Rag time!
Fri, 27 Jul 2012 10:36:00 BST
After playing to thousands, student band The Rag Tags are studio bound
Ready to record - The Rag Tags
THE Rag Tags – a band formed by University of Huddersfield students who got their big break when asked to provide support for superstars Mumford and Sons – are going into the studio soon to record their debut album.
And they won’t have to go far. Not only does the University have state-of-the-art recording facilities on campus, but one of The Rag Tags, guitarist-banjoist Joshua Power, knows the set-up intimately. Like most of his fellow band members, he is studying for a BA degree in popular music and music technology and he has just completed his work placement year as a technician in the studio at the University’s Creative Arts Building.
So Joshua is perfectly placed to produce The Rag Tags’ album, consisting of self-penned numbers. But the twist is that the band makes a rootsy, folk-pop sound using mostly traditional acoustic instruments such as fiddle, banjo and mandolin – and this makes it even more important to have top-class studio gear.
“If you record something in hi-fi, then you can make it sound low-fi. But it doesn’t work the other way round!” said Joshua, who is from Bradford.
The other band members are singer Lottie Woodward, from Hertfordshire, David Johnstone and Sam Craggs, from Loughborough, on fiddle and percussion respectively, and Huddersfield’s Tom Cheesman-Biggs on mandolin. They got together in the first year of their studies, forming a band as part of a module, and decided to stay together and take things further.
And so far the high point has been playing to thousands of music fans at Huddersfield’s Greenhead Park in June, at a gig headlined by Mumford and Sons, whose own folk-pop style has been a big influence on The Rag Tags.
“We played for half an hour and it was certainly the biggest crowd we have played to, an estimated 5,500,” said Lottie.
“It was an incredible experience. We were the first band on, but were taken by surprise because Mumford and Sons went on stage before us and introduced us, which was really nice.”
The Rag Tags got the gig when Joshua, who does some work for the University radio station, went along to interview members of the Mumfords when they visited Huddersfield to check out the venue in advance.
“My plan was that at the end of interview I would say, ‘Oh by the way I’m in a band, would you like to hear our record’, but as soon as I got there, Winston, the banjo player, immediately asked me if I was in a band and said he would like to hear us. He took our demo recording away, really liked it and he booked us for the gig and the after-show.”
Now The Rag Tags – in addition to recording their album – are planning a tour, probably in early September, and one of the goals is to perform at Freshers’ Weeks at universities around the country.
“It is a time of excitement and uncertainty, with people coming from different places and trying new things. We want to add to the atmosphere of all that,” said Joshua.
