After exploring stories relating to homophobia, the refuge crisis and the foundation of M&S in their 2017 album Strangers, 2018 touring project The Ballad Of Johnny Longstaff sees The Young'uns turn their attention to a very different story.
Combining songs with archival photographs and oral history recordings from the Imperial War Museum, multi-media show The Ballad Of Johnny Longstaff explores the life of a lad who found himself witnessing, and partaking in, a remarkable run of historic and life-changing events.
Currently touring, with dates including Birmingham's Glee Club (27 March 2018), it's a very different project for the multiple BBC Radio 2 Folk Award-winning trio.
The Young’uns are no strangers to singing stories about real people from their native Teeside - from local shop owners in the 1920s to an inspirational grandad who converted a bus into a travelling kitchen to feed refugees. The Ballad Of Johnny Longstaff, however, features 16 songs about one person: a Stockton lad born in 1919, raised by his grandmother, who begged for food outside factory gates, joined a 230 mile hunger march to London in 1934, took part in the anti-fascist Battle Of Cable Street in London's East End two years later, and then signed up for the International Brigade to fight in Spain, before heading to North Africa and Europe during WWII (at the ripe old age of 19)! He even met Churchill.
It was a story the band's Sean Cooney first heard in 2015 when Johnny's son, Duncan, approached the trio, who often sing unaccompanied, after a gig in Somerset.
"I’d never heard of Johnny Longstaff up until that point," Sean recalls. "Duncan told me that if I wanted to learn more there was an extensive sound archive on the Imperial War Museum (IWM) website of Johnny telling his story in his own words.
"Once I listened to all six hours of Johnny telling his story and shared it with [bandmates] Michael [Hughes] and Dave [Eagle] we knew that we wanted to tell the story through songs and use his voice to weave in and out of them in the spirit of the ground breaking BBC Radio Ballads of the 1950s and '60s," says Sean, referring to the radio series which saw writers such as Ewan MacColl and Bert Lloyd compose songs based on personal testimony from working class people.
"[Duncan] came along hoping that just maybe we might be interested enough to write a song about his dad…” smiles Sean. “We’ve ended up writing 16 songs ..."
Although there's a wealth of stories from Johnny's life still to be told - including awards for gallantry and life post-war - Sean and bandmates decided to concentrate on the turbulent 1930s.
"Our song suite ends when Johnny is still only 19, and the Second World War begins," says Sean. "However, even at this young age his life feels like one very well lived."
See The Young'uns: The Ballad Of Johnny Longstaff at The Glee Club, Birmingham, on Tuesday 27 March 2018.
After exploring stories relating to homophobia, the refuge crisis and the foundation of M&S in their 2017 album Strangers, 2018 touring project The Ballad Of Johnny Longstaff sees The Young'uns turn their attention to a very different story.
Combining songs with archival photographs and oral history recordings from the Imperial War Museum, multi-media show The Ballad Of Johnny Longstaff explores the life of a lad who found himself witnessing, and partaking in, a remarkable run of historic and life-changing events.
Currently touring, with dates including Birmingham's Glee Club (27 March 2018), it's a very different project for the multiple BBC Radio 2 Folk Award-winning trio.
The Young’uns are no strangers to singing stories about real people from their native Teeside - from local shop owners in the 1920s to an inspirational grandad who converted a bus into a travelling kitchen to feed refugees. The Ballad Of Johnny Longstaff, however, features 16 songs about one person: a Stockton lad born in 1919, raised by his grandmother, who begged for food outside factory gates, joined a 230 mile hunger march to London in 1934, took part in the anti-fascist Battle Of Cable Street in London's East End two years later, and then signed up for the International Brigade to fight in Spain, before heading to North Africa and Europe during WWII (at the ripe old age of 19)! He even met Churchill.
It was a story the band's Sean Cooney first heard in 2015 when Johnny's son, Duncan, approached the trio, who often sing unaccompanied, after a gig in Somerset.
"I’d never heard of Johnny Longstaff up until that point," Sean recalls. "Duncan told me that if I wanted to learn more there was an extensive sound archive on the Imperial War Museum (IWM) website of Johnny telling his story in his own words.
"Once I listened to all six hours of Johnny telling his story and shared it with [bandmates] Michael [Hughes] and Dave [Eagle] we knew that we wanted to tell the story through songs and use his voice to weave in and out of them in the spirit of the ground breaking BBC Radio Ballads of the 1950s and '60s," says Sean, referring to the radio series which saw writers such as Ewan MacColl and Bert Lloyd compose songs based on personal testimony from working class people.
"[Duncan] came along hoping that just maybe we might be interested enough to write a song about his dad…” smiles Sean. “We’ve ended up writing 16 songs ..."
Although there's a wealth of stories from Johnny's life still to be told - including awards for gallantry and life post-war - Sean and bandmates decided to concentrate on the turbulent 1930s.
"Our song suite ends when Johnny is still only 19, and the Second World War begins," says Sean. "However, even at this young age his life feels like one very well lived."
See The Young'uns: The Ballad Of Johnny Longstaff at The Glee Club, Birmingham, on Tuesday 27 March 2018.
By Dave Freak