else
Roots	The Midlands, home town Tamworth; father Charlie a coal miner
Navy	Joined the Royal Navy at fifteen; ship's concerts, ship's radio, the band Downbeats Ltd
Folk club	Resident at the Sunshine Folk Club, Farlington, after HMS Mohawk in 1968
On stage	Professional from December 1975
On air	Around ten years on Radio Victory, Portsmouth's commercial station
Best-known local song	Pompey Rock, 1983
Home port	Southsea, Portsmouth

Five ports of call: the route from a Midlands mining town to a professional stage in Portsmouth, as Shep tells it.

05 / ON THE WATERFRONT

Warrior nights and a Portsmouth football city

For years one of the busiest stages in Shep's diary was not a stage at all but the gun deck of HMS Warrior, the Victorian ironclad berthed beside Portsmouth Harbour station. Corporate dinners, regatta parties and weddings aboard the ship were given a full naval evening: military marching on the upper deck, shanties around the tables from the 'Ansom Cabin Buoys, and a genuine Royal Navy rum bosun serving tots. One regatta organiser wrote afterwards that out of twenty events held across the UK, the Mediterranean and the Caribbean, the night aboard Warrior had been voted the best.

The gun deck of HMS Warrior with long mess tables, benches and black cannon between the gunports — Warrior's gun deck, where 520 of the crew once ate and slept, and where Shep's naval evenings were laid out between the cannon. Photo: Andy Li, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Portsmouth is a football city as well as a naval one, and the two meet in his songs. Pompey Rock, written by a man who calls himself a true blue Pompey supporter, knocked Boy George off the top of The News hit list in 1983. On matchday his contribution costs nothing and never loses: a chorus the whole ground already knows.

06 / NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH

The other Wooley, and other records

One letter has caused a great deal of confusion. Sheb Wooley, spelled without the second L, was an American actor and country singer from Erick, Oklahoma, best remembered for the 1958 novelty hit The Purple People Eater and for recording as his drunken alter ego Ben Colder. Folk fans have argued on forums over whether the two were related; they were not. Shep is a Midlands-born Royal Navy man who made his name in Portsmouth, and Sheb was a rodeo rider who became a Hollywood character actor in High Noon and Rawhide.

the purple people eater — A one-eyed, one-horned, flying purple people eater: Sheb Wooley's 1958 creation, not Shep Woolley's.

The French discography site rocky-52 keeps a careful page on Sheb Wooley Ben Colder for anyone who wants the American side of the story. The fuller comparison sits on the Sheb Wooley and Ben Colder page.

Records from other shelves turn up here too. The Los Angeles band Spirit, whose line-up and late album Future Games get a page of their own, shares its name with Spirit Music Group, a music publisher unconnected to the band that looks after spirit album singer songwriter catalogues of its own. And folk music only survives if young players keep arriving, which is why borough competitions for young musicians matter as much as any festival.

young musician of the year 2021 — Every generation of folk players starts somewhere: Wandsworth's Young Musician of the Year 2021.

07 / QUESTIONS FROM THE BAR

FAQ

Who is Shep Woolley?

Shep Woolley is a Portsmouth-based folk singer, songwriter and comedian. Born John Woolley in the Midlands, he joined the Royal Navy at fifteen, found folk music aboard HMS Mohawk in 1968 and turned professional in December 1975.

Was Shep Woolley in the Royal Navy?

Yes. He joined the Navy at fifteen and played in ship's concerts, on the ship's radio and with the band Downbeats Ltd before turning to folk music and, in December 1975, to full-time performing.

What kind of evenings did Shep Woolley host aboard HMS Warrior?

Themed naval nights for corporate guests, regatta crews and wedding parties: marching on the upper deck, shanties at the tables and tots of rum poured by a Royal Navy rum bosun. The ship, now part of the National Museum of the Royal Navy, still hosts weddings and functions.

Where can I hear Shep Woolley's songs?

Several of his albums, including Life in a Blue Suit, Overboard, Grumpy Old Matelot and Sailors on a Train, are on the major streaming services, and a selection of tracks is on SoundCloud.

What is Pompey Rock?

Pompey Rock is Shep Woolley's 1983 song for Portsmouth Football Club supporters. It became a local favourite and topped The News hit list in Portsmouth that year.

THERE'S ALWAYS ROOM FOR ONE MORE

Good songs.
Better company.
Welcome aboard.

Browse the records

Shep Woolley.Portsmouth folk singer, a life at sea and songs.

Some men follow the tide.Shep brought a guitar.

Pull up a chair.There's a song in this.