THEY’VE tasted the big time performing to thousands at Mumford and Sons’ Greenhead Park gig.

Now Huddersfield student band, The Rag Tags, are entering their final year at university and dreaming of stardom.

The band was thrown together for an exercise during the first year of their music course.

The chemistry was instant and after winning a university battle of the bands competition, they began to gig around Huddersfield.

Then last June the folky five-piece managed to get booked by world famous Mumford and Sons after guitarist Josh Power cheekily asked the London group if they could play at their upcoming Greenhead gig.

A week later the student group were rejoicing when Mumford’s management invited them to join the line-up for the Gentlemen of the Road extravaganza.

The experience saw the unsigned musicians rub shoulders with a host of famous faces, enjoy free gifts and party backstage with stars including Willy Mason, Michael Kiwanuka, Nathaniel Rateliff, The Moulettes, Slow Club and The Correspondents.

Recalling their festival bow, guitarist Josh Power, said they had been surprised that Mumford and Sons took the time to introduce them to the 5,500 strong crowd.

He said: “Opening for a band that’s basically our idols was just incredible.

“And to be introduced by the band before we went on was kind of living the dream.

“We didn’t know it was going to happen.

“We were just about to go on stage and the stage manager said ‘hang on the band are coming to introduce you’.

“They’re such friendly guys, they all came and introduced themselves.

“Winston, their banjo player, came and watched the whole set from the side of the stage.”

Singer, Lottie Woodward, said performing to thousands instead of a handful of punters, had been an amazing experience.

She said: “It was really good, I prefer playing to bigger crowds.

“It was a completely different experience but I really enjoyed it.

“Because we were first on we got a good response, but obviously a lot of people didn’t know who we were.”

The band’s performance saw them reviewed by top music magazine NME and it helped them scoop a gig supporting Scottish rockers Twin Atlantic and folk-pop star Benjamin Francis-Leftwich at Harper Adams University.

They are now on a mission to move up the proverbial music ladder and have hopes of going full-time at the end of their course.

Lottie said: “That would be ideal.

“It’s going to be intense this year as we’re obviously going to have a lot of work for uni, but it’s not a chore, it’s what we love doing.”

Fiddle player, David Johnstone, said: “It’s great that we live together too, so we can practice whenever we want.

“It just happens all the time.

“Someone will be cooking a curry and before you know it we’ll be having a jam in the kitchen.”

Lottie: “We’ve got a lot of ideas and we’re working on things but our main focus is recording the album.”

The band enjoy unlimited use of the university’s recording facilities and Josh said they were making the most of them to record their debut album.

He said: “The great thing about being in the studio is you get freedom.

“You can go in there and just spend the entire week working on the chorus of a single song.

“A lot of our songs are morphing a bit and developing a lot further than they were.

“We’re looking to do an album release in late November.

“We’ve got the bedrock down for our main set now, so if we write a new song we can easily put it on the album, but we’re not in any rush.”

The band are kicking off the new academic year performing at Zetland Bar tomorrow, Sheffield Hallam University on Sunday and their own Student’s Union next Thursday.

And local fans should take the chance to catch them while they can as the band plan to decamp to London after they complete their studies.

Lottie said: “Josh is reluctant but we’re definitely planning on moving down south after uni.

“He doesn’t want to leave Yorkshire, but he’s coming!”

The Rag Tags’ new single is released tomorrow.

A video for their single, One To Beat has been created by aspiring animator John Shanks.