PLAYING THE FIELD

Sarah Varley speaks to The Ragamuffins frontman David John Jaggs about his career, the global success of their charity football single and exciting plans with DANCEFLO and Northern Soultrain

David John Jaggs started The Ragamuffins in 2008, an indie guitar band with plenty of blue-eyed soul shining through in the piano, keyboards, trumpet and saxophone. They’ve been compared to Dexy’s Midnight Runners, early Elvis Costello and The Style Council.

Growing up in Simonstone, David’s musical tastes were formed swapping records and CDs with Clitheroe Royal Grammar School friends and even the teachers, who provided further inspiration: “My teacher found out I was going to see one of my all-time favourite bands Belle & Sebastian in Copenhagen and arranged for me to meet the band as he knew vocalist, keyboard player and violinist Sarah Martin from when she herself was a student at CRGS,” recalls David.

“The way Belle & Sebastian were put together wasn’t dissimilar to how we put together The Ragamuffins – travelling around and meeting gun-slinging bassists, guitarists, saxophonists or drummers backstage at gigs or in cafes in Liverpool and Manchester,” says David. “We all ‘moonlight’ in The Ragamuffins, playing in lots of different bands and for amazing artists too.

“Our guitarist Tom plays for Big Society and Middlesbrough band Cattle & Cane, he has played for Sister Sledge and supported Noel Gallagher on a European tour with his previous band FOLKS. Our trumpet player Florin fills in for legendary Pele and Amsterdam frontman Ian Prowse. Will played Glastonbury in 2019 with his band Bethlehem Casuals and our bassist Alex plays for our amazing soul singer friend Charlie Cooper. Sam our keyboard player fronts ska band XMenBTeam and George our violinist and occasional bassist played for Sugababes and New Order recently!”

Highlights for The Ragamuffins include playing at Snowbombing Festival in Austria, the Great Escape Festival in Brighton and the Made In Europe Festival in Northern Italy. Closer to home, they’ve played the main stage at Beatherder several times and supported the great Steve Cropper at The Grand.

“Steve asked us to play a pub gig just up the road at The Swan & Royal later that week, where he played the Peter Gunn theme from The Blues Brothers on my acoustic guitar – he stood just feet away from me while I played my set. It was a bit like having Steven Gerrard watch you play five-a-side football!”

The biggest success for The Ragamuffins came in 2019 with their charity single, Si Señor, a samba version of the Liverpool fans’ terrace chant for striker Roberto ‘Bobby’ Firmino. A chance meeting with a musical associate, Dan Ross (Rosenblume) led to the band playing on the main stage outside Anfield stadium to thousands of people on match days.

“We released the song as a single five days later as Liverpool reached the Champions League final in Madrid, with all proceeds going to Fans Supporting Foodbanks. It immediately started to hover around the top 20 in the UK charts and reached number one in Japan!” adds David.

“Player and celebrity endorsements definitely helped – Sir Kenny Dalglish actually had the song as his ringtone! We performed the song live on the club’s TV channel, chatting on their talk show with ex-player Stephen Warnock, Lightning Seeds’ Ian Broudie and DJ Colin Murray, who then played the song in his DJ set to 80,000 people at a fan park in Madrid.”

The Ragamuffins played live on BBC One on the morning of the final before playing at a sold-out Liverpool Arena before the game screening. After the trophy presentation and the club’s anthem ended, it was an unforgettable moment for the band as Si Señor reverberated around the stadium as the jubilant players and fans celebrated.

Speaking of his association with Northern Soultrain, David recalls: “I was asked to join the Northern Soultrain in 2018 on the day my daughter was born, during a whispered phone call in the maternity ward! We’ve played some incredible gigs already including a homecoming gig for our trumpet players Lee and Rod at Rochdale Feelgood Festival.”

With the Ragamuffins, David played at the wedding of former Top of the Pops and BBC radio royalty Janice Long in 2017 and he also played a solo show at former Preston North End and Accrington Stanley footballer Andy Procter’s wedding in Italy: “Mid-set, legendary Accrington Stanley boss John Coleman asked, ‘D’ya know Budapest?’ and the pair of us duetted the George Ezra classic to the wedding guests on the shores of Lake Garda.”

The band are often asked to play at weddings or private functions: “We’ve launched DANCEFLO as a way to showcase this side to our musical endeavours. As musicians we instinctively know when to lift the mood and what songs to play and we really love these reactive, feel-good performances.”

Life has been quiet this past year for the musicians, with their entire work calendar wiped out, but the upside for David was spending precious time with his new daughter.

“Our band did still manage to make and record some music even in isolation and we did live BBC Sessions for BBC Radio Wales and Radio Lancashire. Even though it was extremely tough at times, it’s given us some time to write and create and make some exciting plans for the future.”

theragamuffins.co.uk
soultrainofficial.co.uk
danceflomusic@gmail.com
Facebook.com/danceflomusic

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