Review: Bellowhead – Royal Concert Hall – 23 April 2015

Whilst others were out celebrating St. George’s Day in the pubs and bars of the city centre the best party was reserved for those at the Royal Concert Hall.

The evening began in fine style with support band KINGS OF THE SOUTH SEAS.

This three piece folk band, comprising of Ben Nicholls – concertina player and lead singer (a member of the Full English and Seth Lakeman bands), Richard Warren – guitar and vocals (another local!) and New Zealand born drummer Evan Jenkins (member of the award winning Neil Cowley Trio), play songs inspired by the epic whaling expeditions of the early 19th Century from Britain to the South Pacific. Incredibly atmospheric and intimate, their songs provide a strange mix of beauty, terror and drama; often simultaneously. The stand out song for me was the very strange King Of The Cannibal Islands!

Then came the main act.

An eleven-piece English contemporary folk band, who entertain with traditional dance tunes, folk songs and shanties, BELLOWHEAD’S inspired and original arrangements display a wide range of musical styles and influences that go beyond folk-fusion.

Bellowhead’s musicians (John Spiers, Jon Boden, Benji Kirkpatrick, Paul Sartin, Rachael McShane, Ed Neuhauser, Pete Flood, Andy Mellon, Brendan Kelly, Justin Thurgur and Sam Sweeney) play more than twenty instruments between them with all members providing vocals. They are truly unique.

Having already been to a Bellowhead gig last year I knew to expect the unexpected from the band and the incredible atmosphere that they are capable of creating in even the largest of venues.

The audience in Nottingham was as varied as the ones I had experienced before. Here is a band whose fan base is anything between the ages of eight to eighty!

And here is a band that can, and do, deliver.

Hitting the ground with Let Her Run the next hour and forty minutes was never anything less than thrilling.

The current tour represents the tenth anniversary of the band formed by John Spiers (melodeon, Anglo-concertina) and their fifth, much lauded and admired, album Revival. This was reflected in a set list packed with songs from said album including Fine Sally, Greenwood Side, Roll Alabama, Let Union Be and the sublime Moon Kittens. Taken from the nursery rhyme We’re All In The Dumps, in the hands of Bellowhead this is what a Bond theme tune would sound like if the films had been made in the 18^th Century!

The banter between songs is equally infectious as are the quips about the history behind them; for example Betsy Baker – “a song of unrequited love from Swindon, which everyone knows is the worst kind of unrequited love!” or Gosport Nancy – a tale of the welcome sailors get from the women of ill repute in the town.

Wearing his trademark red jacket and disarming smile, Jon Boden cuts a striking figure on a stage packed with shrubs, trees and a sofa! He is the quintessential frontman and a natural showman; able to switch between high energy and laid back on a whim. He provides the centre for the band without ever being over bearing or detracting from the other equally talented members.

Known for their energetic and polished performances, Paul Sartin, local lad Sam Sweeny (BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards Musician Of The Year 2015), and Rachel McShane, supply the string section (Sartin blows a mean oboe, Sweeney a brilliant turn on the bagpipes and McShane moves effortlessly from cello to violin and back).

The four piece brass section are the unsung heroes of the group. Filling out the sound and merging jazz ideology with the folk sensibilities are Andy Mellon (trumpet), Justin Thurgur (trombone) and Ed Neuhauser (tuba, helicon) tonight joined by Rob Leake on saxophone standing in for Brendan Kelly. Just how they manage to dance around all evening with these instruments is anybody’s guess!

Pete Flood delivers the always interesting and inventive percussion and is responsible for the irresistibly toe tapping and hand clapping beats. And finally Benji Kirkpatrick is the man behind the rhythms with a bewildering variety of stringed instruments -bouzouki, mandolin, banjo and an array of guitars.

The only problem with this venue for this band is the seating. Bellowhead’s music immediately demands that you get up and dance. However it just doesn’t feel polite to stand up and block the view of the audience directly behind you. A few brave souls did just that sporadically throughout the evening. If only more had joined them earlier in the evening.

When Boden employed the crowd to get up and dance the show hit another level. Favourites such as London Town and, what has become their signature tune, New York Girls ignited the room and had old and young alike dancing in the aisles.

Reviews often state that Bellowhead are better live than on record. This is an unfair and lazy judgement; they are equally brilliant in both instances. The difference is that their energy, enthusiasm and passion is even more evident in front of an audience.

The evening came all too quickly to a close with an encore consisting of rollicking sea shanty Roll The Woodpile Down and frantic Morris tune Frogs’ Legs and Dragons’ Teeth (to which Sartin and Sweeney performed a rather humorous dance!) and a final new tune, perhaps a tantalising peak of what is to come on the next album? The band received a well-deserved standing ovation.

The party vibe continued as people left the auditorium laughing, joking and knowing that they had been part of a very special show.

If you want an evening of genuine entertainment and outstanding musicianship then this is the band you need to see.

Set List

Let Her Run, 10,000 Miles, Cross Eyed and Chinless, Betsy Baker, Haul Away, Fine Sally, Hopkinson’s Favourite, Gosport Nancy, Roll Alabama, Fakenham Fair, Moon Kittens, Greenwood Side, Let Union Be, Whiskey Is The Life Of Man, Rosemary Lane, London Town, The March Past, New York Girls

Encore

Roll The Woodpile Down, Frogs’ Legs and Dragons’ Teeth.

Review and photographs by Gary Barwell