I shouldn't be surprised anymore, but I'm still completely blown away by the dedication, warmth and love I meet everywhere there are Liverpool supporters. David John Jaggs tells that in this interview
In love with the Liverpool festival!
David John James fell in love with the Liverpool Festival when he was there last year and he can't wait to return this year. The frontman of The Ragamuffins returns to create a perfect end to the festival, with full thrust from the main stage. The Liverpool musician formed the band in 2008 and has kept it going since then with several albums and many gigs. In Norway they are best known for LFC songs, with Si Senor being among the most popular, together with Lucho which was released in collaboration with Andy Hodgson.
That David would become a Liverpool supporter was not a foregone conclusion. He grew up with a father who was an Everton supporter and a mother who was a Liverpool supporter. Thanks to an alert aunt who gave him a signed team photo from 1990 as a gift, in addition to three uncles who on birthdays and at Christmas he provided LFC books, kits and other effects, he landed on the right side of Stanley Park.
Our man plays at Hotel Anfield ahead of all LFC matches, sometimes with a full band. He catches most of the home games from the stands and is passionate about the club. We had to ask what his first memory of Liverpool is?
- Unfortunately, it is Hillsborough - the disaster in 1989. We were on a family holiday in Wales and I remember staying up late at night to follow the television broadcasts. My parents tried to call my uncles to check that everything was okay with them. I was a little too young to fully understand what was happening, but I understood that these were serious matters. I also thought it was strange that this happened somewhere other than Liverpool, at the time I thought Liverpool played all their games at Anfield
What is the best memory or experience you have had with the club? - I have many good memories from what happened on the football pitch, but my very best memory is actually about music. It was then that our song Si Senor was played live at the big supporter events in Istanbul, before the Champions league final and later part of Colin Murray's DJ was seen in the fan park in Madrid in 2019, when we could raise the trophy after the final against Tottenham.
We also have to check which player you have as your favorite player throughout all the years you have followed Liverpool FC? - It is God himself, Robbie Fowler, but he is closely followed by Roberto "Bobby" Firmino. Two players who were important in their respective time periods.
Received with open arms
David and The Ragamuffins will return to the Liverpool festival this year, and 2023 was actually the first time he visited Norway. How did he experience being received? - It was fantastic but I knew it would be good. We have played in many countries and around the UK with the LFC family, and the reception and atmosphere is good everywhere. I shouldn't be surprised anymore, but I'm still completely blown away by the dedication, warmth and love I meet everywhere there are Liverpool supporters.
- The Liverpool festival was no exception. We were welcomed with open arms and we enjoyed ourselves from the time we arrived until we left. All the guys in the band hope we get to go swimming this year too, and Florin can hardly wait to get back to eat more waffles. The only thing we are missing is to see moose, but we are betting on getting that with us this year.
New single on the way!
David has been doing music more or less full-time for the past 15 years and when he has to highlight artists and bands that he grew up with and that were an inspiration, he mentions names like Belle & Sebastian, Camera Obscura, David Bowie and The The Beatles. The Coral is one of the bands that is still an important source of inspiration in addition to The Specials and The Jam.
The Ragamuffins were founded in 2008 and have been playing since then, with slightly different compositions. In recent years they have had a permanent lineup with David on guitar/keyboards, Florin "Flo" Ciurariu on trumpet, Alex Pearson on bass and William "Wil" Graham on drums. They also have several musicians on stage during larger concerts, including Wil's fiancee, Ellie, on cello.
They started playing LFC songs at Hotel Anfield during match days about 6 years ago and have also released an album of LFC songs where all proceeds go to Fans Supporting Foodbanks, a charity in Liverpool. The album is called "Unity is strenght" and the release has raised a lot of money for an important cause. You can find the entire album on Spotifyhere
I shouldn't be surprised anymore, but I'm still completely blown away by the dedication, warmth and love I meet everywhere there are Liverpool supporters.
David also plays in several bands. - Among other things, I am a vocalist in the soul band The Northern Soultrain. The band was originally started about 15 years ago and I joined in 2019. We play concerts all over the UK. The band's former vocalist and good friend, Darrell Smith, performed at the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall last summer with the BBC Concert Orchestra and he joined us on stage in front of approx. 3,500 people at the Blackpool Tower Ballroom last December, a magical concert. Interest in the band has grown noticeably recently and we have many gigs going on.
- I also do a number of gigs as a solo artist, then I like to play songs from The Ragamuffins, in addition to all the jobs I have in connection with various LFC events. During match days, as previously mentioned, I play at Hotel Anfield and often I do this without a full band behind me. I must also mention that I will be playing at the Liverpool Empire on May 15 with the whole band, during Bill Shankly's FA Cup Farewell, in connection with the fact that it is 50 years since the legendary FA Cup final in 1974. It was Shankly's last match as a manager. Here we will share the stage with legends such as Kevin Keegan, Ian Callaghan and Alan Kennedy.
The collaboration with Andy Hodgson
Hotel Anfield is next door to Taggys, where Andy Hodgson plays regularly. You hadn't met him before you both ended up at Gjøvik and the Liverpool festival last year. Now you have released "Lucho" together and it has become a formidable success. - It's quite incredible, but even though we had played "wall to wall" for the last couple of seasons, we had never met before we met in Gjøvik. We really found each other in Gjøvik and Andy is a nice guy. There was even a performance on the main stage together, which wasn't really planned in advance.
- We actually played Lucho during the Liverpool Festival 2023 and it was probably the first time it was performed live. The song is definitely Andy's but it deserved to be put on tape so I extended a helping hand. I am of course interested in music, and I am interested in other musicians. When I can help other musicians, I do. Music should not be a competition where we compete to be the best. I cheer for friends and colleagues who succeed and I am, for example, very happy about the success that both Andy and Kieo have had, and not least that Jamie (Webster) is so successful with both record releases and bigger and bigger concerts
The Ragamuffins were a relatively unheralded band among the festival participants in the run-up to last year's festival, but they became the big talk afterwards. Several people got in touch and asked us to get the band back for this year's festival. We did and got an immediate yes from David and the gang. What can we expect from the scene this year? - We will do much of the same as last year, but people can probably expect a few surprises along the way. There will of course be lots of LFC songs but also some own songs. As for the LFC songs, the selection has gradually become so large that we could probably play from sunrise to sunset without running out of songs.
At the very end, we wonder why people should make the trip to the Liverpool Festival 2025, beyond the fact that they get to experience The Ragamuffins? - That is quite easy to answer. There is a good atmosphere with lots of nice people, you get very close to the legends and you are guaranteed to get to know lots of other supporters
About the Liverpool Festival
The Liverpool festival is made by local supporters from the Gjøvik and Toten area through the company Aldri Alene AS. There are 10 owners and the common denominator is that they are all Liverpool supporters. The purpose is to establish and develop the Liverpool Festival into an annual event that will gather supporters from all over Scandinavia, in Gjøvik.
Pr/Info/press: Jaran Pedersen jaran@liverpoolgjovik.no
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