Music / The Longest Johns
Longest Johns pay homage to ‘legendary’ Bristol pub
Bristol’s international sea shanty sensations have paid homage to a “legendary” King Street pub with famed links to maritime history, folklore and fiction.
The debut track from The Longest Johns’ latest album, Voyage, The Llandoger is a glorious celebration of the ancient pub of the same name that is said to have inspired Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, as well as the Admiral Benbow Inn in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island.
Both authors get a name check in the song, which was filmed in the King Street boozer that dates back to 1664 and is one of our city’s last surviving timber-framed buildings.
is needed now More than ever
The band, whose viral hit Wellerman made the top-40 singles chart in 2021, ran a successful Kickstarter campaign to make Voyage, their fifth studio album, raising £138,067 from 1,617 backers.
Released on February 9, the record features original material, as well as creative reimaginings of folk classics in their contemporary interpretation of the shanty style.
The song form originates as an accompaniment to labourers on merchant ships, with the band’s latest album Voyage upholding its tradition of producing thumping rhythms fit for a sea vessel, alongside a dense arrangement of harmonised vocals and string instruments.
Thanks to modern studio trickery, the band have managed to push the genre in a newer and more complex direction than ever before, while paying respect to the genre’s rugged inception.
The Llanddoger features the lines:
“But there’s money in our pockets and the Llandoger’s in sight
Heave and ho (and ho!), a-roving we will go
Down the roads of cobbles to the everlasting flow
Of ale and cider, whiskey, boys, it’s flowing like the wine.”
Announcing the album launch, the band wrote on Facebook: “Good evening, aren’t we lucky to be here right now?
To accompany the album launch, it’s the video for The Llandoger! A musical tribute to a legendary Bristol pub.”
It was first teased in the yearly Yogscast’s Jingle Jam fundraiser in December 2023, much to the pleasure of waiting fans.
Though the record is thematically connected to Bristol, it’s album art and title inspire the listener to look further than the weathered ports of the harbourside into the vast unknown: featuring cover songs from all over the globe by acts like Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Its discussion of folklore, from Greek to Nordic, features alongside recollections of treacherous disasters at sea, adding to the deep-seated sense of eclecticism which purveys throughout the record.
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Main photo: Abbie Darley
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