JUST ONE MORE HURRAH
Folk supergroup Bellowhead is re- formingfor a oneoff gig next week. But, as Sheffield- based frontman Jon Boden tells HazelDavis, the bandis not getting back together.
I’m very laid back about the fact that it’s the most visible thing I’ve done. It’s the thing I’d be remembered for, if, in fact, I’m remembered at all... I am so proud of Bellowhead and all we achieved. Jon Boden, talking about his old band.
YOU WON’T find many musicians talking about the positives of lockdown but Jon Boden has some.
It has been a really tough time, he says, but he believes folk music was already in what he calls a transition phase. “I think this has been good in some ways...”
It’s a surprising statement from the former leader of one of the most acclaimed folk bands, Bellowhead.
Boden’s wildly energetic and virtuosic 11- piece band made headlines ( as much as folk bands do) between 2004 and 20016 with the highest selling independently released folk album of all time ( their third, Hedonism), a slew of Radio 2 Folk Awards, and a memorable performance at Proms In The Park.
Critics used words like “juggernaut” and “barnstorming” and other folk acts quickly started adding brass and woodwind to their repertoires in a bid to generate a similar atmosphere among their own audiences.
Bellowhead’s farewell tour in 2016 was a roaring success, thanks to the band’s on- stage banter, catchy and bawdy choruses and Boden’s frontman theatrics.
Sadly for many, the band isn’t re- forming ( despite constant calls from its still- bereft fans) but is reuniting for a one- off live- streamed gig on December 5.
Though the Sheffield- based 43- yearold has a rich and rewarding career as a solo performer and with melodeon player John Spiers in his duo Spiers and Boden and also with his own band The Remnant Kings, Bellowhead is still all many fans want to talk about.
He doesn’t mind though. “I’m very laid back about the fact that it’s the most visible thing I’ve done. It’s the thing I’d be remembered for, if, in fact, I’m remembered at all,” he says. “I am so proud of Bellowhead and all we achieved.”
It was hard to break away from it. “For a while I was running three horses against each other, my solo work, Spiers and Boden, and Bellowhead. When I put an album out it was a bit, ‘ Well that’s very nice, Jon, but when’s the next Bellowhead album?’”
It meant it was difficult to generate the same level of interest in these other projects.
“In a way it would be easy for us to get back together as we all get on well and love playing together. On the flipside, because we finished so well that makes anything else difficult. We’d undermine it. Finishing stuff well is very underrated.”
Bellowhead’s commercial success took them all by surprise. One minute they were playing to audiences of 300 to 400 a night, the next they were recording at Abbey Road with producer John Leckie, who’s worked with everyone from John Lennon and Pink Floyd to The Stone Roses and Radiohead.
By the same token Boden’s solo work is pretty substantial. His solo album Painted Lady ( 2006) was a collection of original, wildly romantic tracks, that largely unmoved critics at the time. Though 2009’ s post- apocalyptic Songs From The Floodplain bagged him Folk Singer of The Year at the BBC Folk Awards.
More solo work followed with Afterglow, before 2019’ s Rose In June with the Remnant Kings, a slight return to the cherry- picked, theatrical bangers beloved of Bellowheaders.
Amidst all this, Boden’s Folk Song A Day project in 2010 saw him release a free folk song every day for the entire year in the hope of promoting social singing. To this end he also founded ( alongside Sam Sweeney, Fay Hield – Boden’s wife – and Andy Bell) the Sheffield- based artist- led organisation Soundpost, to bring folk arts to the community, running workshops and weekends and children’s folk groups.
Of all of these endeavours, Boden says that playing with Bellowhead has been the best, “in terms of pure fun” but each artform has its advantages.
“Doing solo work is wonderful as it’s so free and personal with the audience, and playing with one other person is a particular and joyous experience and it’s nice having someone else on stage to take the pressure off,” he says.
“I thought the strength and the weakness of Bellowhead was that we were such a gang on stage but I also felt there was a bit of a barrier between us and the audience. That was why we were so keen to do after- show sessions.”
The unofficial third album in Boden’s post- apocalypse solo trilogy is out in March and was written, somewhat appropriately, during the start of the first lockdown. “Lockdown certainly influenced my writing of this,” he says. “I finished my solo tour three days before lockdown and wrote it during the most extreme bit of it.”
Living in the countryside above Sheffield, Boden is aware he has much to be grateful for right now. Yes, gigs have been cancelled and live music is on its knees but he’s done some online gigs and has set up a Patreon
( a membership platform to help artists get paid) to fund more intimate appearances. “It’s something I would never have done before but it’s working and I’m really enjoying it.”
Though being in a room with other people is the beating heart of folk music, there’s also something comfortable about the closeness of a living room gig. “Folk audiences are getting older and maybe going out a bit less so it’s great for some people,” he says.
Boden says the Patreon idea “is a nice active process with people who are paying because they’re interested in what I am doing, not following me on Twitter and thinking I’m an idiot. I’m actually finding it quite liberating in a way.”
When you’ve been the frontman of a band, the intimacy of offering one- toone access to all and sundry might be a bit scary but Boden is open to it.
“The thing is, the folk scene is used to accessibility. We’re out selling our CDs in the breaks. If you know you can come and talk to us at a gig there’s really no need to hide in my shed.”
Like everyone else, he’s looking forward to playing live again. The Jon Boden Socially Distanced Solo Show kicks off next month all being well ( it’s due in Saltaire in February) and Spiers and Boden are set to hit the road in autumn 2021.
What that will look like none of us can tell. “I’m really hoping venues will be back to some sort of normal by then,” says Boden.
“I’ve found myself less inclined over the years to go out to gigs and sessions, through sheer laziness, and it’s something I don’t like in myself but I have noticed happening. I’ll just stay in and watch Netflix. But I’ve been really valuing the ability to sit in a pub with people and I think when we come out of lockdown there will be an upsurge in demand.
“The question is at what point do we start getting complacent about it again?”
For details about the Bellowhead live stream on December 5 go to www. bellowhead. co. uk/ news/ blog/ reuniting- for- one- off- concertstream