Quick Review. I went to see this show at a packed Bury Met last night. It was very good indeed. 9 well known folkies, plus Matthew Crampton as narrator and scriptwriter. Original songs from the original Transports ballad opera by Peter Bellamy. New arrangements by Paul Sartin. The other folkies, who all played a part in the drama were The Young ‘Uns, Saul Rose, Benji Kirkpatrick, Nancy Kerr, Greg Russell and Rachael McShane. The latter, ex-Bellowhead cellist played the female lead and surprised the house by having an excellent singing voice. Who knew? Someone who presumably knew is her former bandleader Jon Boden who was present along with Fay Hield. The show was a clever mix of original story, some localised history from that period, and local modern history of refugees. It was made more pertinent by getting home to discover all the stuff going on at JFK. It was a minimal stage setting, with crates, stools and a few planks. The second half started off with a full cast version of Dark Water Carry Me which, although unannounced, I know to be a fairly recent Young ‘Uns composition as I saw them introduce and perform it at Costa Del » Continue Reading.
Bellowhead call it a day
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Sad news for lovers of live folk music. The magnificent Bellowhead are disbanding.
A great loss. Catch them while you still can.
This message is from their Facebook page:
This is a sad message to send but after 11 amazing years we’ve decided to call it a day.
It’s been an incredible journey for us all and we’ve loved every minute of being Bellowhead but Jon has decided the time has come for him to stand down as lead singer and the rest of us don’t feel that we wish to continue without him. We have therefore decided that we should give Bellowhead the send off it deserves and go out with a bang.
So we will be performing a two-part farewell tour (in November 2015 and April 2016) finishing as we started all those years back, with an intimate gig at Oxford Town Hall (on May Day 2016) – the very first venue we ever played as a band.
The tour dates will be announced in full on Friday June 5th and tickets will go on general sale on Friday 12th June. Mailing list members will be given the chance to pre-order on Wednesday » Continue Reading.
