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Ragged School

Hailing from Swansea, new Fenchurch Family members, Ragged School have been steadily making waves nationally and globally. Ragged School are Ru / Rhyds / Cox / Joyce / Lee and they've taken a minute tell us more about themselves and what's planned on their busy schedule...

How did you guys get together?

After spending 6 months locked away writing songs, I (Ruairi) found I had around 60 new demos which I short-listed to 12 and then recorded my first album. Following a huge response to one of the tracks being played on Absolute Radio, I realised I needed a band to play the songs live and after a lot of searching and Chinese whispers, I had a line-up ready to conquer the world! We are all from around Swansea and everyone in the band is now writing and contributing material.

Who are you're influences?

The Beatles, Elbow, Oasis, Biffy Cliro, Radiohead, Bruce Springsteen, Led Zeppelin, Incubus and Jimmy Eat World.

So you played with James McCartney, how was that?

Really good - great venue and a great crowd who didn’t want us to leave the stage. James was a really nice guy who must have to put up with comparisons with his dad every gig. Must drive him crazy.

Where does the name Ragged School come from?

Opposite where we rehearse in Swansea is an old building with ‘Ragged School’ carved in stone over the door. Because we liked the name, we did a bit of research and discovered that the first Ragged School was created early in the 19th century to give street urchins an education. It was said to begin with that there was a raggedy look to the band, so it seemed kind of appropriate!

How would you describe the Ragged School 'look'?

We are a rock band that plays melodic pop songs and we think our look reflects that. It’s only recently that we thought about how we look on stage, as it was always more about how we sound. However, with a lot of help from the good people from Fenchurch, we have now found a look that we’re all comfortable with.

You were involved in collaboration with Swansea Metropolitan University, how did that go?

Duncan, our manager, works at Swansea Met and saw the huge potential for tapping into the creative talent there to help promote the band. As a result, with the approval of the Vice-Chancellor, students from courses in Design for Advertising, Graphic Design, Illustration, Animation, Photography and Video are all engaged in the production of material to help and promote Ragged School.

What's all this about Beverly Hills 90210, when will the Ragged School episode be hitting our screens?

Some of the tracks from the album have been picked up by 90210 in the USA and ‘Eyes Wide Open’ was used in the Winter Wonderland episode in the first series, which has already been aired in the UK. ‘Little Miss Walk on By’ (aka ‘My Little Shangri-La’) has recently been featured in the second series episode ‘Another Another Chance’ and this should be aired in the UK very soon.