Justin Young (singer, born 1987)
British musician

Justin James Hayward-Young (born 2 May 1987) is an English musician who is the lead singer and guitarist of indie rock band The Vaccines.
Early life
Young was born in Hampshire, England, and grew up in the New Forest. He attended King Edward VI School, Southampton from 1998 to 2003 and Brockenhurst College from 2003 to 2005. He is a great-grandson of the prolific English painter and artist Walter Hayward-Young, who was commonly known as "Jotter". The son of a film-maker, he grew up in a "musical household" and began playing music by borrowing his father's guitars.
In June 2010, Young graduated from King's College London with a degree in History.
Career
During his early teens Young played in various bands, including an alt-country band called The Eldora Parade and a hardcore punk band called Fashion Police Brutality.
Arriving in London for University, Young began playing solo and performed regularly under the stage name Jay Jay Pistolet, appearing on bills with Florence & The Machine, Kid Harpoon and Frank Turner. Young is mentioned by name in two of Frank Turner's songs: "Justin is the last of the great romantic poets, And he's the only one among us who is ever going to make it" (I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous, 2008), "And Justin left Southampton and got famous like I said" (The Resurrectionists, 2022).
As Jay Jay Pistolet, Young released a single entitled "We Are Free" with Chess Club Records in 2007 and an EP called Happy Birthday You in 2008 through Stiff Records.
“Justin Young (singer, born 1987)” enters the record as british musician. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Justin, Young and singer can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Justin Young (singer, born 1987)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Justin, Young and singer provides the most credible route into that argument.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q17403287. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1987, 1998, 2003 and 2005.
A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Justin Young (singer, born 1987)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Justin Young (singer, born 1987) primary sources, Justin Young (singer, born 1987) archive and Justin research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Justin Young (singer, born 1987)”?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Justin Young (singer, born 1987)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.