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Outlook: The voyage of The Fisherman’s Friends

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The Fisherman's Friends standing together

22/04/2019 GMT

The voyage of The Fisherman’s Friends

BBC World Service - Outlook, The voyage of The Fisherman’s Friends

How a group of friends went from singing in their local pub to national stardom

The Fisherman’s Friends are a group of friends from a village in England. Through singing sea shanties, a type of maritime song, they were propelled to unexpected fame.

Around 25 years ago a group of middle-aged friends in the small English village of Port Isaac got together and started singing sea shanties, which are a type of maritime song. After a chance encounter with a BBC radio DJ Johnnie Walker, they ended up landing a £1 million record contract. Much to the group’s surprise, their album ended up in the charts. Since then, The Fisherman’s Friends have played at the Royal Albert Hall, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and Glastonbury Festival.
 
Things were going exceptionally well until 2013 when there was an accident backstage at one of their gigs. A metal door collapsed and killed singer Trevor Grills and the band’s tour manager Paul McMullen. The band didn’t perform for a year and in fact had no intention of singing again. 
 
However, they returned to the stage and this year have had a feature film made about them. It’s called Fisherman's Friends.
 
Outlook’s Emily Webb travelled to Port Isaac to find out about the amazing voyage of The Fisherman’s Friends. 


Image: The Fisherman's Friends standing together 
Credit: Chris Hewitt

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