FROM THE WORKSHOP

From The Workshop is the story of two voices woven together by chance and stitched tight by fate. It began on a cold February day in 2023, when Jonnie Temple knocked on Helen Rosemary’s door in Biggin Hill, Kent, delivering a parcel the day after her beloved dog had been run down. In that moment of loss, something unexpected sparked — though neither knew that within a year they would be singing side by side, turning grief into harmony.

Rooted now in Bromley, Helen and Jonnie first found each other through chance, then found something deeper in song. Jonnie, whose heart beats to the rhythms of punk rock and ska, was setting out alone on a folk journey when Helen, after two decades of silence, decided to lift her voice once more. To her surprise — and Jonnie’s relief — it turned out she could sing. Really sing.

Drawn together by strange coincidences, they began stripping rock anthems down to their bare bones, reimagining them with nothing but raw voices and acoustic strings. It didn’t take long for people to tell them what they already suspected: they were meant to sing together. And so they did.

Their first spark came with “Call Me Your Home”, an original song of Jonnie’s that found its truest shape in Helen’s newfound voice. One song became many, covers gave way to confessional originals — foot-stomping folk tunes and tender ballads spun from their own tangled stories and shared adventures.

Jonnie brings the grit and honesty of Show of Hands, Chris Cornell, Frank Turner and Bayside to the table; Helen weaves in echoes of musical theatre and her love for Radiohead, Fleetwood Mac, Joni Mitchell and Miranda Sykes. Together, they shape songs that feel like letters from the heart — a fresh, soulful twist on contemporary folk.

Their name, From The Workshop, comes from Jonnie’s days repairing guitars and recording songs in the hush of his home workshop — a place where splinters became songs — and from Helen’s quiet passion for textiles and craft, where threads find new life in patient hands.

In 2024, Jonnie released his solo debut F:orward, the first of a trilogy of mini-albums. Their second album, T:owards, is taking shape now, ready to meet the world in 2025, with Helen’s harmonies echoing FTW into a new future. Along the way they played nationwide festival main stages with Ella Henderson, The Bluetones, 3 Daft Monkeys and Steve Knightley and continue to carry their songs through towns and taverns across southern England.

They’ve opened for the likes of Karen Pfeiffer & Paul Walker at Dartford Folk Club, Jenny Colquitt in Beckenham and hold down regular headline nights at The Oval Tavern in Croydon. A highlight of 2025 so far was the famous Rochester Sweeps Festival, and with Folk in a Field (Norfolk), and Broadstairs Folk Week ahead, the road stretches long and promising. Their songs Ordinary Man and The Self-Appointed King have found their way onto the airwaves, while Channel Radio’s Folk in the Barn welcomed them live.

It all began with a knock on the door, a lost dog, and a delivery neither of them expected. From The Workshop carry that spark forward — two voices, one story, stitched together in song.