REVIEW: Ragamuffin Children and Rosy Tin Teacaddy

RAGAMUFFIN CHILDREN
ROSY TIN TEACADDY
HAPPY BAR
SATURDAY 11 AUGUST
Words by Martin Johnson

So, when you head down into the bunker of Happy, theres always the feeling of entering another world, expectations of music that doesn't necessarially conform to your usual constraints. Saturday night there was a step back to some times that may not have existed. First off Rosy Tin Teacaddy took the stage, with Billy in particularly good form... perhaps that wasn't tea in his cup, in fact we can confirm that, and like the couple they are, or aren't for that matter, Billy gently harangued Betty between songs with the comfortable space of days over the kitchen table sitting between them. Whether it's a fiction or not, an embellishment perhaps of Betty & Billys life, there's more to this music than two performers on stage, stepping out as they do clad in the residue of another decade & another time in a seaside cottage. The harmonies that Billy & Betty achieved were rather lovely too, give or take a few false starts and extended middles, a digression or two, all adding to the charm

Ragamuffin Children were up next & they looked like they'd fallen out of the Northwest of Califoria some time around 1969, with the particular charm they exude on stage based on a vagueness in their performance. Along with the more serious material, they break things up with singalong tunes about aliens and stories about a dog who will howl along. All very low key and intimate, plus they were on the teapot as well, and this time it really did seem to be tea they were drinking. Nice. The boy they called upon to play clarinet got a cup as well, and he seemed pleased about that. Tea folk, it could be the new rock & roll....