Fisherman's Friends Tickets

The heart-warming 2019 film Fisherman’s Friends captured the spirit of the real-life group of singers who share the same name. Although the characters were inventions, the story about a record label manager who stumbles across a group of musically gifted fishermen and turns them into stars isn’t.

Fisherman’s Friends are a “buoy band” from Port Isaac, Cornwall who met on the harbour and bonded over a love of singing sea shanties. They were discovered in 2009 when BBC Radio presenter Johnnie Walker happened across their homemade CDs – Suck’em And Sea, Home From The Sea and Another Mouthful From… The Fisherman’s Friends – while visiting the area on holiday. His manager Ian Brown travelled down soon after and signed them to a £1 million recording contract that led to the release of Port Isaac’s Fisherman’s Friends in 2010. That album was the first ever by a traditional folk act to land in the top 10 of the UK albums chart.

Later that year, ITV filmed a documentary called Fisherman’s Friends that traced their journey from singing on the quayside in a remote village for over 20 years to becoming in-demand stars at festivals and concerts all across the country.

Among their many highlights, Fisherman’s Friends starred in an advert for Young’s Seafood and were honoured with the Good Tradition Award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2011, sang at HM The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 2012 and played Glastonbury on several occasions. The group have also released four more albums: 2013’s One And All, 2015’s Proper Job, 2018’s Sole Mates and 2019’s Keep Hauling.

Although the line-up has changed over the past decade, Fisherman’s Friends continue to perform for enthusiastic fans in the UK and abroad. The group’s current members include lobster fisherman Jeremy Brown, writer and shopkeeper Jon Cleave, smallholder and engineer John “Lefty” Lethbridge, builder John McDonnell, Padstow fisherman Jason Nicholas, filmmaker Toby Lobb and former ambulance driver Pete Hicks.

During the lockdown in early 2020, Fisherman’s Friends posted weekly songs and poems on their YouTube series Mares Tales & Mackerel Scales. Over the summer, they played shows at Cornwall’s Minack Theatre and during screenings of the Fisherman’s Friends film at a drive-in in Watergate Bay. In addition, a sequel – Fisherman’s Friends 2: Bound For South Australia – began filming in 2021 and revisited the gang’s journey Down Under while they put their second album together.