Fisherman's Friends
| Fisherman's Friends | |
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Fisherman's Friends performing at Port Isaac
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Port Isaac, Cornwall, UK |
| Genres | Sea shanties |
| Years active | 1995–present |
| Labels | Universal Music |
| Website | www |
| Members | John Brown Julian Brown Jeremy Brown John Lethbridge Billy Hawkins Jason Nicholas Peter Rowe John McDonnell Jon Cleave Toby Lobb |
| Past members | Trevor Grills Nigel Sherratt |
Fisherman's Friends are a male singing group from Port Isaac, Cornwall, who sing sea shanties. They have been performing locally since 1995, and signed a record deal with Universal Music in March 2010. Whilst essentially an a cappella group, their studio recordings now often include traditional simple instrumentation.
The members are: John Brown, Julian Brown, Jeremy Brown (these first three being brothers), John Lethbridge, Billy Hawkins, Jason Nicholas, Peter Rowe, John McDonnell and Jon Cleave. At 78, Peter Rowe is the oldest member, as of June 2012.
All the members of the group "grew up within half a mile of Port Isaac harbour" except for John McDonnell who is a Yorkshireman. Three are fishermen, and the others are linked to the sea through service as coastguards or lifeboatmen.
Jon Cleave is the MC of the group and also the author/illustrator of the children's book series Gully as well as the full length, humorous novel Nasty Pasty.
They sing the chorus on Show of Hands' popular song Cousin Jack on Show of Hands' "best of" CD "Roots", as well as on the title track.
Their repertoire is extremely varied and includes both shanties and other nautical songs, some of which are fairly lewd.
They performed at the 2010 Cornbury music festival in Oxfordshire, the Glastonbury Festival and the Cambridge Folk Festival. They also often perform in Port Isaac, regularly singing on the beach in the Summer Holidays.
The group had released two CDs themselves before signing with Universal. In 2002, under the name Port Isaac’s ‘Fishermen’s Friends’, they recorded an album, primarily to raise funds for the RNLI, which was released on the Clovelly Label, Catalogue Number CLCD12702. The Album, entitled Fishermen’s Friends are Home from the Sea, has 20 tracks and was recorded in St Peter’s Church Port Isaac on the 26 and 27 April 2002. All the tracks are sung in the traditional a cappella style. The album was engineered by Bob Whitney and produced by John Perkins. Their first album with Universal, Port Isaac's Fisherman's Friends, was recorded in St Kew Parish Church, Cornwall, and released in April 2010.
A second album with Universal, One and All was released on 26 August 2013
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