The Longest Johns
English band The Longest Johns are known for their swinging harmonies and unbridled energy, which they use to give new life to traditional sea shanties and work songs. The band has a very strong online presence and they have gone viral multiple times with their folk music. Thanks to these men, “Sea Shanty TikTok” has become an actual trend on the platform.
The Longest Johns consist of Jonathan “JD” Darley, Andy Yates and Robbie Satin. The band was founded in 2012 at a kitchen table in their birth place Bristol. The band found solace in a shared passion for traditional maritime folk music, which they mixed with dry wit and a talent for writing and creating their own music.
These men make a Capella folk that seems to hail from a long-forgotten era. With “Wellerman”, they had a worldwide hit that created the “Shanty-Tok” hype and led to a new wave of sea shanties. At the tail end of 2025, they released the album “Pieces of Eight”, with which they finished a massive project. For eight months straight, they created a new EP every month, culminating in a compilation with 24 tracks. In March, new single ‘Ends of the Earth’ came out.
These digital natives are not just experienced musicians, they are also good with social media and fanatic gamers. In 2025, during the opening of the Pokémon Europe International Championships 2025, they performed a new song that was written for the event, the track ‘Face the World’.
