Behind The Fisherman's Friends It Is Likely That The Cornish Coast Becomes A Star

Sharp winds can hit the Cornish coast, but that does not bother the minds of a group of happy fishermen.

In fact, a few moments after meeting the Friends of the fisherman, they spontaneously began to sing.

And it's certainly not an air that you hear every day on the radio.

In a melodious harmony, the all-male folk group sings Haul Away Joe, an eye-catching marine cabana with frowning lyrics.

Local dog walkers nod and nod as if it was a perfectly normal sight on a windy weekday morning in Port Isaac.

Well, thanks to the unlikely rise of The Fisherman's Friends, that's right.

The original group of ten people, acapella, is a group of long-time friends who have been gathering on the port of their home port, Port Isaac, for more than 25 years to raise funds for charity singing traditional songs of the sea.

A chance meeting with a music director on vacation in their local pub allowed them to join Universal Records in 2010 and catapult them into the elusive world of musical fame.

Over the last ten years, they have become the first traditional folk band to win one of the top ten British albums, to sing on the Pyramid stage in Glastonbury and even perform for the Queen.

Their remarkable story has now been turned into a restful film starring Daniel Mays and Tuppence Middleton, which is expected to hit British theaters on Friday.

But the people most surprised by their meteoric rise are the old buoys themselves.

Jon Cleave, a former member of the group and a former lifeboat captain, who is recognized immediately because of his curly mustache, laughs: "I was expelled from the school choir because I had been prevented from singing.

"I was told that I was a" farmer "."

Although the directors of the new film have experimented with numerous artistic licenses in the screenplay – creating a love story and a story of wacky farces – it shows that realistic working men are deeply skeptical about business music sector, even laughing at the prospect of signing a lucrative record deal.

Jeremy Brown, 58, whose 60-year-old brother John also sings in the group, says it's a faithful representation of their initial reaction.

"We just did not take it seriously," says the grandfather of four children, whose music teacher also told him he "sang like a cow."

"We all just got into our chairs and laughed. We thought it was hilarious.

"We were happy that people thought we were making a good noise but we never had any pretensions: we always say that if you book the Friends of the fisherman, you will get the Fisher's Friends."

I join four members of the original group – Jon, 60, Jeremy and his brother John, 60, and Yorkshireman John McDonnell, 68 – for a traditional Cornish breakfast (replace the black pudding by pork pudding, apparently) by the port where most of the film is placed.

As the quartet dragged me to the pier and went to Fisherman Jeremy's workshop to inspect his hand-made lobster trap, it's clear that I really have the bargain today.

Health and safety disappear through the window as we curl up in the lurching loft filled with nooks and crannies. Jeremy bursts out laughing that the film crew refused to come up because it was a potential danger.

It is clear that the four men have been friends for years, as they constantly plunge into sentences with sarcastic and teasing jokes.

But under their casual attitude hides a tragedy that the group now refuses to talk about.

In 2013, a heavy steel door fell while they were preparing a concert in Guildford, killing their promoter Paul McMullen and singer Trevor Grills.

In the past, Jon, grumpy, said, "The door was almost to the ceiling when I remember the buzzing engine that suddenly went off.

"There was a distinct click and then a surge of air when four tons of metal were thrown to the ground. Just like a heavy guillotine. "

The accident left the entire village in mourning, but the group tried to move on.

They occur mainly as a group of five or six musicians nowadays, aged from 40 to 68 years old.

In the era of politically correct, #MeToo celebrities and reality TV, their rustic image is the ideal antidote to modern life.

"Our sound is more about enthusiasm than technique," says Jeremy, whose son, Tom, is a sixth-generation fisherman as we burrow into one of his lobster traps.

Jon adds, "We do all these sold-out concerts all over the country, but at the end of the day, we treat it like we're singing in a pub or on the harbor.

"And I think what people find refreshing, in a sense, is that we engage with them as we might in the community and we always try to talk to our fans after our gigs . "

With an average age of 57, the men say they have never received any inappropriate mail from their fans – "our fans will go wild on their zimmer mounts!", Pleasant Jon – but they surprisingly hit the children.

This is despite some obscene lyrics in the traditional sea shanties that could have been a little less controversial 150 years ago, as the famous Drunken Sailor "put him to bed with the captain's daughter" and that of Haul Away Joe "once I had a German girl but she was fat and lazy".

John, 60, says that it is often necessary to tone down the lyrics to make it a child friendly in 2019.

He tells me, "Even we have to evolve over time."

Jon insists: "We have never been PCs, we have never voted for PCs and I have never been PCs.

And although the region has already attracted tourists from around the world since the huge success of Doc Martin, filmed in the village by ITV, the Friends of the fisherman have also become a tourist attraction in their own right.

Huge posters and posters of the new film are visible throughout the village and their albums are distributed in all the stores.

But the group wants to preserve the spirit of independence and community of Cornwall, despite their resounding success.

"We think a sense of community has really been lost in the UK," says Jon.

"So of course, we think it's a good thing we report it.

"Our popularity also helps us raise the profile of Cornwall, which can only be a good thing too.

"Singing in Cornwall, especially men, was a huge thing, but it is disappearing. Hope we help bring that back. "

And although the members are not all fishermen – John McDonnell is a builder, for example – the name of the group comes from the idea that they are all friends of people who work at sea, even if they are not themselves.

Of course, the similarity between the name of their group and the famous menthol lozenges of Fisherman's Friend did not go unnoticed.

"Some boys sometimes suck them before a show to cool their voices," says John.

The company refused them sponsorship, but a box of candies was sent to them.

"Oh, well, we do not need their sponsorship now!" Jon laughs, because I'm referring to the fact that the film is compared to hit comedies like Calendar Girls and The Full Monty.

"Of course, we were all nervous when we first saw the movie in London," said Jeremy.

"But finally, we just relaxed and tried to enjoy it. And we loved it, we all applauded in the end.

"The star of the movie is really the songs themselves – they are really in everyone's DNA, 150-200 years ago, when everyone was working at sea, on the cbads or elsewhere, is definitely part of the attraction. "

And do they hope the movie will be a resounding success and make a group of guys who were singing the pub to have more fun?

With his clbadic humor, Jon adds, "We filled a local church for harvest a year. I told the pastor: "The fisherman's friends are taller than Jesus! ".

• The fisherman's friends went out on Friday.