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Outlook: The voyage of The Fisherman's Friends

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The Fisherman's Friends

10/02/2021 GMT

The voyage of The Fisherman's Friends

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

How a group of friends with a love for sea shanties went from Cornwall to the Albert Hall

The Fisherman's Friends were old friends who loved to sing sea shanties in the pub. A chance encounter with a famous DJ brought them stardom, but it hasn't all been plain sailing

As the craze for sea shanties (started by Scottish postman Nathan Evans) continues to grow on social media worldwide, Outlook returns to Port Isaac, a tiny English village, where in 2019 Emily Webb met the sea shanty band The Fisherman’s Friends.

The group got together 25 years ago 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 rose up the charts and they went on to play the Royal Albert Hall and Glastonbury Festival. Things were going well until 2013, when an accident backstage at one of their gigs 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 have had a feature film made about them, Fisherman’s Friends.

And: over the years, American Jim Haynes had hundreds of thousands of people round for dinner, most of them complete strangers. Jim Lived in Paris, and for more than 40 years, he had an open door policy every Sunday. He became known as the ‘godfather of social networking’ – and all manner of people dropped by to meet him. Jim died earlier this month aged 87. Jo Fidgen spoke to him in July 2015.

Image Credit: Chris Hewitt

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