Friends

The name of the site http://musiciansfriend.com always reminds me of another similar name: the old throat lozenge, Fisherman's Friend, which has apparently been around since 1865. 

I've never personally seen it used by fishermen, although that was who it was first sold to, but my connection with it is in its use by singers, who, at one time swore by it as a cure for throats that weren't quite doing their job when it came to singing. Like a lot of things it seems to have had its day as far as singers are concerned - they've no doubt found something more soothing - but the actual Fisherman's Friend lozenge is still going strong, the company producing five billion of the things a year. That's enough to soothe the throats of around two-thirds of the world's population at any one time. Good grief. 

The curious thing is that the Musician's Friend, as a name, would have been more appropriate for singers. When they soothed themselves with a Fisherman's Friend, you had to wonder at the compability. 

Fisherman's Friend

When I see the company, Musician's Friend - they're currently advertising the Akai mpk 49 at Musician's Friend, for instance - I'm invariably reminded of the Fisherman's Friend, a brand of strong menthol lozenges produced by the Lofthouse company in Fleetwood, Lancashire, England. These have been going strong since 1865, so it's not surprising that they're floating around in the collective culture. I don't know where I first heard of them - perhaps some singers I've known over the years have taken them - but they're certainly familiar.

It turns out there's a singing group called the Fisherman's Friends - I'd never heard of them before, but like everyone else these days, you can find their videos on You Tube. This is a typical example of their bouncy shanty style, though in this video, as they wander around some UK coastline, they all look frozen to the bone.