Four teenagers who were rescued after being cut off by the tide have come forward to warn others of the dangers.

Three of the group are members of popular Deal and Dover folk band Gentlemen of Few, who went through to the finals of Radio 2’s Young Folk Awards.

Members of the band, Jarrod Piner, 18, Elliott Morris, 17, and Reece Forward, 17, were with their ‘roadie’ Alex Byrne, 17, taking a walk and having a barbecue at St Margaret’s on Tuesday afternoon at around 3pm.

Just before 7pm they decided to walk back from St Margaret’s to Kingsdown, not realising that the tide would catch up with them.

Piano player and backing vocalist, Jarrod Piner, who lives in Deal, said: “We walked for an hour and a half, the walk was a bit more than we imagined and we were losing signal.

“The tide started coming in and we started treading water and it got dark.”

When the group reached a high bit of rock they realised that the sea had reached the land and they could not go any further so they turned back - only to be confronted with the sea on the other side.

He added: “We were progressively getting more scared and worried."

They finally managed to call Alex Byrne’s mum who got hold of the RNLI and two lifeboats were sent out to find them at 9.30pm, two hours after the boys had initially gotten stuck.

The Walmer D Class Lifeboat and A85 Lifeboat were both launched in under eight minutes.

The lifeboats reached the scene and the casualties were quickly spotted on a cliff fall which they had scrambled up to stay above the rising tide.

On behalf of the band, Mr Piner wished to say a huge thank you to the Walmer Lifeboat crew who came and rescued them.

“We kept apologising and the first thing that they said to us was, are you Gentlemen of Few?"

Now Gentlemen of Few are appealing for everyone to pay attention to tide times and not make the same mistake.

Mr Piner said: “I never really paid attention to warning signs about tides, I thought it was exaggerating and silly but it really isn’t, it’s very serious. We suggest that everyone understands the tide times and understands what they are doing.”

For more on this story see next week's East Kent Mercury.

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