Britain’s oldest boy band emerge from lockdown and hit the road as The Fisherman’s Friends – combined age 401 (and three-quarters) – announce their Unlocked & Unleashed tour for 2021.
Thanks to the small film with a big heart that shares their name, the story of the original Cornish ‘buoy band’ is known around the world – bound by shared experience, for 40 years they have met on the Platt on the harbour in their native Port Isaac to sing the songs of the sea.
“And now we can’t wait to show the rest of the country what they’ve been missing – singing live is in our blood, almost as much as the sea,” says extravagantly moustachioed MC and bass man Jon Cleave.
Starring Daniel Mays, James Purefoy, Tuppence Middleton and Noel Clarke with cameo appearances from the group whose voices also appear on the soundtrack, Fisherman’s Friends took $10 million at the box office and saw the boys perform at the 2019 Cannes film festival as well as sell out another UK tour.
This year, despite the best efforts of the global pandemic, the boys have kept fans entertained in lockdown posting weekly songs and poems on their YouTube series ‘Mares Tales & Mackerel Scales’. They also played sell out summer shows at Cornwall’s iconic Minack Theatre and performed at screenings of the film at the Wavelength Drive-In Cinema in Watergate Bay.
Next year filming begins on Fisherman’s Friends 2 as the boys return to the studio to record a new album, the follow up to the hit soundtrack album Keep Hauling that is well on its way to Gold sales.
Cornwall’s best-known musical export, a decade ago The Fisherman’s Friends were persuaded to sign the million-pound record deal that saw their album Port Isaac’s Fisherman’s Friends go Gold as they became the first ever traditional folk act to land a UK top ten album. Since then they’ve sang at HM The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations, played Glastonbury festival and been honoured with the Good Tradition Award at the prestigious BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. They’ve also been the subject of an ITV documentary, released the hit albums One and All (2013), Proper Job (2015) and Sole Mates (2018) and continued to play to tens of thousands of fans at home and abroad.
UK DATES 2021
09 April Manchester Bridgewater Hall
10 April Hull City Hall
11 April Brighton Dome
06 May Nottingham Royal Concert Hall
09 Sep Birmingham Symphony Hall
10 Sep York Barbican
11 Sep Edinburgh Queens Hall
12 Sep Sheffield City Hall
23 Sep Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
24 Sep Aylesbury Waterside Theatre
25 Sep Oxford New Theatre
26 Sep Torquay Princess Theatre
07 Oct London Palladium
08 Oct Cambridge Corn Exchange
09 Oct Ipswich Regent
10 Oct Portsmouth Guildhall
04 Nov Cheltenham Town Hall
05 Nov Southend Cliffs Pavilion
06 Nov Leicester De Montfort Hall
07 Nov Bournemouth Pavilion Theatre
02 Dec Cardiff St David’s Hall
03 Dec Northampton Derngate
04 Dec Plymouth Pavilions
Tickets go on general sale at 10:00am on Friday 16th October and will be available from www.gigsandtours.com
