In celebration of performing together for more than 30 years, Cornwall’s Fisherman’s Friends are proud to announce their new national UK tour dates for 2025 and 2026.
Bound together by lifelong friendship and shared experience, the Fisherman’s Friends met on the Platt (harbour) in their native Port Isaac to raise money for charity, singing the traditional songs of the sea handed down to them by their forefathers.
In 2010 they signed a major record deal and their album “Port Isaac’s Fisherman’s Friends” went Gold as they became the first traditional folk act to land a UK top ten album. Since then they’ve been the subject of an ITV documentary, released the hit albums One and All (2013), Proper Job (2015) and Sole Mates (2018) and played to hundreds of thousands of fans at home and abroad.
They sang for HM The Queen at her Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 2012, they were selected to sing for Prince Charles & Camilla during their 2016 tour of Cornwall and were honoured with the Good Tradition Award at the prestigious BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2011.
Starting out singing shanties together on the seafront in the fishing village of Port Isaac, the Fisherman’s Friends now have more than 100,000 followers on Facebook. Their story has inspired two feature films – 2019 saw the release of ‘Fisherman’s Friends’ a movie based on the group’s discovery and signing to a major record label. The film was an immediate hit, their second movie ‘Fisherman’s Friends One And All’ .followed, both now being shown on terrestrial and digital television – and have grossed more than $15 million at the UK box office.
Other standout performances include the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival, Twickenham Stadium during half-time of England v Australia (an intimate crowd of 81,275!!), Cambridge Folk Festival, Beautiful Days, Sidmouth Folk Week, Looe Music Festival, Costa del Folk in Portugal and the BBC Proms in the Park.
Having sold out every venue on their 2024 tour, including their very first headline show at London’s Royal Albert Hall, the group are looking forward to sharing songs old and new with audiences across the land.
As is their tradition, they will also be performing some dates closer to home in Cornwall, including four concerts at the historic clifftop Minack Theatre on 24 and 25 April 2025 (tickets on sale in the New Year), as well as selected festival appearances.
In addition there have been top ten album releases, a touring stage musical, a BBC Folk Award, a best-selling book, TV documentary and a host of prestigious performances, from The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations to Hyde Park Proms in the Park, the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury and 80,000 rugby fans at Twickenham... and they’ve even sung on Strictly Come Dancing (I nearly choked on my hot, buttered crumpet as I settled down for some cha cha cha)
In January the group released their fifth album, All Aboard, on Island Records, also home to the incredible catalogues of both Bob Marley and Amy Winehouse, as well as folk legends Fairport Convention and Cat Stevens. The relationship between the group and their mainstream label has now spanned 15 years and this summer their song Brave Volunteers a collaboration with Devon folk hero Seth Lakeman, was added to the BBC Radio 2 playlist as part of the station’s 21st Century Folk project.
The guys have achieved all this and much more while still carrying on with their “day jobs”. The Fisherman’s Friends are lobster fisherman Jeremy Brown, author and shopkeeper Jon Cleave, smallholder and engineer John ‘Lefty’ Lethbridge, builder John McDonnell, Padstow fisherman Jason Nicholas, filmmaker Toby Lobb, electrician Simon Biddick and two very talented musicians – Marcus Bonfanti and Simon Johnson.
Through rough seas and calm, the band have remained exactly what they always were when they first got together to learn a few sea shanties in a Cornish living room – fishermen and their friends.
Tour Dates as Follows:
03 Oct YORK Barbican
04 Oct MILTON KEYNES Theatre
05 Oct POOLE Lighthouse
23 Oct CHELTENHAM Town Hall
24 Oct CAMBRIDGE Corn Exchange
25 Oct LEICESTER De Montfort Hall
26 Oct EXETER Uni Great Hall
06 Nov AYLESBURY Waterside Theatre
07 Nov HALIFAX Victoria Theatre
08 Nov SHEFFIELD City Hall
09 Nov BASINGSTOKE The Anvil
27 Nov LLANDUDNO Venue Cymru Theatre
28 Nov MIDDLESBROUGH Town Hall
29 Nov WARWICK Arts Centre
30 Nov PLYMOUTH Pavilions
2026
19 Feb TORQUAY Princess Theatre
20 Feb LIVERPOOL Philharmonic Hall
21 Feb CARLISLE Sands Centre
22 Feb BUXTON Opera House
05 Mar BRIGHTON Dome
06 Mar SOUTHEND Cliffs Pavilion
07 Mar LONDON Cadogan Hall (matinee)
07 Mar LONDON Cadogan Hall (evening show) SOLD OUT
08 Mar BIRMINGHAM Symphony Hall
26 Mar FOLKESTONE Leas Cliff Hall
27 Mar IPSWICH Regent
28 Mar NOTTINGHAM Royal Concert Hall
29 Mar OXFORD New Theatre
09 Apr BRISTOL Beacon
10 Apr NORTHAMPTON Dearngate
11 Apr GATESHEAD The Glasshouse Sage 1
12 Apr MANCHESTER Bridgewater Hall
For further details please visit: thefishermansfriends.com
or https://tix.to/FishermansFriends for tickets.
