Standing in the audience - there was rarely room tosit - at a Raglan Road gig in the early 80s, you’d be taken to another world. Onany Wednesday night at the Grand Hotel, Bondi Junction, a Friday night at the Rose,Shamrock & Thistle Hotel (the “Three Weeds”) in Rozelle, or on Sunday eveningsat the White Horse Hotel, Surry Hills, Raglan Road was a band that did morethan play music – they took you to another place in your heart and in yoursoul. You laughed and sang and clapped along to the Irish ballads and the jigsand reels, you screamed “Tar” in the chorus of “Lachlan Tigers”, and youclenched your fists and thought for a bit, listening to songs like: “The Heartsare Reaching Out” (about youth drug addiction), or to Dylan’s “Masters of War”.Raglan Road gigs were, as they’d say today, “cool”. The music was happy,strident, powerful, sad, uplifting, thought provoking, and brilliantly performed.



Raglan Road knew what they were doing – by 1980 they’dperformed over 800 times. They started in 1974 at the Paddington Green Hotel onSaturday afternoons and stayed for almost three years. The “Green” gig waslegendary and few people under 30 in the East of Sydney would not have heard ofit. Packed, shoulder to shoulder, and easily the biggest acoustic gig inSydney. Perhaps only the Bushwackers Saturday nights at the Dan O’Connell Hotelin Melbourne could have been an equal at the time.



A favourite Raglan Road gig in the late 70s was theCourthouse Hotel, Taylor Square, on Wednesday nights. It was a big airy roomwith a less hectic feel than the “Green”, and allowed the band to mix in someof their slower, softer material with their standard powerful songs and tunes.There would still always be over 100 in the audience and often many more. Theywere special nights for the band’s growing, fiercely loyal, almost “cult”following.



For a band that was fast becoming an integral part ofSydney’s live music scene, they were still loyal folkies at heart. They still playedat local folk clubs (like the Man o’ War in Ultimo, and Gerry Boame’s atMiranda) for less than the cost of petrol to get there.



But things were moving fast for Raglan Road. In 1978they released their first album. By 1981 Raglan Road was clearly Sydney’spremier folk/acoustic band, and they were getting noticed! In that year theyplayed at the Sydney Opera House, Sydney Town Hall, and at the giant BirkenheadBarn, each to audiences of over 2000.



The following year they re-released their album,originally a private pressing, on the Larrikin label. Still performing at theirepic residencies on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, they also did concertswith the Bushwackers, the Dubliners, and Eric Bogle.



Their two years of Wednesday nights at the Grand Hotel(Cock & Bull) left an interesting legacy. Raglan Road was the first band toplay Irish music at that venue. Up until then its theme was English music hall.Within weeks the hotel became a mecca for Irish ex-pats, backpackers andtourists and 33 years later it still is! In the early 90s the Grand won the“Irish Echo” newspaper’s “Australia’s Top Irish Pub” award and the hotel stillproudly displays it. All because of Raglan Road!



Through 1984 and 1985 the band began widening theiraudiences by performing in hotels and clubs in and around Sydney, includingWollongong and Tamworth. In October 1984 they toured with the Fureys, includinga concert at The Sydney Entertainment Center with an audience of over 2000.April 85 saw the release of their double album through E.M.I., and in March1986 they toured with the Dubliners, Stocktons Wing and Christy Moore. Theythen performed at the prestigious Port Fairy Folk Festival in Victoria.



Beginning 41 years ago and for 13 years an integralpart of Australia’s folk music history, we will see them once again!