Man The Lifeboats

Thursday 14th August 2025
#PVFF25

Man The Lifeboats began life in a shanty-punk folk mosh pit in 2016. Skinny Lister and Holy Moly & the Crackers were the two bands that lit the fire and blew the roof of the Garage that night.

Fast forward 8 years and 100 gigs and counting and Man The Lifeboats are ploughing their full-throttle folked-up furrow on the festival circuit, winning over audiences at Moseley, Purbeck, Warwick, Swanage, Jurassic Fields, Beardy Folk, Folk in a Field, Bearded Theory, Deepdale, Ragged Bear and more, drawing comparisons to Bellowhead, Waterboys, Oyster band, the Levellers, and those folk-punk heroes the Pogues.

The second album Soul Of Albion hit no. 27 in the Official Folk Charts in 2022. Recorded at Rockfield Studios, it sounds like Led Zeppelin arm-wrestling Shane McGowan in a Birmingham brewery, like Jimbo band Fruitbat fronting Fairport Convention, like The Albion Band turned up to 11 with their fiddles on fire. Tonic for these troubled times.

Man The Lifeboats image. The photo is taken from on stage and in the foreground we can see part of the drum kit. Then 5 members of the band, then the audience, all with their arms up in the air posing for the picture.