Bellowhead
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Bellowhead |
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Bellowhead are an English folk band brought together by John Spiers and Jon Boden. The band plays traditional English dance tunes and songs, but in a funky, contemporary and unique style aided by a four-piece brass section. The band describes itself as:
Merging a joyous, uplifting cacophony of sound with a slightly sinister, distorted collision of music hall, Lotte Lenya, Robert Wyatt and pure theatre.
Band Members
- Jon Boden - lead vocals, fiddle, tambourine
- John Spiers - melodeon, midi-melodeon, concertina, vocals
- Benji Kirkpatrick - guitar, bouzouki, mandolin, banjo, vocals
- Rachael McShane - cello, fiddle, vocals
- Paul Sartin - fiddle, oboe, vocals
- Sam Sweeney - fiddle, bagpipes, vocals
- Pete Flood - percussion, frying pan, glockenspiel, wind-up toys, megaphone
- Gideon Juckes - sousaphone, tuba, helicon
- Brendan Kelly - saxophones, bass clarinet
- Justin Thurgur - trombone
- Andy Mellon - trumpet, flugelhorn
History
The band debuted at the first Oxford Folk Festival in April 2004, and were an instant success despite minimal rehearsal. As a result, they independently released a five-track EP of "English World Music" entitled E.P.Onymous, which generated rave reviews. The following year, the band won the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards for Best Live Act 2005 for their acclaimed live performances at festivals around Britain, including Cambridge Folk Festival and Womad Reading.
In 2006 they released their first full-length album, Burlesque, featuring material from the Napoleonic Wars (Rigs of the Time), the American minstrel movement (Jordan) and sea-shanties from Brazil (Across the Line). They also appeared alongside Red Hot Chili Peppers, Keane and Thom Yorke on the BBC TV show Later... with Jools Holland, winning praise from Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis. In the 2007 Folk Awards they won "Best Group" and "Best Live Act", the following year they won Best Live Act once more. Towards the end of the year they became the resident band of the Southbank Centre, making their inaugural appearance with a special Christmas Revels event that included morris dancers from Hammersmith, an interlude on the subject of the myth of St. George, future support act Lisa Knapp and a handful of Christmas carols in Bellowhead's own style.
On 20 July 2008 Bellowhead performed a half hour set at The Proms which was broadcast on BBC4. [1]
Discography
- E.P.Onymous (own label MF111) (2004)
- Burlesque (Westpark label) (September 2006)
- Matachin (Navigator Records) (September 2008)
References
- ^ Prom 5: Folk Day 2 and Ceilidh. Retrieved 2008-07-24