NORTH-East trio the Young’Uns have been named best group at the Folk Awards.

The group, who started out at the Stockton Folk Club on Teesside, gave up their jobs in 2013 to concentrate on their music.

They have since performed alongside Billy Bragg at Glastonbury and have played the Cambridge Folk Festival.

They saw off competition from Bellowhead, The Furrow Collective and The Gloaming to take the award.

'We're completely thrilled to win the award," said Michael Hughes, who alongside Sean Cooney and David Eagle make up the band. "It's a fantastic 30th birthday present for the three of us. The other three nominees are phenomenal musicians so we couldn't believe it when they said our name!"

Fellow North-East performer Jez Lowe was nominated in the Folk Singer Of The Year Category, while Kathryn Tickell was nominated in the Musician Of The Year category.

Elsewhere, Elbow frontman Guy Garvey paid tribute to singer-songwriter Ewan MacColl with a performance of his classic track The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.

The singer joined the late songwriter's family on stage at the event which ended with MacColl inducted into its Hall of Fame.

MacColl, who died in 1989, wrote hundreds of songs in his lengthy career including Dirty Old Town about his home town of Salford.

Other winners at the event - formally known as the Radio 2 Folk Awards - included Cat Stevens and Loudon Wainwright III who were both given lifetime achievement awards.

Stevens, now known as Yusuf Islam, was given his award by singer-songwriter David Gray at the event at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff.

Radio 2 controller Bob Shennan said: "The Radio 2 Folk Awards is an annual celebration of the nation's longstanding devotion to the folk music scene. It is wonderful to be able to bring together such a high calibre line-up of artists and recognise their achievements over the past 12 months.

"Congratulations to all the winners and nominees. The folk genre is a key highlight in the Radio 2 schedule and we are committed to broadcasting distinctive and diverse musical content."

Radio 2 Folk Awards 2015 winners:

:: Folk singer of the year - Nancy Kerr

:: Best duo - Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker

:: Best group - The Young'uns

:: Best Album - Tincian by 9Bach

:: Horizon Award - The Rails

:: Musician of the Year - Sam Sweeney

:: Best Original Song - Swim to the Star by Peggy Seeger and Calum MacColl

:: Best Traditional Track - Samhradh Samhradh by The Gloaming

:: BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award - Talisk

:: Lifetime achievement award - Yusuf / Cat Stevens and Loudon Wainwright III

:: Good Tradition Award - Meredydd Evans

:: Hall of Fame - Ewan MacColl