Cruise ship musician

Cruise ship musician

Sliding halfway across a stage in the middle of the Atlantic with an audience full of James Last-lovers clapping along to The Blue Danube might not have been exactly what you had in mind when you decided on a career in music.

That's most people's idea of the cruise ship entertainment world - but it's a stereotype you should drop now if you don't want to deny yourself access to a whole world of lucrative work, according to Royal Academy of Music graduate Ralph Broadbent.

Broadbent plays with his two brothers and cousin in String Fever, a quartet of electric stringed instruments. They had been playing a half-hour show on the after-dinner circuit in 2004 when a comedian on the same bill approached them and asked whether they'd thought of working at sea. He put them in touch with his cruise agent and before they knew it they were on the Royal Caribbean International destined for the Greek Islands.

'It was 10 times better than I expected,' says Broadbent. 'The facilities on the ship were amazing and it really was like a floating five-star hotel. There was a 1,000-seater theatre with full backstage staff.' The group hasn't looked back and spends much of the year at sea on various contracts: 'Performing down the east coast of Australia in February - it doesn't get much better than that.'

'Try it - and if you don't like it, you've had a free cruise.'

Averaging around seven or eight cruises a year, the quartet arranges its diary through an agent who books around a year in advance. 'There are dozens of cruise liners out there,' says Broadbent. 'Try it - and if you don't like it, you've had a free cruise.'

The boys don't find working at sea a claustrophobic experience. 'The joy of going as a group is that you can do solo performances as well and take part in other events,' he says. String Fever perform a show they had already prepared, so Broadbent doesn't feel that any artistic integrity was compromised by performing to a floating holiday camp. 'How can we complain?' he exclaims. 'There's a bit of snobbery around I guess but it's unfounded. I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone who's young and doesn't mind travelling.'

Katherine Spencer is a clarinettist with the Galliard Ensemble. She studied at the Royal Academy of Music and Hanover Hochschule before becoming a freelance musician. Her first foray onto the water occurred when she was a student: 'I just did an audition and started working for Fred Olsen and the QEII.' In her time as a cruise ship entertainer she travelled in South America, the Canaries and the Mediterranean.

'You get the best of both worlds,' she says. 'The perks of being staff and a guest. Half-price laundry bills, cheap bar, guest food. It's definitely a happy place to be.' Now she has a young family Spencer doesn't think a life on the seas would appeal to her any more but it does have its advantages. 'I usually only did two concerts a week and I found it very relaxing to only have that to think about and no other stresses such as cleaning or cooking,' she says.

'Also the audiences are really appreciative and I usually had the same people coming to all the concerts so I got to know them.'

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