‘We are proud of making folk cool’ says Bellowhead's John Spiers

Twelve years ago, folk musicians John Spiers and Jon Boden were invited to come up with a band to headline the Oxford Folk Festival.

The pair were familiar figures playing in the city’s pubs and had a good network of friends on whom to call. The band of mates they assembled for their show at Oxford Town hall brought the house down.

That should have been it; it wasn’t. The 11-piece band enjoyed the experience so much they decided to stick around. Calling themselves Bellowhead – a cheeky nod at Oxfordians Radiohead – they went on to redefine English folk music – helping to turn a genre which had become backward-looking and deeply unfashionable into something fresh, unpredictable and sexy.

Now, after 12 years, and with singer Jon Boden announcing his intention to go it alone, they have decided to call it a day, but not before signing off with a two-part tour which ends next year, where it began, at Oxford Town Hall.

The show takes place, suitably enough, on May 1 – a day held sacred to folk music lovers and the Morris dancing tradition from which Bellowhead take their musical cue. “It’s a romantic gesture,” says ‘Squeezy’ John Spiers, who plays melodeon and concertina.

“It’s nice to be able to book-end it in that way. Not many bands have a chance to choose how to plan their ending in that way.

“And it’s already sold out – with 10,000 people vying to come and only 400 tickets.”

Next Saturday they also return to the scene of earlier shenanigans, with their final festival date at Towersey Festival.

“We are going to give it our absolute all,” says John. “It’s going to be extra special to us as we started as a festival band. Towersey is a local festival and I’ve been going there right from when I first started playing music.

“It’s slightly emotional, but more fun than sad.”

From their first self-released EP, Bellowhead have recorded five studio albums, selling more than 250,000 copies. Third album, Hedonism, was recorded at Abbey Road studios and is the highest selling independently released folk album of all time.

They have received two silver discs, picked up eight BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, spent eight years as Artists in Residence at London’s Southbank Centre, recorded theme tunes for The Archers and The Simpsons, and twice brewed their own beer.

Last year, they signed to the major Island Records label and released Revival, which charted at number 12.

The band’s links with Oxford run deep. It was at a pub session at the Elm Tree, in Cowley Road, that John met fiddle and guitar player Jon – who at the time was living above the Half Moon, in St Clements. The pair formed a duet – Spiers & Boden, who were booked to play the first Oxford Folk festival by organiser Tim Healey.

The pair also offered to form a supergroup to headline the event’s Saturday night. They assembled a rag-tag bunch playing not just traditional instruments, but trombones, trumpets and drums, and played their first practice the day before the gig, in a Scout hut in East Oxford.

Since then the self-confessed ‘prog-folk’ act have played everywhere from Glastonbury and Truck festivals to the Royal Albert Hall. And Towersey – where they join Joan Armatrading, Show of Hands, John Smith, Sally Barker and Cowley folk-pop band Stornoway among scores of artists.

• Farewell tour: The massed ranks of Bellowhead with John Spiers, fifth from left, and Jon Boden, ninth from left

“I’m pretty sad about it coming to an end, but it’s the right decision, says John, who lives in Wootton, near Abingdon, and is the son of the legendary local Morris dancer and fellow squeeze box player, David ‘Stan’ Spiers, who turns out for Abingdon Traditional and Oxford City and University Morris sides.

“It’s not acrimonious,” John goes on. “Jon announced to the band he was going to be leaving, and we had a discussion between us and realised we couldn’t carry on. It would have been possible to limp on, but not in any recognisable form. We have had people leave in the past, but that hasn’t had such big implications. Still, it’s a bit unfair to blame Jon for being the person who sings the songs. It’s just the nature of the beast.”

The amicable split follows a decision to also shelve the Spiers & Boden project.

“I’m already working on solo stuff,” says John. “So I’ll be exploring that more and hitting that side of things a bit harder. I’m also working on an album of mainly instrumental stuff and will have a little tour before Bellowhead’s farewell tour.”

He adds: “It’s quite exciting. When you’re in a band, you have to find your own place within it – even when I was in the duo with Jon. This is more interesting. It’s just a man and a squeeze box, with stuff I’ve written myself rather than traditional songs.

“There’ll also be more of the up-tempo stuff for which I’m known in the band.”

But for now he’s looking forward to giving his band a rousing send-off. “We are probably the most successful folk band in the country,” he says. “ And I’m really proud of how we’ve taken the English folk tradition and made it acceptable to people who would have never given it a second look. That’s the biggest achievement we’ve made. I have learned so much from Bellowhead.”

Where & When

Bellowhead play Towersey Festival next Saturday. The festival runs from August 28-31.
Tickets from towerseyfestival.com