The Longest Johns
aving 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 ten years of pitching and rolling in brotherly harmony, in
October the band are set to release a tin anniversary edition of their
self-released debut EP Bones in the Ocean. That follows their latest tour
of Canada in September as they build towards the release early next year
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 ten 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