We recently shared the news, along with a premiere of Be the Man, that Teesside trio The Young’uns are set to unveil their fourth studio album Strangers on 29th September – playing their strongest suit to date. The trio have become one of UK folk music’s hottest properties and best-loved acts and that reputation looks set to soar still further on their new album which showcases Sean Cooney’s strengths as one of folk’s finest songwriters.
This Thursday (Aug 17) they will finally get to meet face-to-face Teesside grandfather Ghafoor Hussain who inspired their heart-warming song Ghafoor’s Bus.
Just before Christmas 2015, the Middlesbrough garage group owner spent thousands of pounds of his own money buying and kitting out a single decker bus as a travelling industrial kitchen, venturing across Europe where he and his team were able to feed thousands of refugees a day.
Now the 47-year-old Stockton-based father of four is one of several ‘heroes’ celebrated on The Young’uns new album which is described as “a homage to the outsider, a eulogy for the wayfarer and a hymn for the migrant”.
Sean Cooney who wrote the upbeat, sing along song said: “The song celebrates Ghafoor’s inspirational humanitarian work. In December 2015 in the refugee camp in Dunkirk he was serving 3,000 hot meals and 10,000 cups of tea a day – extraordinary. He’s a fellow Teessider, and we are really looking forward to meeting him.”
Stockton Folk Club’s star graduates clinched the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards ‘Best Group’ title two years running (2015 and 2016) and last year saw them spreading the net, taking their unique act and instant audience rapport to Canada, America and Australia.
With their strong songs, spellbinding harmonies and rapid fire humour, they have achieved one of the trickiest balancing acts – an ability to truly ‘make them laugh and make them cry’while cutting straight to the heart of some of our most topical issues.
Strangers, which is released September 29, looks at the stories of those that have crossed the seas to British shores and soldiers that have voyaged from here to the war fields of Europe. Paeans for the underdog have been inspired by the courage of Syrian refugees, have-a-go heroes and Gay Rights campaigners which sit seamlessly alongside narrative songs of First World War soldiers, Caribbean and Jewish immigrants, including the founder of one of our best known British High Street stores.
The Young’uns inspiration also comes from the banks of Spain’s River Ebro (Bob Cooney’s Miracle) and the Thalys train terrorist attack in France. (Carriage 12). There are constant changes of tempo and mood, from the jaunty Ghafoor’s Bus to the slow, soaring beauty of Lapwings (as performed on BBC-tv’s Springwatch), inspired by a First World War diary entry from a soldier homesick for English fields and skies.
These are powerful songs prompted by remarkable stories – making for an ultimately upbeat album full of hope, echoing the lyric from Ghafoor’s Bus: “There’s a friendly face, a better place and a future for us all”.
The Young’uns are also planning to meet the people who inspired more of the songs on the Strangers album including Mark Moogalian, a hero of the Thalys train attack, in Paris and Hesham Modamani, one of the Syrian men who swam the Aegean to a better life, who inspired the song ‘Dark Water’ and who now lives in Berlin.
PRE-ORDER STRANGERS – http://smarturl.it/ox0wmn
Strangers will be showcased on an extensive UK tour (October 4-27) including a debut at London’s Union Chapel and dates at Sage Gateshead (Hall 1), Glasgow’s Oran Mor and The Sugar Club in Dublin – their first headline gig in Ireland. Support for most dates comes from The Hut People, with singer-songwriter Greg Russell opening for the trio in Nottingham and Lincoln.
The Young’uns Strangers Album Tour
OCTOBER 2017
4 LANCASTER Dukes Theatre
5 SHEFFIELD City Hall (Memorial Hall)
6 GLASGOW Oran Mor
7 SHREWSBURY Theatre Severn
8 OXFORD The North Wall Arts Centre
9 COLCHESTER Arts Centre
10 BURY ST EDMUNDS Apex
11 BRISTOL Colston Hall Lantern
12 LONDON Union Chapel
13 SHOREHAM-BY-SEA Ropetackle Arts Centre
14 LINCOLN Drill Hall
15 NOTTINGHAM Glee Club
17 BRECON Theatr Brechyneiog
18 SOUTHPORT Atkinson
19 LEEDS City Varieties
20 MANCHESTER Home – Folk Festival
21 BIRMINGHAM Mac
22 CANTERBURY Cathedral Lodge
24 DUBLIN The Sugar Club
27 GATESHEAD Sage 1
PRE-ORDER STRANGERS – http://smarturl.it/ox0wmn
Photo Credit: Elly Lucas