ABSTRACT
In this chapter the author examines how the practice of gospel singing at work, and particularly over the ship’s radio, contributed to and strengthened the cultural and spiritual lives of inhabitants of North-East coastal communities, creating a sacred acoustic community within which this religious and socio-economic group lived and worked. The second part of the chapter explores the use of gospel hymnody in onshore workplaces, and considers the extent to which sacred songs, when sung to accompany repetitive tasks such as gutting and ship-building, might be categorised as worksongs. Two separate issues come to light here, the combination of music and labour and the role of spirituality and belief within the workplace.
