The Young’Uns | Music Interview
For their latest musical project, Teeside’s The Young’uns recall the adventures of a Stockton-on-Tees-born lad born into abject poverty, who saw British history be made during the 1930s.
Entitled The Ballad Of Johnny Longstaff, the live show is an ambitious multi-media affair that combines visuals, archival audio recordings and songs to tell of the early life of the aforementioned Johnny. “The hardship and poverty Johnny knew as a child was immense and it was something that informed everything he later did, and strove to do, in his life,” says Young’un, and songwriter, Sean Cooney.
For a taster of the project, look no further than the trio’s recent album, the BBC Radio 2 Folk Award 2018-nominated Strangers. In among Strangers‘ songs about terror plots and acts of bravery (Carriage 12), refugees swimming the Aegean Sea (Dark Water), religious and cultural homophobia (Be A Man), and The Great War (Lapwings), sits Cable Street, which tells the story of the then 16 year-old Johnny who defied the police and stood in solidarity with the Jewish people of London’s East End to block a British Union of Fascists march in 1936.
“Cable Street was the third song I wrote about Johnny,” Sean says. “I wrote the majority of it while we were on our first tour of Australia in March 2016. We knew when learning it and recording it for Strangers that it would at some stage form part of a special show about Johnny, but we didn’t know when that would come into being.”
Born in 1919 and raised by his grandmother, Johnny lost his job in a steel-rolling mill following an accident which left him hospitalised. Unable to find work, he joined a Hunger March in 1934 (aged 15) walking 230 miles to London. Sleeping rough on the Embankment, he eventually found work in Tooting, and continuing to witness the plight of those around him, and the injustice visited upon them, he took action. He joined in mass trespasses (which paved the way for the right to ramble and creation of National Parks), stood again Oswald Moseley’s fascist black shirts, and lied about his age so he could join the International Brigade and fight fascism in the Spanish Civil War at 17. Two years later, he was heading out to fight fascism again, this time as part of British forces during WWII, during which he was injured several times, and received a medal for his gallantry.
It was an inspiring and life-affirming story Sean, and fellow Young’uns Michael Hughes and David Eagle, first heard in 2015, when Johnny’s elderly son approached the trio after a gig.
“Duncan Longstaff arrived at a concert we were doing in Clevedon in Somerset in May 2015 with two pieces of paper: one had a picture of a scruffy teenage lad selling a newspaper on a 1930s street corner with a cheeky smile on his face; the other was a timeline of dates and achievements. He handed the first one to me and said ‘this is my dad.’ He handed the second one over and said ‘and this is what he did’,” recalls Sean.
Duncan suggested they investigate the Imperial War Museum’s oral history recordings – available online – which include several hours of his father recalling his escapades.
“Johnny’s oral recordings have very much been the inspiration of the songs and indeed some exact phrases have been used here and there,” Sean continues. “We’ve also been extremely grateful to Duncan for allowing us access to Johnny’s hitherto unpublished memoirs where he elaborates more on his childhood and his experiences on the hunger march of 1934, and stories from here also feature in the show.
“We’ve also had inspiration from the stories of many other men and women who made the journey to Spain in the 1930s and several of them will feature in the show – like Lewis Clive the handsome old Etonian who won Gold at the 1932 Olympics, and David Guest, one of the finest mathematicians of his generation. Both men died in Spain and knew Johnny well.”
Other musical highlights in the show include Hostel Strike, recalling how Johnny fought back against an oppressive employer, and Ta-Ra To Tooting.
“Ta-Ra To Tooting was inspired by the photo taken of Johnny and his five best mates on the night he left for Spain in September 1937. They were dressed up, in Johnny’s words like ‘dapper little devils’ and though they were all around the age of 17, some of them look even younger.
“It’s an amazing picture and hopefully captures the power of Johnny’s story.”
words DAVE FREAK
The Young’uns: The Ballad Of Johnny Longstaff. The Glee Club, Cardiff, Mon 26 Mar. Tickets: £16. Info: www.glee.co.uk