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More about The Ragamuffins...

Where are you from?

Richard is originally from Clitheroe, and he lives in Ormskirk now (which is generally where we practice), Julia lives in Fallowfield, David lives in Fazakerley, and Paul our bassist lives in Ewood in Blackburn.

Who plays what?

Paul Heck on bass and trumpet
David Jaggs on vocals and guitar,
Richard Nicholson on drums and
Jules Gilchrist plays the keyboards, synths, piano, clarinet, and sings away into her microphone to boot

Got any bad habits?

Erm, we're all addicted to tea. If someone offered me all the tea in China I'd most certainly bite their hand off! David also has a rather unhealthy addiction to trainers, shoes, sneakers, basically anything you can wear on your feet.

What's the band's history so far?

We formed out of the remnants of another band that Richard and David had been in when Paul and Jules joined early on in 2008 and christened ourselves “The Ragamuffins” shortly afterwards. We’ve played loads of gigs across East and West Lancashire, including at opening Clitheroe’s state of the art “The Grand” venue in April last year, before playing at Darwen Festival, but we predominantly play in and around Liverpool at the minute. So far we’ve headlined the O2 Academy, played The Zanzibar, Magnet, Cavern (Club and Pub), taken part in the annual “International Pop Overthrow Festival”, played at Bumper and The Metropolitan as part of MTV Liverpool Music Week, and even get our songs played regularly at Anfield, home of Liverpool FC. In September 2008, we were flown over to Italy to take part in (and indeed open!) the six month long “Made in Europe” Festival just North of Milan and we regularly play gigs in London town to keep the folks we know down there content.

We’ve written, recorded and self released three extended mini albums this past year that have all sold out of the first pressing soon after their release and it’d be nice to think that they’re one day going to be considered collectors’ items! Our songs have featured on presentations at The Labour Party Conference in Manchester, been played on Manchester United’s “MUTV” station too! Crikey!

Style and influences?

We try and stay as true as possible to our pop roots which isn’t too hard to do when you’ve grown up in the region that has gave birth to some of the greatest pop music the world has ever heard: you’ve really got the music textbook right there at your fingertips! We also love Motown and Northern Soul music which comes through in quite a few of our creations but we’re not afraid to get the synths out and experiment as well.

Best moment so far?

There have been more than a few, but playing in Italy was really fantastic; it was like total Beatlemania being asked to sign autographs and pose for photos after the gig! Seeing some of our fans inventing a dance routine spontaneously for the chorus of “Stories From The Backseat” was pretty awesome too (“She spells Kirsti with an STI, I think that’s funny but I don’t know why….”).

Worst/most embarrassing moment so far?

An ill advised acoustic cover of “Gangsta’s Paradise” by Coolio live on a Wirral based Radio Station at Christmas!

What's your favourite song? Or which song do you wish you'd written?

Crumbs, it’s hard to pin down a song as being one I “wish I’d written”, there’s probably a fair few, but I suppose all you can do is listen to them and be inspired. Out of our own songs I really like the songs that took/take ten minutes to write and just come into your head as catchy melodies before you go to sleep at night. “Better Late Than Never”, “Chasing Rainbows” and “Discobiscuits” all came about that way, and “Jamaica Wool” was the same but after an afternoon nap one fateful Sunday (in between drinking sessions down the pub!) and stems from a cheeky comment by a mate of mine regarding losing his job and girlfriend in the same week!

Anything else we should all know about?

Jules appeared on Top Of The Pops with pop megastars Eternal as a fresh faced youngster in her school choir once. David also used to be a child model (no, seriously!)

We’re playing an Intimate Evening for ��ѿ��ý Radio Lancashire on the 13th of May 2009 at Darwen Street in Blackburn and tickets will be available on the ��ѿ��ý ticket site in late April. We’re also playing at the first annual “Middle Earth Beer Festival” in Hurst Green, near Stonyhurst College on Friday the 3rd of April 2009 and are putting on cheap return buses from nearby Whalley and Clitheroe (the nearest bus/train links!) Find out more details on these on our websites!