BELLOWHEAD
The Scala

FOLK music. No, don’t stop reading. I know what you’re thinking: beards, sandals, foaming real ale.
Not a bit of it at the Scala last Thursday night when Bellowhead, folk’s next big thing, took to the stage.
For starters, it must have been the youngest folk crowd since Bob Dylan’s heyday – nearly everyone was under 30 – and the only face fungus on display were well-trimmed goatees.
The reason? Bellowhead are spearheading what many say is a folk music revolution, taking the discipline to a new audience.
The influential Folk Roots magazine calls the band a “landmark”, and there was certainly evidence of that in Bellowhead’s performance.
The huge 10-piece group is the brainchild of award-winning duo Jon Boden and John Spiers and includes fragments of the band of singer/songwriter Eliza Carthy.
The line-up includes Boden on vocals and fiddle and Spiers on the squeezebox.
A string section, guitarist, and percussionist all join the concoction, topped off with a horn section – including an impressive sousaphone.
In keeping with the folk tradition, violins and melodeon drive the music, with the horns giving old music a new punch. The set was half instrumental – sea shanties, jigs and morris tunes – and half songs, with Boden’s vocals and jerky stage presence stealing the spotlight and filling out the venue.
One wonders if the traditional folk community might resent their music being adapted this way.
It soon became clear, however, that Bellowhead are conscious of their songs’ heritage when Boden argued with himself out-loud whether Fire Marengo was a ‘hauling’ or a winding sea shanty. The night’s biggest cheer was for Prickle-Eye Bush and everyone’s feet were moving for Rambling Sailor.
Bellowhead are a folk band, but there’s something more here – exactly why they recently won the Radio 2 folk award for best live act.