An ideal festive start to the season’s celebrations was enjoyed by Young’uns fans at Bury Met. A fully masked audience was treated to 2 hours of seasonal music and one or two songs from the Johnny Longstaff story. 

There were seasonal songs, shanties and some of our favourites a-plenty the whole night as the Young Uns began their much awaited winter tour. With Michael Hughes returning to perform the usual chemistry was in evidence musically and with the constant off the cuff jibes at each other. David Eagle’s sudden revelation as to why Rudolph was chosen to guide the sleigh added to the mirth as well as his observation that the the holly upstages the ivy considerably in the traditional The Holly and the Ivy although they stray from the familiar tune.

As expected the harmonies were impeccable, even the false starts to some of the songs were tolerated by the adoring audience and added to the fun and didn’t deter the enjoyment of the evening. Amongst them was Roseberry Moon, a love song and an environmental warning sung at the recent Singing weekends was a welcome addition and a lovely reminder to some in the audience of a memorable weekend.

Sean’s anecdotes added to the heart warming story in Tiny Notes of a young girl who left notes to  people who had lost faith in the future and encouraged them to think again. This amazing show of kindness also inspired others to try and save lives of others facing the same predicament. This as well as all the other non-festive songs, including Ghafoor’s Bus , carried the theme of  stories about folk who’d gone the extra mile to help others complementing the charitable spirit prevalent at this time of year.

David took centre stage to relate the story of villagers who thwarted a crowd of neo-nazis by hiding the booze may not sound particularly festive but the humour of his song was fully appreciated. 

A trio of wassail songs including a word play song about a North Eastern ‘wor sale’ was highly amusing and added to the festive cheer. A cover version of David Essex’s Winter’s Tale gave respect to the original and displayed their adeptness of adding their own arrangements to well-known tunes.

There were plenty of opportunities to sing a chorus or two particularly in their rendition of John Connolly’s I Am Christmas Let Me In, which warmed the heart despite the mask muffled singing. The whole performance showed that the audience and the boys were determined to have a good night out despite the restrictions. 

Although many were there for the singing the trio showed that their instrumental skills are accomplished too. David’s skilful improvisations on keyboard and accordion and Michael’s subtle acoustic guitar playing complemented their joyful and evocative singing.

This is definitely a family show with a generous mix of family members in the audience who all went home with a seasonal spring in their step, humming or singing their favourite from the night. 

The Young’uns have several dates left before the year is out; you can check out the remaining dates here.

To find out more about the aforementioned Ghafoor’s Bus, watch The Young’uns catch up with Ghafoor and discuss his highly inspirational story below.

Check out our archive of articles with The Young’uns here.

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