Bellowhead are an English folk band originally brought together by John Spiers and Jon Boden. The 11 piece band plays traditional English dance tunes and songs, but with a considerable twist. Riotous, rousing and sharp-suited, this contemporary and unique band includes drums and 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.

BELLOWHEAD TICKETS EVENT DATE AVAILABILITY Bellowhead Tickets 11/25 Nov 25, 2026 Wed, 7:30 PM Bellowhead Tickets 11/28 Nov 28, 2026 Sat, 7:00 PM

Band Members

• Jon Boden - lead vocals, fiddle, tambourine, bagpipes, concertina
• 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, Ikea cutlery holder (with cutlery), stomp box, taxi horns, coal scuttle, 4 highly rare and precious wooden spoons used in the turkish karagoz puppet theatre
• Gideon Juckes - sousaphone, tuba, helicon
• Brendan Kelly - saxophone, 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, after only 4 gigs, 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 at the Proms which was broadcast on BBC Four and BBC Radio 3. ^[1]

Discography

• E.P.Onymous (own label MF111) (2004)
• Burlesque (Westpark label) (September 2006)
• Matachin (Navigator Records) (September 2008)
• Live at Shepherds Bush Empire (DVD) (Westpark label, Marked Film Productions) (February 2009)

References

1. Prom 5: Folk Day 2 and Ceilidh. Retrieved 2008-07-24