The Young’uns announce tour to mark landmark celebrations
There will be a lot of candles on the cake next year for The Young’uns as Teesside’s popular folk trio celebrate two decades of singing together with a newly announced tour for 2025.
Singers Sean Cooney, Michael Hughes and David Eagle will also be celebrating landmark birthdays, each turning 40 during the UK tour.
The Young’uns – maybe now The NotSoYoung’uns – never expected to be one of folk music’s hottest properties when they stumbled on the genre at The Sun Inn, Stockton-on-Tees, in 2003.
But they got hooked and joined in, then became regulars and, as the youngest people in the room, were dubbed The Young’uns.
The name stuck and they’ve since carried it around the globe, from Sydney to Vancouver and from Radio Tees to BBC Radio 4.
They’ve collected three coveted BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, played Glastonbury Festival and gained a reputation for singing life affirming songs of social conscience in immaculate three-part harmony.
In recent years they have touched audiences on both sides of the Atlantic via their acclaimed stage show (and album), The Ballad of Johnny Longstaff, based on the life of a Teesside local hero.
In April 2023 they released the powerful, socially aware follow-up, Tiny Notes.
Looking ahead to the forthcoming anniversary tour, Sean said: “It’s been quite a journey, from the back room of a pub in Stockton to the Albert Hall.
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“We’ll be paying tribute to the singers who’ve inspired us and the songs that have taken us around the world and back.”
The tour opens in Leeds on April 15 at Leeds City Varieties and that is possibly the nearest place to catch them in the spring because there are no North East venues listed on a tour which ends in Scunthorpe on May 31.
But… and it’s a big but. A little bird tells me a big 20th anniversary gig is planned for the North East later in the year.
You can keep tabs on all the venues and ticket details on the website of The Young’uns.