THE YOUNG’UNS ANNOUNCE SPRING 2023 UK & IRISH TOUR
+ ACCLAIMED NORTH-EAST TRIO WILL
RELEASE NEW ALBUM ‘TINY NOTES’ ON 7th APRIL
SONGS BORN FROM EMPATHY, CRAFTED WITH CARE, FIRED BY HOPE & SHARED WITH JOY
“Hugely captivating… performing with great verve and humour – a brilliant folk act” Stuart Maconie (BBC 6 Music)
“Glorious… celebrating the uncelebrated with warmth, vigour and passion” MOJO
Twenty years ago you might have thought it a far-fetched prediction. But today there’s no denying it – The Young’uns have become one of UK folk music’s hottest properties and best-loved acts.
The then teenage friends Sean Cooney, Michael Hughes and David Eagle had literally stumbled over folk music in 2003 in the back room of The Sun Inn in their native Stockton-on-Tees, never knowing that such music existed. They became regulars and, as the youngest people in the room, were dubbed ‘The Young’uns’ – a name that, for better or worse, has stuck.
Building and honing their act, Stockton Folk Club’s star graduates went on to clinch the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards ‘Best Group’ title two years running (2015 and 2016), toured their unique act in the USA, Canada and Australia, played Glastonbury Festival, as well as scooping the coveted Best Album award with the hugely impressive Strangers at the 2018 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. More recently they have touched audiences on both sides of the Atlantic via their acclaimed stage show The Ballad of Johnny Longstaff, based on the life of a Teesside local hero.
With their strong songs, spellbinding harmonies and rapid fire humour (Eagle is now also an award-winning stand-up comedian), they have achieved one of the trickiest balancing acts – an ability to truly ‘make ‘em laugh and make ‘em cry.’
Their narrative songs – often moving, never mawkish – cut through the noise and get straight to the heart of the matter, be they personal stories that triggered global headlines or more intimate tales of everyday heroes closer to home.
On April 7th 2023, The Young’uns will unveil their latest studio album ‘Tiny Notes ‘– probably their most powerful and affecting release to date. Bold, profound and resonant it showcases the ever growing talents of ‘premier league songwriter’ Sean Cooney who says writing songs about real, ordinary heroes has become ‘a personal passion’.
Cooney, who has recently been involved as one of five songwriters in the BBC project 21st Century Folk, has the knack of summing up a story in unflinching, sharply observed but compassionate, heartfelt lyrics.
Together with Hughes and Eagle, he has come up with a collection of folk songs for our time, which takes listeners on a journey from London to Lockerbie, Ireland to Syria, Florida to North Yorkshire. All sensitively arranged by the 30-something trio, the songs recall victims of war and terrorism and heroes of the hour, turning the spotlight on injustice and ultimately celebrating love, tolerance and the indomitable human spirit.
Produced by Andy Bell on the Hudson Records label, the release takes its title from 22-year-old Paige Hunter’s handwritten messages of hope tied to the railings of Sunderland’s Wearmouth Bridge (depicted on the album cover) where tragically many people have decided to end their lives. But her notes are thought to have saved the lives of some thirty people in the North East and Paige’s action has inspired others to leave similar messages on bridges around the world.
Alongside The Young’uns’ strong trademark vocals, folk luminary Jon Boden has arranged soaring, graceful strings for some tracks while Eagle plays fluid piano, making for the band’s most enriched sound yet.
Karine Polwart, Lucy Farrell and Anne Lamb provide the ‘tiny notes’ that briefly punctuate the release.
Coursing a variety of tempos and moods, the eleven-track album strides out with Jack Merritt’s Boots, remembering the 25 year-old killed in a terror attack at London’s Fishmongers’ Hall in 2019; it recalls other young lives lost – Cambridge graduate Tim Burman and Northern Ireland journalist Lyra McKee and the daughters of Andy Airey, Mike Palmer and Tim Owen who tragically took their own lives and who are remembered in the poignant track Three Dads Walking (out now as a single).
Returning to Ireland, the album traces the courageous story of Richard Moore who was blinded as a child by an army bullet; salutes the strength of the human spirit in a dramatic rescue tale from Panama City Beach, champions the Right to Roam in Trespassers and recounts a Welsh trauma surgeon’s remarkable Syrian story.
While these are often songs prompted by loss and grief they emerge as hopeful, eloquent rainbow-after-rain creations.
Five years on from the group’s award-winning Strangers, this new album is probably The Young’uns’ strongest suit to date. The notes might be tiny, but the songs are towering.
Tiny Notes will be the first Young’uns album to be pressed on vinyl and will be manufactured at Press On Vinyl, a new plant in the band’s stomping ground of Middlesbrough. Vinyl LPs are due to be available in late April 2023.
Tiny Notes will be showcased via an extensive UK & Irish tour (April-June 2023), including a return to London’s Union Chapel – full list of live dates as follows;
The Young’uns Tiny Notes Tour 2023
8 April Liverpool Philharmonic Hall
9 April Edinburgh Summerhall
10 April Shrewsbury St Mary’s Church
11 April Norwich Arts Centre
12 April Shoreham Ropetackle
13 April Sandwich St Mary’s Arts Centre
14 April London Union Chapel
15 April Aldeburgh Jubilee Hall
21 April Sheffield Firth Hall
20 May Dublin Pavilion Dun Laoghaire
26 May Gateshead Sage
27 May Cleckheaton Town Hall
28 May Bristol – The Redgrave Theatre
30 May Oxford North Wall
31 May Cardiff Acapela
1 June Lincoln Drill Hall
2 June Manchester – The Stoller Hall
Tickets for all shows available HERE
