The Longest Johns are a British folk musical group from Bristol. They formed in June 2012 after first singing together at a friend’s barbecue. The original line up consisted of Josh Bowker, Andy Yates, Jonathan Darley and Dave Robinson. About a week later, they posted their first video on YouTube, singing “Haul Away Joe.” The band recorded their first EP, Bones in the Ocean in 2013, which was wholly original music. It was released in May 2013. The band released their second EP, Christmas at Sea, later that year, in December 2013.
In 2015, Bowker was unable to perform at the 2015 Falmouth International Sea Shanty Festival due to the birth of his daughter. Robbie Sattin joined the band as a replacement, and the band later announced that he would be officially joining the band. The band released their first full-length album, Written in Salt, in June 2016. Following this release, and amid the band’s heightening popularity, Bowker left the band to focus on running his business.
In November 2017, the band announced via Facebook that Anna Cornish would become the first female member of the band, having been singing with them for several months prior. In April 2016, the band began recording their second studio album. The title of the album was later announced to be Between Wind and Water, and was released in June 2018. In October 2019, the band announced that Cornish would be leaving the band to focus on her other band, The Norfolk Broads.
The band released their third studio album, Cures What Ails Ya in 2020 by the band and includes a mix of traditional tunes and their band’s own compositions. In a review Mike Davies stated the band takes a “irreverent and playful approach to the tradition.” Tunes such as “Got No Beard” and “Hoist up the Thing” are humorous in nature. Their original tune “Fire and Flame” tells the story of Halifax Explosion, a 1917 maritime disaster which took place in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
In 2021, the band released Land Shanties as a partnership with Suzuki which was described as, “the genre-defining Land Shanties album—the soundtrack to the Sukuki Vitara. Capturing all the fun and adventure of the high seas on the highways, Land Shanties is a concept album following one hero’s quest to buy almond milk for his sweetheart.” In June 2021, the band recorded their fourth studio album. In October they announced that the title of the album would be Smoke & Oakum, and that it would be released in January 2022. In May 2023, the band announced the departure of founding member Dave Robinson.
The Longest Johns found a surge in fame after a sea shanty video went viral on TikTok. The trend started back in August 2019 when The Longest Johns released a YouTube video of them singing the song “Wellerman” as the first episode of their Sea of Thieves series, Open Crewsing. This video was shared around on many online platforms including Reddit, iFunny and Tumblr amassing many millions of views. The song then found a strong following on TikTok, with many users creating memes and popularising the song on the platform. The trend sparked a huge interest in sea shanties (despite Wellerman ironically not being a sea shanty) with millions of people discovering The Longest Johns’ recording of Wellerman, originally released on their 2018 album Between Wind and Water. The song has been streamed on Spotify over 58 million times (as of March 2023).
