Born in Plymouth into a naval family and raised in Plympton, where Rosemary and Cyril Tawney opened their first folk club, Joe has been singing and playing, mostly folk music, since his teens. For the past 15 years he has also been involved in sea shanty crews in Kent and also holds participative talks on the history and development of sea shanties to community groups in Kent, Essex, Devon and Wales. Naval History of WW2, particularly The Battle of the Atlantic, has been an enduring interest and this year at HISF Joe will be hosting a special Cyril Tawney session.