Port Isaac’s Fisherman's Friends
Universal Music today announced that they have reeled in ten Cornish fisherman to join the label that is home to Lady Gaga, Take That and Amy Winehouse. Signing a massive million pound deal, Port Isaac’s Fisherman’s Friends will be the first traditional shanty singers to be released through a major label.
Brought to the attention of Universal Music by record producer Rupert Christie, who spotted them whilst on a holiday in Port Isaac performing in the local pub, the label had to move swiftly to stop the record coming out on the Fisherman’s Friends’ own label, Marine Records.
‘Port Isaac’s Fisherman’s Friends’ will be released on 26 April 2010 and is the eponymous album from these traditional shanty singers from the rugged, panoramic north coast of Cornwall.
The Fisherman’s Friends are shanty singers who have delighted visitors and locals there for more than 15 years. Down on the harbour front of the tiny fishing village of Port Isaac, the authentic sound of the shanty can be heard loud and clear via the mighty, brawny chorale of The Fisherman’s Friends. At around eight in the evening during the summer months, tourists and locals gather to hear this ten-man group mesh their voices in an incredibly rousing and joyful set of shanties and Cornish folk songs.
This unique group from Port Isaac are or have been fishermen, lifeboatmen and coastguards (as well as builders, artisans, hoteliers, and shop keepers) and they’ve known each other since childhood. Their regular portside concerts have become a much-loved local institution and visiting celebrities such as Chris Evans, Gloria Hunniford and Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen have fallen under the spell of their Shanty singing.
Recorded in a 15th-century church in nearby St Kew, ‘Ports isaac’s Fisherman’s Friends’ features a rich haul of 14 songs from their Port Isaac repertoire, including the classic South Australia, the haunting Cornish robber ballad The Cadgwith Anthem and the beautiful Brightly Beams, their mesh of Chapel-inspired harmonies rising out of a big-band folk setting.