by Chris Nickson
Although they began and still work as a duo, John Spiers (melodeon) and Jon Boden (fiddle and vocals) had a vision of a larger sound for their music. In 2004 they put together Bellowhead (the name derived from their album Bellow) to play the Oxford folk festival. The 11-piece group was an immediate success, its mix of strings and brass virtually unprecedented in traditional English folk music. They took the band into the studio that autumn to record a five-track teaser, E.P.onymous, which proved very popular with fans as well as industry folk, and settled into playing festival gigs (about the only ones that could afford them), increasing their repertoire and bedding in as a group. Something of a bidding war ensued to sign Bellowhead, with German label Westpark the eventual winners, and Burlesque, the full-length debut, appeared in the autumn of 2006.

At the time of writing, Bellowhead consisted of Spiers and Boden, Benjy Kirkpatrick (bouzouki, guitar, mandolin, banjo), Paul Sartin (fiddle, oboe, vocals), Rachel McShane (cello, fiddle, vocals), Gideon Juckes (sousaphone, tuba, helicon), Pete Flood (percussion), Andy Mellon (trumpet and flügelhorn), Brendan Kelly (saxes and clarinet), Jason Thurgur (trombone), and Giles Lewin (fiddle and bagpipes).