Bellowhead

The rousing, sharp-suited Bellowhead are a multi-talented gathering of disparate musicians melded into a collective capable of playing a plethora of styles, idioms and textures from around the world – big band to soul; jazz-funk to classical strings – yet retaining, at its heart, an exquisite sensitivity to the essence of English traditional music.

Following their first performances in 2004, they were voted Best Live Group in the 2005 BBC Folk Awards – a feat they would consistenly repeat over the following years – and released their extraordinary, groundbreaking album, Burlesque, to universal critical acclaim in 2006.

The following year was spent honing the ever-increasing theatricality of their euphoric live shows in the UK and at major festival spots throughout Europe. And after show-stealing performances at the re-opening of Royal Festival Hall, they were appointed Artists in Residence at Southbank Centre. In 2008 the band’s eagerly awaited new studio album Matachin (Ma`ta*shin), was released and the reviews were once again unanimous in their praise. The subsequent Matachin Launch Tour was a huge success, including a sell-out show at the 1500 capacity Koko in London.

2009 witnessed the release of a Live DVD recorded at an amazing concert in Shepherd’s Bush Empire and also a notorious sell-out appearance at Queen Elizabeth Hall in A Dirty Weekend With Bellowhead on St Valentine’s Day: an evening of bawdy song, nudity and smut...

As Artists in Residence they continue to play a significant part in Southbank Centre’s artistic activity, including writing and performing original music for The Wedding or The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, a major outdoor production of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's classic poem beside the river Thames in July 2009 with a cast of 150 children from local primary schools, and taking part in Mass Gathering, the launch concert of The Bernstein Project.

Website: www.bellowhead.co.uk