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Review: The Longest Johns, Bristol Beacon – ‘Uncontrolled joy’
You can just feel it. The excitement, the anticipation, the jubilation. The Longest Johns are back home and the queue is snaking through the venue, chatting, laughing, drinking.
There are people dressed as pirates, there’s a light-up-duck-hat down the front (as usual), there are palm trees on the stage. Bristol Beacon is up for a huge sea-shanty party and no mistake.
The sense of giddiness spills over for Scottish support act, Nati. A bundle of chatty good humour armed with an acoustic guitar and one hell of a voice.
is needed now More than ever
While most of her set is hum-along folk-pop her cover of I’d Rather Go Blind stops traffic. Unleashing a serious swoop and a great well of soul, the whole place goes nuts. From there every tune is whooped to the rafters.
Ashes and Stay, both from her current EP, are perfectly formed nuggets of acoustic goodness, complete with earworm choruses and bags of charm.
There’s a brief pause. More chatting, more laughing, more drinking and then the theme to Spongebob Squarepants. Bristol takes a breath. Then explodes.
Starting with The Llandoger is always going to go down well in these parts and, indeed, it does. The Longest Johns have lost a member since the last time they were in the city but the remaining three attack with a punk spirit.
Mandolin, banjo and guitar combine in a raucous celebration of the historic Bristol pub.
It’s the Sea Shanty harmonies that this packed crowd want though. Shawneetown and an inspired cover of Proud Mary, both taken from the latest album Voyage, deliver with ease.
The deep, masculine buzz of three voices buoyed by enormous, galleon sized, pounding drums encourage massed singalongs. Santiana and The Mary Ellen Carter do similar things but these old songs are given the full Longest Johns treatment.
A boiler-suited Robbie Sattin races around the stage looking, for all the world, like a member of Goldie Lookin’ Chain, while Andy Yates and Jonathan “JD” Darley anchor the tunes.
As ever with a Longest Johns show there is more than a tiny amount of silliness. Their irreverent take on Shanties reinvigorates the tradition and this is only added to by their own songs.
Hoist Up the Thing is deliciously daft and has almost 3000 people joining in on the chorus. Mutiny is a sea-sick waltz interspersed with shouty bits, arms sway and a huge, cuddly fish appears from the crowd. This is fun.
As Got No Beard begins, Sattin mutters “I never thought I’d be singing this in a room this big” but sing it he does. And so does everyone else. A gleeful, pantomime of a thing, there’s bouncing and running and uncontrolled joy. They know it’s silly and do it anyway. Bristol loves them for it.
In among the harmonies, the jumping about, the Pogues-punk of mandolin and banjo, one song stands out as utterly sublime.
Nati is brought back on stage to sing Wild Mountain Thyme with the boys and comes very close to stealing their show. If we saw a hint of what her voice can do on her Etta James cover, then this is extraordinary.
A voice that is pure and warm, scented with heather. She brings a welcome bit of femininity to The Longest Johns’ boys club. You can’t help but wonder if they’d be an even better band if she were part of them permanently.
All of which just leaves Wellerman, The Leaving of Liverpool, the epic Ashes and a delirious Retirement Song. All four welcomed with an absolute frenzy, all four raise voices from the stage to the balcony.
Bristol came in a party mood. The Longest Johns didn’t let them down for a single second.
Main photo: Gavin McNamara
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