No Average John

By Joe Kavanagh

Some time ago there was a European television advert for a certain lager that began with a shot of two men sitting at the bar drinking the advertiser's brand of lager, when a sleek Ferrari pulls up outside. One of the drinkers takes a look at the flashy car and says: "I bet the guy's as ugly as sin", at which moment a tall, handsome and immaculately groomed man steps out of the vehicle. The second barfly then pipes up, saying: "I bet he's dumb as a brick" almost at the same time as one of the punters calls out to the stranger: "Doctor Woods, over here, Doctor Woods." The first barfly then exclaims, "He may be a doctor, but I bet he hasn't a friend in the world", just at the moment that virtually everyone else in the crowded bar turns and begins to call out to the doctor, urging him to join their table, as even the band acknowledges him and begins playing his "favorite tune".

All of us know a person like this in life. The one who has the looks, the toys and can do anything they turn their hand to, easily. The type of people that make us lesser mortals feel a fraction inadequate, a touch envious and worst of all, we can't even muster up the energy to hate them because they are just too damn nice.

Johnny Flynn is just such a person. Intelligent, preternaturally talented and blessed with the looks of a film star, he is one of the most literate people in entertainment, an actor of some note and, most recently, has become one of the hottest tickets in music. All before his 25th birthday.

Although he would identify most with being English, Johnny Flynn was born in South Africa, the son of a peripatetic Irish-born father who had traveled the world as a musical theater actor, in such far-flung places as Hong Kong and China. By the time he was three-years-old, the family was on the move again, although it had more to do with personal safety than any career move.

In the time of South Africa's reprehensible apartheid laws, Flynn's family had become vocal opponents of the racist regime and when one cousin was shot for his political activity, the Flynn family decided it was time to move to the UK.

Given his background, it was hardly surprising that Johnny was attracted to the performing arts, as he related in one recent interview: "It was really special as a kid to see your dad on stage and then go through the stage door into the dressing room. It was very addictive."

While still only a child, he began playing violin and a teacher was so impressed with his latent talent that he urged Johnny's parents to put him forward for a scholarship for a feeder school to Winchester College.

With the music scholarship duly secured, Flynn joined the campus, which was located almost entirely within the confines of Winchester Cathedral but he soon found the intense, sheltered lifestyle made him unhappy, even as it reaffirmed his love for all things musical.

At 13-years-old, two very important events would change the course of his life. Firstly, he was accepted into Bedales boarding school, which offers intense training in the performing arts and has cultivated the precocious talent of names such as Lily Allen, The Kooks' Luke Pritchard and singer/songwriter, Patrick Wolf.

The second moment occurred when he was introduced to Bob Dylan's Freewheelin', an album that had a profound effect on the young musician and the ghost of which can be heard in much of Flynn's own music today.

A dedicated student of all arts, Flynn's initial focus was on his career as an actor and upon leaving school he took up with the acclaimed all-male Propeller Shakespearean theatre group, who traveled the globe putting on acclaimed performances Taming Of The Shrew and Twelfth Night.

He even managed to take the lead role in 2006 movie, Crusader In Jeans, which went on to become the most successful children's movie in Dutch history.

All the while though, he continued to write songs and upon finding himself back on English soil, he decided to form a band with a group of friends and his younger sister.

The group called themselves The Sussex Wit, a phrase often used to describe the humorous streak running through English folk music, although it became clear early on who was the star of the show, leading most people to begin referring to the band as Johnny Flynn and The Sussex Wit.

Although most people would describe their music as being of the folk variety, Flynn is on record as saying that the label is applied "just because we play slightly quieter instruments." When listening to their tunes, it is hard not to think of folk acts like Steeleye Span, but there are myriad other influences contained within stretching from Billy Bragg to the Beatles and the effervescence of the aforementioned Dylan.

Although not actively pursuing a record deal, executives at Vertigo Records came across one of their demos and inked the band to a multi-album contract, adding a further name to the folk, alterna-folk and even anti-folk wave that has hit the UK, in the form of other young acts such as Noah & The Whale, Laura Marling and Lightspeed Champion.

Asked to describe his own music, Flynn claims to be "Nick Drake fronting The Pogues at the Underage Festival", which is a reasonably accurate portrayal and a somewhat telling insight into his ambitions and aspirations.

Energetic, playful and eloquent, Flynn writes songs with a purpose, covering issues that range from the profound to downright whimsical, and titles like Ode To A Mare Trod Ditch, Brown Trout Blues and The Ballad Of Tom And Sue stand out as much for their titles as their content.

Almost as quirky as the music is the artist himself, whose intrinsic sense of curiosity and desire to learn bode extremely well for the future.

He is on record as saying that he takes inspiration from everything and everyone in his life and he welcomes new emotions and experiences in his quest to become a better performer.

He steadfastly clings to his artistic integrity, refusing to write about experiences in anything other than a firsthand manner, and he recently claimed: "If you are white, middle class British you feel you don't deserve to have certain experiences that would be fitting for someone from a different time and place."

The following story gives some insight into the man and his quest for these experiences.

After a recent gig in Leeds, he and the rest of the band went to a club where a violent stranger punched Flynn in the mouth for no obvious reason before being ejected from the club.

Instead of letting the guy go, Flynn chased him down but not to extract revenge, but rather to find out why the stranger acted as he did.

By the time the two were finished talking, the stranger was bawling crying and offering Flynn money as a means of an apology.

Following hot on the heels of his latest single, the infectious Leftovers, comes A Larum (Old English for alarm) Flynn's long-awaited debut album which hits stores later this week and is expected to be one of the breakthrough albums of 2008.

Never one to let the grass grow under his feet, Flynn recently told an interviewer: "Music is the most important thing in my life but there is so much I want to do. I want to write, to travel. Just last weekend, on a whim, some friends and I went and climbed up Snowdon. I realize I need more of that in my life. To feel humbled by the world." His music career may have other plans.