The Band
The Longest Johns are a Bristol-based, a capella folk music band, born out of a mutual love of traditional folk songs and shanties. They rock maritime songs alongside more unusual and less traditional folk tunes. Throughout lineup changes, they've consistently taken their harmonies to new heights, whilst always retaining just the right mix of quality and hilarity. Whether performing songs that are hundreds of years old, or their own original creations, the Johns bring a new feel to audiences wherever they go.
The current band members are Andy Yates, Jonathan "JD" Darley, and Robbie Sattin. There are also three former members: Josh Bowker (2012-2016), Anna Cornish (2017-2019), and Dave Robinson (2012-2023). For more on the history of the band, check out the FAQ.
For information about live performances, check out the Upcoming Shows page. If you're interested in booking The Longest Johns for your festival, contact them!
The Music
The band has released five full-length studio albums and several EPs, singles, music videos, and more. Browse to learn more about their albums and songs, or go check them out on Spotify or YouTube!
Physical media (CDs, records, and cassettes) as well as other merch can be purchased from The Longest Johns' shop. Digital music can be purchased from Bandcamp (post-2023 releases only), iTunes, or Amazon.
The Wiki
This wiki was created to provide a single location to store song lyrics and musical factoids for handy reference. It is fan-made and wholly unofficial at this time.
Where possible, song lyrics are taken from official sources such as album liner notes or TLJ songbooks. For traditional songs that have not seen an official release, lyrics are often sourced from Mudcat Cafe, a community of "musicians, historians, and enthusiasts...[of] traditional folk and blues songs", or Mainly Norfolk, an extensive trove of musical history and folklore, and adjusted for accuracy. Historical information is also frequently gleaned from these sources, as well as the Traditional Ballad Index and the Roud Folk Song Index.
A special shout out to Erian Dragonborn from the Longest Johns community Discord server, whose database for TLJ-related video content greatly streamlined the process of finding recordings of their work.
Administration and Policies
This wiki was founded by Anathema Mask, a general internet fool who has nothing better to do with a Master of Arts than spend his time editing web content and researching music. Current day-to-day administration is mostly handled by Andipants26, a former future librarian and general-purpose nerd who occasionally even knows what she's doing.
The wiki is open for anyone who has a user account to edit and add pages. Please follow the formatting used on existing song pages!
Out of respect for the band, if adding information to the biographical pages, refrain from references to anything that appears on this list:
- Date of birth
- Address
- Names of Family Members / Spouses
- ID numbers
- Income
- Ethnicity
- Credit Information
- Medical Information
- Current Place of Work
- and any other information which could be used to invade the band's private lives
Any questions can be directed to Andipants' talk page, or you can contact her via the TLJ Discord (same username).
(...quack)