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Click here to download hi-fi version of Goodbye Johnny.

Musical Tribute to wartime ordeal

Musician Andrew Trigwell can usually be found on stage with his band pump playing loud rock music. But he has undergone a dramatic shift in his musical direction- thanks to his mum Joy. She took the guitarist/songwriter to several reunions of people who had been evacuated from London during the Second World War: After talking to various groups Andrew was so moved he wrote a ballad about their experiences. The musician, who performs under the name Mr Bonx, began to write notes on the train home and sat down immediately to compose the song, called “Goodbye Johnny”. Andrew, from the high street, East Grinstead, Sussex said “The song does surprise some people, knowing that I love loud rock music, they are used to seeing me jumping around on stage playing electric guitars and telling naughty jokes.

The song was not planned- it just came into my head after the last reunion at Marylebone station, in London. It was such an emotional experience. Seeing these people today and then looking at photos of them as kids, 60 years ago. I remember one old boy sitting on crate. He told me his memories were crystal clear of the day they left home”.

Joy was one of the 3.5 million children who had to leave their homes for the countryside in 1939 to escape the air raids and the blitz. She said “I was only nine when I left my family in London and went to live in Dorset. I loved the countryside but felt very homesick. I took Andrew along to the reunions of my old friends who were evacuees.
He spent hours talking to them about their memories, and afterwards told me he had been moved by their experiences.
The song was recorded at The Old Roundhouse Studios in Camden, London with legendary record Producer Colin Thurston, the man behind Duran Duran and many other 80’s artist’s world wide hits. “I am eternally grateful to the way Colin captured the mood, fear and excitement on the song: it’s a huge step away from what I normally write, it’s basically a sad song, but the key change in the last chorus lifts it up, bringing the listener to modern day”.
Although Andrew’s company Red Seal Records has been tirelessly promoting the song for release as a single, seeing as the two world wars are constantly in the media he is looking for a strong management team to take it further, as there has never been a song written by a young songwriter about the wars.
Joy concludes: “We never heard the radio during the war, to protect us from the news that London was being bombed nightly, we didn’t know if our parents would be alive when we returned in 1945. Goodbye Johnny is such a special song. Just for the evacuees, who after all, went on to be the next generation of Londoners”.