The Shoals of Herring – the film of the radio ballad and more

Put on your slippers, pour a drink, draw up a chair and get comfortable. In this film made in the 1960s, fishermen talk about the herring fishing industry.

There’s some smashing footage here, and Ewan MacColl and his associates AL ‘Bert’ Lloyd, Ian Campbell, Peggy Seeger, Bruce Turner and Alf Edwards play great music sing great songs made up from snatches of the old boys’ speech, and tinged with a certain romance as you might expect.

The whole thing was edited together by Philip Donellan, and includes extracts from John Grierson’s Drifters, Harry Watts’ North Sea and Campbell Harper’s Caller’ Herrin.

My thanks to Chris Brady for spotting these YouTubes.

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