We have lost count of the requests we’ve had to bring them back since their 2021 festival debut so get your singing voice ready 2024 festivalgoers – The Longest Johns are coming back!
Having met and bonded over sea shanties across a kitchen table in their native Bristol a decade ago, The Longest Johns – Jonathan ‘JD’ Darley, Andy Yates and Robbie Sattin – have sailed the seven seas in the name of the “rock ‘n’ roll of 1752” to grace the stages of international folk festivals, tour the UK, Europe and North America, and appear on TV.
To celebrate 10 years of pitching and rolling in brotherly harmony, in October the band released a tin anniversary edition of their self-released debut EP Bones in the Ocean. That followed their latest tour of Canada in September as they build towards the release early 2024 of a new studio album – their ninth but the first as a three piece following the departure of co-founder Dave Robinson in May.
By any standard The Longest Johns have enjoyed a whirlwind of a journey these last 10 years. As well as eight full length albums, they’ve released four EPs and nine singles, including the 2021 version of ‘Wellerman’ that began a sea shanty craze on social media as a 150-year-old folk song from New Zealand became a worldwide viral sensation, sweeping the group to the #2 berth on the US Spotify Viral Chart and #5 Global.
They’ve racked up more than 500 million streams across all platforms, signed up more than half a million YouTube subscribers and logged some 200,000 hours watched on Twitch. Their gaming partnerships include Sea of Thieves and Wanderworld and they’ve recorded the soundtrack to No Man’s Wife, a new film made by the co-producers of the Fisherman’s Friends films.