麻豆约拍

The best folk and acoustic music from Britain and beyond.

This week, award-winning Teesside group The Young'uns talk about their new album and concert: The Ballad of Johnny Longstaff.

The project tells Longstaff's incredible life story through his own recorded words and new songs written by the Young'uns.

Johnny Longstaff was born in Stockton-on-Tees in 1919. Growing up in the post-war depression, he begged for food before working in a local steel mill.

After taking time off to recover from a nasty accident, his job was given to somebody else. So in 1934, the teenage Johnny joined a Hunger March, walking all the way to London alongside unemployed men from throughout England.

In London, he slept rough and learned the extent of poverty and inequality at that time. He joined protests including the Battle of Cable Street - clashing with Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists in London's East End.

Concerned by the plight of Jews in Europe and the rise of fascism, Johnny Longstaff joined the International Brigade to fight against Franco's fascist coup during the Spanish Civil War. Joining the conflict was illegal under British law because Britain was officially neutral.

On return from Spain, he had a chance meeting with Winston Churchill, telling Churchill "[I would be willing to fight Hitler] because I've been fighting [him] all my life", before enlisting for Second World War campaigns in North Africa and Italy.

On this Folk Show, Sean Cooney and David Eagle from the Young'uns tell Mark Radcliffe how they came to write 16 new folk songs about Johnny's remarkable but little-known life.

Plus the usual mix of exciting new releases, classic tracks and news from the folk world.