The Young'Uns at Christmas

The Young'Uns are playing The Fire Station on Wednesday 23 December, with a festive set of Christmas songs old and new. It's a mid-week date, just a couple of days before Christmas, and the set is built around harmony, heart and humour.

For those who haven't come across them, The Young'Uns are Teesside's finest a cappella group. Their story started when three teenagers in Stockton-on-Tees heard people singing in a pub backroom: songs without instruments, in their own accents, about places they knew. Being the youngest there by several decades, they were labelled 'the Young'uns'. More than twenty years on they've carried that name around the world, won three BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards — including Best Group in 2015 and 2016 — and built a reputation for singing life-affirming songs of social conscience in immaculate three-part harmony.

They write and perform a cappella or subtly accompanied songs alongside traditional material from their native North-East. They've played more than 40 festivals, from Cambridge to Glastonbury, and have done sessions for BBC Radio 2 and 3 as well as documentaries for Radio 4. This particular show is their Christmas set, so you'll get a mix of the old and the new, with the harmony and the humour they're known for running through it.

The gig is at The Fire Station on High Street West, Sunderland SR1 3HA, starting at 7:30pm. Tickets are £23.00, and under-14s must be accompanied by an adult.