Tall Ships (album)

Tall Ships is the second album by Show of Hands, released in 1990 on cassette only. It contains the band's 22 minute medley "Tall Ships". Songs from the album appear on Backlog 1987-1991, a 1995 album containing songs from the band's earlier material for the first time on CD. This was due to Tall Ships going out of print later in 1990. Tall Ships, as well as Show of Hands and Out for the Count, are overlooked these days, as they are treated as "casstte albums" with Beat about the Bush being seen as the band's debut album.

Steve Knightley said that "Tall Ships" is set in a small West Country fishing village in the years just after the Napoleoniac Wars. Some of "Tall Ships" appeares on their debut Show of Hands, albeit in a different recording. The full 22 minute version appeares again on Backlog 1987-1991 and Roots - The Very Best of Show of Hands.

The album is sometimes referred to as Tall Ships/Six O Clock Waltz, as "Tall Ships" takes up all of Side A whilst "Six O Clock Waltz" opens Side B.

Tall ship

A tall ship is a large, traditionally-rigged sailing vessel. Popular modern tall ship rigs include topsail schooners, brigantines, brigs and barques. "Tall Ship" can also be defined more specifically by an organization, such as for a race or festival.

History

Traditional rigging may include square rigs and gaff rigs, usually with separate topmasts and topsails. It is generally more complex than modern rigging, which utilizes newer materials such as aluminum and steel to construct taller, lightweight masts with fewer, more versatile sails. Most smaller, modern vessels use the Bermuda rig. Though it did not become popular elsewhere until the twentieth century, this rig was developed in Bermuda in the seventeenth century, and had historically been used on its small ships, the Bermuda sloops.

Author and master mariner Joseph Conrad (who spent 1874 to 1894 at sea in tall ships and was quite particular about naval terminology) used the term "tall ship" in his works; for example, in The Mirror of the Sea in 1903. If Conrad used the term, it is fairly certain "tall ship" was common parlance among his fellow mariners in the last quarter of the 19th century.

Tall Ships (band)

HIDDEN ERROR: Usage of "touring_members" is not recognized

Tall Ships are an experimental band from Brighton, UK, originally from Falmouth, Cornwall. The band have released two EPs and their debut album Everything Touching was released through Big Scary Monster Records in October 2012. The band are currently writing their second album.

Biography

The group formed whilst at University in Falmouth, and Ric Phethean (guitar, keys and vocals), bassist Matt Parker (bass, keys and vocals) and drummer Jamie Bush (drums) in 2009. They have recently added producer James Elliot Field, formerly of Tubelord, to their live show. They released their self-titled EP on Big Scary Monster Records in early 2010, with their second EP ‘There is Nothing But Chemistry Here’ being released in October 2010 on Big Scary Monsters and Blood and Biscuits. The band have received notable airplay from Huw Stevens and Zane Lowe at the BBC, headlining the BBC Introducing Stage at the Reading and Leeds Festivals in 2012. Their debut album, Everything Touching, was released on 8 October 2012 on Blood and Biscuits through Big Scary Monsters.