'Frank Dalton' single review by Neil King of 'Fatea'.

Every now and then there's a song comes around that gets you just there (places fist against chest), "Frank Dalton" is just such a song. It's a story song that tells the true story of the night of the 9th-10th December 1951 when the Scarborough Lifeboat launched to rescue the crew of the Dutch cargo vessel M.V. Westkust in treacherous seas.

The entire crew of the M.V. Westkust were saved in frightening conditions. Three of the crew of the lifeboat, E.C.J.R., were awarded the R.N.L.I. Bronze Medal for the rescue, John Nicholas Sheader (Coxswain), Thomas Jenkinson Mainprize (Assistant Mechanic) and Frank Dalton (Bowman), unfortunately Frank's award was posthumous.

It's an immensely powerful song and one that really strikes a chord as I come from a seafaring family and the RNLI are headquartered just around the corner from where I live, but if the song strikes a chord with me, that doesn't comes close to describing its importance to Dan Webster, writer and performer of the song as Frank Dalton is Dan's great granddad.

Dan has decided to donate all the proceeds from the song to the RNLI, the third part of a fund raising effort he's put in for the charity having taken part in both the Great North Run and the Chester Marathon already this year.

The RNLI survive entirely on public donation, there's no government handouts for the organisation and I could easily say that's reason enough to buy the song, but it's not reason enough, if that was reason enough I would suggest putting the money in one of their charity boxes, but you should do that anyway.

No you should get "Frank Dalton" because it's a really strong song, it does what music is supposed to do and that's move you. That you will be helping the RNLI by doing so is a real bonus.

Neil King

Link http://www.fatea-records.co.uk/magazine/FrankDalton.html