Fisherman's Friends

The Fisherman’s Friends bring the sound of Port Isaac to Coventry on 30 September 2027 at Warwick Arts Centre. Since 1995, this crew of Cornish singers, rooted in fishing, lifeboat service and harbour life, has carried sea shanties and nautical songs from their village quayside to the stage. Their repertoire digs into work songs, forebitters and homeward ballads, built on communal harmonies, call-and-response and stories drawn from the coast. Largely a cappella in their early days, their live set now folds in pared-back folk instrumentation—concertina, guitar, percussion—without losing the collective punch of the voices.

They first self-released albums such as Suck’em and Sea and Home from the Sea before signing to Universal for Port Isaac’s Fisherman’s Friends and One and All, a run that led them to folk fixtures from Glastonbury to the Cambridge Folk Festival. Later records, including Proper Job and Sole Mates, kept tracing this oral tradition, and their path inspired the films Fisherman’s Friends and its sequel, alongside the companion release One and All: Music from the Movie. In Coventry, expect a set that moves between unaccompanied harmonies and stripped folk arrangements, keeping the cadence of the sea at the centre.