Ragamuffins hard to Beat

The Ragamuffins play The Grand in Clitheroe that night in support of the respected ‘80s Two Tone legends, but only after a 2.30pm afternoon appearance at The Merchant’s as part of the Lancaster Music Festival.

It’s been quite a busy year so far, the band having played at the Liverpool Music Awards launch event, the Threshold Festival, the Ribble Valley’s Beat-Herder Festival, and Brighton’s Great Escape Festival to name but a few select highlights.

There were recorded live sessions for BBC Merseyside in July at The Cavern Club in Liverpool as well.

And the band released its The Telling Tales EP back in March to rave reviews, with a special performance for TV chef Simon Rimmer in the pipeline too.
A brass section of trumpet and trombone complements the band’s guitar, bass, drums and keyboard framework these days, co-founder David Jaggs saying: “The additional members mean we can pad things out with some really lush three and four-part harmonies now.”

He added: “Our music is vibrant indie-pop, but drawing on some ska and Northern Soul influences, so we honestly cannot wait to share a stage with a band with such a fantastic history as The Beat!”

Furthermore, the band will be back to Clitheroe as part of the Middle Earth Christmas Beer Festival in Hurst Green on December 13, alongside Manchester’s The Travelling Band.

The band was formed by David and Richard Nicholson in 2007 under the name The Rascallies, although they later decided to change the name due to fellow North-West band The Rascals.

Paul Heck and Jules Gilchrist joined at the start of 2008 and things began to kick off from there, co-founder Richard deciding to call it a day in the summer of 2009, his last gig recorded for Preston’s Rock FM, the band recruiting Brent Ashton to take his place on drums.

Past gigs also included the Snowbombing Festival in Austria, that mainstage date at The Beat-Herder and head-line status at Liverpool’s o2 Academy 2, and supports for Everything Everything and The Zutons, as well as opening the six-month long Made in Europe Festival in Italy and performing at Alan Mcgee’s Death Disco in London.

The Ragamuffins also recorded a live video for MUTV thanks to a shared support of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust charity, one frequently aired on the Sky TV channel. They’ve also had records played numerous times at Liverpool FC’s Anfield stadium by long-time announcer George Sephton. And their song ‘Royally Flushed’ provides the backing track at key North West media events.

The Ragamuffins also featured as a BBC Introducing band, recently appearing on BBC Radio Lancashire on ‘An intimate afternoon with The Ragamuffins’, following up previous live shows on BBC Radio Merseyside, Blackburn station 107 The Bee, Salford City Radio, and many more stations.

In 2011, after something of a hiatus, David and Paul announced that they would be releasing a new album in 2012 entitled Irony Curtain, containing re-recordings of some older tracks as well as several brand new songs.

The album was released on Liverpool label 7L Records, focusing on a more organic guitar-pop sound than the band’s earlier material.

And that was followed by 2013’s The Telling Tales EP, and their more soulful brass sound.

For details of the Lancaster Festival gig, head to http://www.lancastermusicfestival.com/ and for the Clitheroe Grand show head to http://www.thegrandvenue.co.uk/