Two former north Kensington youth workers have teamed up with The Clash guitarist Mick Jones in a bid to use music to help keep young people away from knife crime.
Josh Leckie and Justin Burnley have been friends since their school days at Fox Primary School in Notting Hill and were later youth workers at the rugby club run by the Rugby Portobello Trust on Walmer Road.
They often played football at the community football pitches near Grenfell Tower, where Kensington Aldridge Academy is now.
"We were there every day playing football," said Josh.
These days you’re more likely to find them shooting music videos around Ladbroke Grove.
Their work in the youth club spurred them to make a single about knife crime - a problem which they feel can be brushed under the carpet - and is worse than the days when they were out playing football.
Recently, the pair - known as The Goldborns - teamed up with rapper Lowkey and Nathan Adams to record the single called Words of a Wound.
Josh said: "If it stops one person getting stabbed it makes a difference."
Listen to the song by clicking here.
Justin said their style as a duo called The Goldborns encompasses hip hop, ska and dub amongst others.
The Clash’s Mick Jones got to hear about their work through the Sex Pistols’ drummer Paul Cook after a chance meeting in the pub and produced their album Don’t Look Away at his studio in Acton.
Justin said: "It was amazing. We also liked The Clash early on. Working with him was great."
The duo has also recorded a powerful song about the Grenfell Tower tragedy.
Josh studied music technology and has his own studio at home and says he’s a keen collector of records and recording equipment from the 60s and 70s.
The pair worked at a youth club funded by the P3 charity.
Justin said: "It’s one of those jobs where you go home and feel that you have helped get people off the street and instead of getting into something, they’re in the studio with us."
He said the youth club taught young people in North Kensington skills such as cooking as well as music and sport.
"It was so important for them to have a free gym to take out their anger in the gym or a rap," he said.
Now he says too many teenagers stay indoors at their computers or go out late.
According to police statistics last year, the number of offences for possessing offensive weapons in Kensington and Chelsea was higher than the London average.
Kensington and Chelsea council has brought parents together to learn more about the risks of knife crime.
Earlier this year, 70 people attended the One Life, No Knife event where former gang members talked to parents.
Experts from the council and police’s joint Safer Kensington and Chelsea Partnership and the Local Safeguarding Children Board were also on hand.
The Goldborns are playing a benefit gig at Ariadne's Bar in Latimer Road, North Kensington on Friday, December 7, in aid of famine relief in Yemen.
