SET against the picturesque background of Weymouth Beach, the perfect location to enjoy an evening of live music, is the Boat Café, on the Esplanade.

For the boat's 11th birthday, Weymouth band The Leggomen performed a gig on the deck as part of their weekly ‘Sunset Sessions,’ whilst crowds of people filled the beach to watch and enjoy the atmosphere.​

The four-piece, consisting of bass guitarist and vocalist, Ben Delplanque, drummer, Josh Ellis, and vocalists and guitarists Oliver Coe and Jack Southorn, performed popular hits like Amy Winehouse’s ‘Valerie,’ Fat Boy Slim’s ‘Praise You,’ and Bob Marley and the Wailers' ‘Three Little Birds,’ as well as a very special rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ especially for the boat and a few others who shared the same special day.

The first week of the summer holidays saw locals and tourists pop out for to enjoy the live entertainment and thankfully the weather stayed warm throughout the evening as the band played into the sunset.

I spoke to Josh and Ben from the band after their performance, who enjoyed the gig saying: “It was awesome and a really good turnout. We’re constantly travelling around everywhere so it’s good to put something back in the local community and play the hometown.”

They added: “You appreciate Weymouth more when you come back.”

When asked what their favourite thing about performing live was, Ben replied, “not playing with Josh” and funnily enough, Josh had a similar reply of “It’s funny because when Ben’s not there I enjoy it more.”

But in all seriousness, the boys agreed that their favourite thing was seeing the crowds enjoy themselves, “You’re in a tight unit when you’re up on stage and you’re focusing on what you’re doing and when you see everybody enjoying it, it takes a new life, you can enjoy it a lot more.”

They added: “You feed off the crowd as you go, it’s just great when you have a good night and there’s load of people enjoying it and when people come back – we can’t be too bad if they come back and watch it every week.”

More recently, Jack from Weymouth band ‘London Carousel’ has joined the Leggomen whilst their bandmate Billy has taken a little hiatus to which the boys joked, “As long as we’ve got someone with a beard playing, we’ll be alright - We’ve had a few [members] come and go but we always get people come back in and we’re all still mates.”

As the night progressed and the set drew to an end, a small group of women got up on their feet and started dancing away to the music, then, one by one, more people got up to join them and it wasn’t long before the whole front section in front of the boat that was once empty was filled with happy, dancing people, there for a good time.

The sun began to set as the last song was playing, but in typical fashion the band came back for not one, but two songs, ending with classic favourites Mr Brightside (The Killers) and Don’t Look Back in Anger (Oasis).

Crowds sang and danced, enjoying seaside favourites like fish and chips as well as bringing along a couple of drinks to enjoy alongside the performance.

With a set list full of popular songs, the band provided a prominent performance bringing back audiences every week, well known around the town to put on a good performance.

The manager of the Boat, Jo West, has been working at the seafront café for nine years.

She said: “It’s brilliant to see it so busy, it’s really great for Weymouth, we love doing it [the Sunset Sessions] every year and it brings both the locals and tourists out.”

She added: “We’ve got a really good team here at the Boat and we love it.”

The Sunset Sessions began last year, and you can catch the boys, every Tuesday evening from 7pm-9pm (weather dependant) until Tuesday, August 30.