Port Isaac, the home of the Fisherman's Friends!
During the summer months we are very lucky to have a group of local shanty-men singing on the Platt in the heart of Port Isaac every Friday evening. Their music can be enjoyed with a meal and a drink on our terrace or from the balcony of your harbour view room.
The following information is an extract from the biography on their website........ The Fisherman's Friends are shanty singers from Port Isaac on Cornwall's rugged, panoramic north coast, who have delighted visitors and locals here 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 every Friday 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.
There's no gang leader, no choir master and no holds barred in the singing of The Fisherman's Friends. And fisherman's friends they truly are each and every member of this unique group are or have been fishermen, lifeboatmen and coastguards (as well as builders, artisans, hoteliers, and shop keepers) in Port Isaac. They've known each other since childhood and learnt their powerful brand of Cornish harmony singing at the local Methodist chapel.
Their regular portside concerts have become a much-loved local institution and visiting celebs such as Chris Evans, Gloria Hunniford, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, have fallen under the spell of their Shanty singing. Their new album, recorded in a 15th-century church in nearby St Kew, features a rich haul of 12 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.