Bellowhead

Although they had launched their partnership as a duo—John Spiers on melodeon alongside Jon Boden on fiddle and vocals—the pair already imagined a far bigger sonic palette. In 2004 they assembled Bellowhead, drawing the name from their earlier album Bellow, specifically for a one-off appearance at the Oxford Folk Festival. The resulting eleven-piece ensemble, whose unprecedented blend of strings and brass transformed conventional English folk textures, enjoyed instant acclaim. That same autumn the expanded lineup entered the studio to cut the five-track teaser E.P.onymous; the disc quickly endeared itself to both audiences and industry insiders. With only the largest festival stages able to accommodate them, the musicians concentrated on those prestigious bookings while steadily expanding their repertoire and solidifying their collective chemistry. A fierce bidding war for their signatures concluded when the German imprint Westpark prevailed, and the band’s first full-length album, Burlesque, emerged in 2006. Two years later the leaner Matachin arrived, shifting abruptly between shadowy cabaret and the raucous energy of a New Orleans street band. Umbrellowhead followed in 2009 and Hedonism in 2010; the latter ultimately became the highest-selling independently released folk record in history, moving more than sixty thousand copies. The group also supplied the theme for BBC Radio 4’s Ambridge Extra, itself a spin-off of the long-running serial The Archers. In 2011 they issued Hedonism Live, a concert DVD captured at Bournemouth’s O2 Academy. Their fourth studio set, Broadside, appeared the next year, produced by John Leckie at Rockfield Studios; warmly received, it climbed to number sixteen on the national U.K. chart. Throughout the closing months of 2012 the musicians toured the album across Britain and the Continent. In 2014 they concluded a decade of self-reliance by joining Island Records, for whom they recorded their fifth album, Revival, under the guidance of noted pop producer Rupert Christie; the record reached stores in June. During summer 2015 the members announced their amicable disbandment, prompted by Jon Boden’s decision to relinquish the frontman role and by their shared conviction that the project could flourish only when every participant remained fully committed. Bellowhead marked the occasion with a final national tour, later documented on the 2016 release Bellowhead Live: The Farewell Tour.