'Southend Song', 1981

Chris Jones’ ‘Southend Song’, performed in the Essex Radio studios for their Essex Folk programme (SA 30/3/7/1 Part 3).

Essex Radio began broadcasting in September 1981 from a studio in Clifftown Road, in the basement of the building that had formerly housed the printing presses of the Southend Standard newspaper. In 2004, the station moved to Glebe Road, Chelmsford, and was in 2009 rebranded as part of the national Heart network (information from Radio and Telly.co.uk).

Chris Jones is a local Essex artist. This song commemorates some of the things for which Southend is famous: the pier, as well as ‘cockles and mussels and prawns and jellied eels’. What sounds from your memories of seaside trips does the song evoke?