Later Youth, the recording name of multi-instrumentalist, producer and serial collaborator Jo Dudderidge, is playing dates around the UK this week to support the release of his debut album “Living History”. “What’s next?” is a question that used to frustrate Jo Dudderidge, but after ten reckless years of living day to day, gig to gig, album to album with The Travelling Band, he realised one day that no one was asking anymore. That it coincided with his struggle to adapt to his move from Manchester to London, alongside a string of health problems in his family, added to his sense of vulnerability. “I felt rudderless“, he recalls, but he got some friends together and began writing and recording anew. “After years of moving around I suddenly found myself standing still. In that moment I was able to look back clearly enough to see that period of my life for what it was” he explains. “I realised I was carrying a whole world of memories I’d never really processed”. That’s how Later Youth emerged, not only as an alter ego, but in recognition of what came before and also as a half-joking mantra: a reminder to keep enjoying the thrill of self-expression that comes with writing.
To date, Later Youth has released glimpses from the record in the forms of singles ‘Statuesque’, ‘The Wave’, ‘Arcane Love’, ‘Nuclear Love’ and ‘Enabler’ and ‘Make It Right’, a wish for reconciliation which you can listen to below. Jo speaks on the track, “I wanted the recording to sound like I was performing it on a late 60’s TV show dressed in dishevelled tucks, crooning to the camera with feather boas everywhere with dancers shimmying to the beat”.On the album itself, Dudderidge expands, “Writing and performing songs can be a bit like historical reenactment – the further you move away from the person you used to be, the harder it becomes to separate fact from fiction. After years of moving around I suddenly found myself standing still. In that moment I was able to look back clearly enough to see this particular period of my life for what it was.”
Later Youth 2025 live dates:
9 Jul – STROUD Sub Rooms (supporting Josh Rouse)
10 Jul – GOSPORT A Slice of Vinyl – 2pm
10 Jul – HASSOCKS Mid Sussex Music Hall (supporting Josh Rouse)
12 Jul – KINGSTON Banquet – 6pm
13 Jul – EASTBOURNE Beach Life Festival – 2.30pm
15 Jul – NANTWICH Applestump Records – 6pm
16 Jul – LEEDS Crash – 6pm
