Bellowhead

The past six years have seen Bellowhead progress from being a band whose main intention was to ‘have fun at festivals’ to recording two acclaimed, ground-breaking albums (Burlesque, Matachin), performing at the BBC Proms in front of 40,000, appearing on everything from BBC Four to BBC Breakfast TV and everywhere from Truck, to the Big Chill, Glastonbury, Sidmouth and Cambridge Folk Festivals. Following in the footsteps of chart-toppers, St Etienne, Bellowhead have become Band in Residence at London’s Southbank Centre. They have also been voted Best Live Act at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards an unparalleled four times.

Now we have a glorious third studio album, Hedonism, produced by the legendary John Leckie (Radiohead, Pink Floyd, Rodrigo y Gabriela) recorded at Abbey Road and due for release by Navigator on October 4th 2010.

Formed in 2004 by renowned duo John Spiers (melodeon, concertina) and Jon Boden (vocals, fiddle), whilst stuck in a traffic jam, this 11-piece big band, comprising friends and friends of friends, fuses a dazzling amount of individual musical talent into something truly original and invigorating. With fellow band-members Pete Flood (percussion); Justin Thurgur (trombone); Brendan Kelly (saxophone, bass clarinet); Andy Mellon (trumpet); Paul Sartin (oboe, fiddle); Rachael McShane (cello, fiddle); Ed Neuhauser (helicon, tuba); Benji Kirkpatrick (guitar, mandolin, bouzouki) and Sam Sweeney (fiddle, pipes) Bellowhead honour centuries of English musical tradition while at the same time creating a unique sound, teaming with boundary crossing appeal.

On Hedonism, the music is still a delirious amalgam of schooled musicianship and uproarious, anarchic abandon. However, working with John Leckie and recording at Abbey Road Studios (using John Lennon’s microphone), the band have been able to embellish their music-hall tinged, traditional English core with the scale of Arcade Fire and the unsparing, bittersweet worldview of Jacques Brel - all served with a sprinkling of skewed humour.