Sam Larner

Samuel James Larner (18 October 1878 – 11 September 1965) was an English fisherman and traditional singer from Winterton, a fishing village in Norfolk, England. His life history was the basis for Ewan McColl's song The Shoals of Herring, and his songs continue to be recorded by revival singers.

Early life

Fishing was an almost inevitable occupation for one of nine children of a fisherman father growing up in a village with a population of 800 people, 300 of whom were fishermen. Larner is quoted as saying "Why, for me and my brothers that was either sea or gaol, and that for my sisters that was service or gaol." He first went to sea as a cabin boy on a sailing lugger at the age of 13 and in 1894 signed as a deckhand on The Snowflake, another sailing boat. From 1899 he worked on steam trawlers. In 1923 he married Dorcas Eastick. He left fishing due to ill health in 1933, and spent some time unemployed as well as doing whatever jobs he could find, including road mending and forestry.

He started singing from an early age, learning the songs his grandfather and others sang in the pubs at Winterton, and earning pennies by singing them to the coach parties that visited the village. As a fisherman he learned the songs fellow crew members sang pulling in the nets as well as in singing sessions in pubs in fishing ports the length of Britain. He won a singing competition in Lerwick in the Shetland Islands in 1907.

Folk singing career

In 1956 Philip Donnellan, then a radio producer for BBC Birmingham, met Sam in a pub. Donellan was looking for traditional singers to take part in radio programs and recorded about 25 songs and speech from Sam in 1957 and 1958, using the material in two programs, "Coast and Country: The Wash", broadcast in 1957, and "Down to the Sea", broadcast in 1959. Donellan brought him to the attention of Ewan McColl, Peggy Seeger and Charles Parker who were engaged in producing the first of the innovatory "Radio Ballads, which used songs, sound effects and music combined with the voices of people involved in an industry or common experience. Sam Larner took part in the third program in the series, "Singing the Fishing", about the East Coast fishing industry. Ewan McColl's song The Shoals of Herring, which describes a fisherman's progress from cabin boy to deckhand, largely based on Sam's life, was written for the program.

McColl and Seeger recorded more material from Sam, and he performed in their Ballads and Blues Club in London. In 1961 "Now is the Time for Fishing", an LP using some of the songs and speech they had recorded, was released by Topic Records. In 1964 he was featured with fellow Norfolk singer Harry Cox in a TV film by Philip Donellan, "The Singer and the Song". "Singing the Fishing" was released as an LP in 1966.

Death

Sam Larner died on 11 September 1965 in hospital in Great Yarmouth. He left £857.

Discography

Solo albums

• Now is the Time for Fishing, Topic Records, 1961, re-released as a CD 1999. (Recordings made by Ewan McColl and Peggy Seeger)
• A Garland for Sam, Topic Records, 1974 (Recordings made by Phillip Donnellan)

Radio Ballad

• Singing the Fishing, Topic Records, 1960

Anthologies

• Blow the Man Down Topic Records, 1993
• My Ship Shall Sail The Ocean - Songs of Tempest & Sea Battles, Sailor Lads & Fishermen[ (The Voice of the People Vol 2) Topic Records, 1999.
• Come All My Lads That Follow the Plough - The Life of Rural Working Men & Women (The Voice of the People Vol 5) Topic Records, 1999.
• We've Received Orders to Sail - Jackie Tar at Sea & on Shore (The Voice of the People Vol 12) Topic Records, 1999.
• Good People Take Warning. Ballads Sung By British & Irish Traditional Singers (The Voice of the People Vol 23) Topic Records, 2012