The Young’uns – The Ballad Of Johnny Longstaff
Hereteu Records – 7 December 2018
Even before you hear the music, you know the new The Young’uns album The Ballad Of Johnny Longstaff is going to be something beyond the ordinary. For a start, the pre-order package doesn’t look like an album. Along with your CD, there is a facsimile photograph, a newspaper mock-up (which, for the record, is both informative and hilarious), a leaflet, a decent-sized poster and a 40-page A4 book of lyrics, photos and in-depth analysis of the songs and the historical events that inspired them.
The idea – and it is an incredibly ambitious one – was to create an artefact: a collection of songs, a piece of musical theatre, a wide-ranging and generous-hearted social history. The subject of this social history is Johnny Longstaff, a working-class lad from Stockton-on-Tees who witnessed first-hand some of the major political events of the twentieth century, including the Spanish Civil War. The story reveals Longstaff to be a quietly extraordinary man, but there are wider webs of context here to, which justify the incredible attention to detail on display: the album tells the story of class struggle, of the rise of fascism in Europe, and of the power of conscientious people to change the world for the better.
This sizeable project started, as so many things do, with a chance conversation. Sean Cooney, The Young’uns’ songwriter, was approached after a gig in Somerset by a man who turned out to be Longstaff’s son, and who introduced the band to Longstaff’s autobiographical oral testimony, recorded for the Imperial War Museum in 1986. One song turned into sixteen, the songs became a theatrical show and the show inspired the album.
There can be few bands better placed to create something like this. For one thing, The Young’uns, like Longstaff, hail from Stockton. They also share his spirited political outlook, his yearning for social justice. And their recent body of work has put them at the very forefront of the folk music scene. The trio have been playing together since they were teenagers, they have twice won the BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for Best Group and their most recent album (2017’s Strangers) also picked up a BBC award.
Few folk acts are able to combine songwriting about contemporary issues with an avowedly traditional manner of performance, but it seems to come naturally to The Young’uns. Even on an album as steeped in history as The Ballad Of Johnny Longstaff, you get the sense that every song is relevant to today’s world. Opener Any Bread is a case in point: the lyrics describe Longstaff’s poor Teesside upbringing, the need to beg and steal food to stay alive, the appalling working conditions and poor wages. It may seem like a window on another world, but in the twenty-first century with its food banks and its Universal Credit, we may not be as far removed from it as we’d like to think.
It is true to say that this is an album of ideas, but these songs are in no way bogged down by their concepts. Any Bread is a sparky a cappella piece (many of the songs here are unaccompanied), instantly showcasing the trio’s impressive harmonies. Carrying The Coffin is a rousing marching tune, full of humour and anger, to the tune of John Brown’s Body. It was inspired by the fifteen-year-old Longstaff’s attendance at the National Hunger March of 1934.
The short, sharp Hostel Strike is an absolute delight, Cooney firing off detailed verses at breakneck speed and clearly relishing both the wordplay and the subject-matter – an account of how Longstaff, almost by accident, participated in his first strike. Cable Street – a version of which also appears on Strangers – is a moving account of how 100,000 anti-fascists marched in London against Oswald Mosley’s blackshirts and features Longstaff’s own words, taken from the Imperial War Museum recordings. Indeed much of the album’s power comes from those recordings, which bookend many of the songs and show that even in his sixties Longstaff was still a passionate and eloquent critic of injustice.
Robson’s Song marks the start of Longstaff’s involvement in the Spanish Civil War, in which he fought and was wounded as part of the 15th International Brigade. Once again Cooney’s songwriting is full of mordant wit as he takes on the point of view of recruiting officer Robbie Robson, who seems to want to dissuade anyone from going to Spain by listing an increasingly gruesome set of outcomes: catching lice, ‘gipping in a bucket’ and in all probability dying. He is wonderfully backed up here by the singing of fellow band members Michael Hughes and David Eagle.
Ta-ra To Tooting is something of a change in direction – a bittersweet song of departure and friendship backed with delicate piano, inspired by a picture Longstaff kept with him in Spain of himself and his friends. Some light relief is provided by Noddy, a miniature slice of music hall naughtiness sung with a nudge and a wink by Eagle, who reprises his turn in the equally brief (and equally cheeky) Paella. The Great Tomorrow – a song about the socialist anthem The Internationale – is a fine example of Cooney’s confidence as a songwriter, linking the past with the future and invoking a spirit of hope that has lasted through the ages.
Ay Carmela makes use of piano, accordion and a fittingly Spanish-sounding guitar to give new life to an old tune that was popular at the time of the civil war. It also quotes Laurie Lee, who, of all the great writers of the conflict, was perhaps the best. No Hay Pan discusses one of the less-talked-about horrors of war – hunger. It is given a suitably melancholy feel by minimal piano and some tender harmony singing. Trench Tales, on the other hand, tells of the camaraderie that grows up amongst soldiers in any conflict, and the dark humour that goes with it. The trio deliver each verse with a perfectly timed punchline.
David Eagle once again takes lead vocals on Lewis Clive, another rambunctious song with music hall overtones. But mixed in with the levity are the twin strains of tragedy and hope, and the same can be said for much of this album, including Bob Cooney’s Miracle – another song that also appeared on Strangers. Over The Ebro tells the story of a decisive battle, in which Longstaff was injured and temporarily blinded and which eventually led to the repatriation of the volunteer in the international brigades and the final victory of Franco’s troops.
One of the most valuable things about this album is how it gives voices to some of the many individuals who fought in Spain. One such was David Guest, a scientist, philosopher and communist who was killed in 1938, and whose story is told lovingly. The simplicity and sadness of the final verse is particularly moving. But the most emotionally wrenching moment of all comes with the final song. It is a version of The Valley Jarama, a popular volunteers’ song. After the third verse, the trio’s voices drop out and are replaced by a recording of Longstaff himself singing the final two verses. He is audibly emotional, and the slight crack in his voice as the song ends is one of the most heartfelt things you will ever hear. It’s true that this is a thoroughly modern album in many ways – the interactive website is a treat, and the whole package is beautifully presented – but in the final notes sung by Longstaff there is a weight of history and a longing for a better world that makes any thought of modernity, of current musical or technological trends, pale into insignificance. The Ballad Of Johnny Longstaff contains the past and it contains the future. It is a special achievement by an extremely talented group.
Pre-Order The Ballad of Johnny Longstaff
Click here to Pre-Order The Ballad of Johnny Longstaff, set for release this week on 7th December.
The Pre-Order package includes:
CD (17 tracks + the voice of Johnny Longstaff)
A 40-page dossier including lyrics and commentary from the show.
A copy of the Advance Newspaper
A facsimile chosen from the vast array of images from the show.
Period Leaflet
Poster
The Ballad of Johnny Longstaff UK Dates
January 2019
28th – HULL Middleton Hall
29th – MANCHESTER Stoller Hall
30th – DUN LAOGHAIRE Pavillion Theatre
31st – BELFAST The Strand
February 2019
1st – GLASGOW Tron Theatre
2nd – GLASGOW Tron Theatre
3rd – SHEFFIELD City Hall Ballroom
4th – BURY ST EDMUNDS Apex
6th – WAVENDON The Stables
7th – YEOVIL The Octagon
8th – MIDDLESBROUGH Town Hall
9th – LONDON Southbank Centre (Purcell Room)
All tickets on sale now and links are available from www.theyounguns.co.uk
To find out more about Johnny’s story, you can access a specially designed app called Johnny’s journey. This can be accessed via the following link:
http://theyounguns.co.uk/johnnylongstaff
