Jon Boden talks to Tim Hughes about going it alone after bowing out with Bellowhead, and about the freedom of touring and playing alone

When folk-rock band Bellowhead linked arms, bowed and said farewell at the end of their set at Oxford Town Hall on May Day, it seemed like the end of an era.

The band, who formed in Oxford for the city’s folk festival 12 years ago, chose the venue to bow out, coming full circle, finishing things where they started.

But you can’t keep a good thing down – and while Bellowhead have been consigned to the history books, the man who convened the band (along with local squeezebox player John Spiers) – and whose decision to quit signalled its dissolution, is back, this time as a solo artist.

“It is literally just me,” he says, as he prepares for the tour at his home near Sheffield.

“I have never toured solo, other than a short three-day thing. This is the first time I’ve done it as a professional activity. It is all very exciting.”

It is, he admits, all very different to heading off with the 11-piece supergroup, whose clash of brass, piano, strings and squeeze box, won over audiences everywhere from Glastonbury Festival to the Southbank Centre and Royal Albert Hall, and earned a Best Live Band at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards a record five times.

“Now is the time I’d start to look forward to going on tour with Bellowhead, but instead I am about to go out on tour myself,” says the multi-instrumentalist, who developed his love of folk music while living above Oxford’s Half Moon pub, in St Clements.

“It would all be a bit nerve-wracking if I hadn’t done three festivals this summer. They went well, though, and that has given me confidence for the tour.”

He is touring a mix of traditional tunes, solo material – including tunes from his recently reissued solo album Painted Lady, and, to the inevitable delight of fans, tunes he wrote and arranged for Bellowhead.

“The solo set is a real mix of traditional songs and my own,” he says. “It’s about half and half. There will also be quite a lot of Bellowhead stuff as that was a large part of my career and I want to hold onto that. It is important to me as I spent 12 years writing it – though it will just be me on guitar, fiddle and concertina.”

They include big-hitters Roll Alabama, Woodpile and New York Girls.”

While undeniably a folk artist, much of Jon’s material goes beyond the traditional description of English roots music. Painted Lady, for example, is soulful and romantic, and sees Jon take on a bewildering array of instruments, including fiddle, octave fiddle, bass, concertina, banjo, guitars, Indian harmonium, glockenspiel, electric piano, Moog synthesiser and drum machine. The latter two would certainly have purists spluttering into their tankards.

But such diversity is not new to Jon, who has composed music for both theatre and film – including two Royal Shakespeare productions at Stratford, Merchant of Venice and A Winter’s Tale. He was commissioned to compose a version of Little Musgrave to be performed alongside Benjamin Britten’s work at Aldeburgh and performed the Juliet Letters with the Sacconi Quartet at the Bristol Old Vic.

He also contributed music to the score of Richard Curtis’s film About Time – even making a cameo appearance – as well as composing the signature music for the BBC2 comedy series Count Arthur Strong. That is on top of his work with Bellowhead, reimagining the Archers theme for its Ambridge Extra sister show on BBC Radio 4 Extra.

“I wouldn’t call it all folk, but you do see folk influences,” he says.

“Even Bellowhead was about adding other influences to folk.”

So is he finding the single life liberating after the behemoth of Bellowhead – with its enormous touring entourage.

“Yes, though I do still need quite a big van – almost as big as the one I had for [previous side project] the Remnant Kings as I have a sound and light engineer, and want to make each show as big an event as possible.

“I have gradually acquired more objects, so there is quite a lot of gear.”

He admits it’s a tantalising prospect, though. “The biggest difference is that I’m going to be playing more of my own stuff than with Bellowhead or Spiers and Boden – and that’s quite a big thing.”

“It is quite liberating musically. If I want to play something totally different that I have never tried before, and is not on the setlist, I can do it. And if I am enjoying something and want to do an extra instrumental or chorus, I can do that too.

“It is a bit frightening too, though, as there is no one to cover for you if you muck it up. I don’t suffer from nerves, fortunately, but still want to do the best job I can.

“It’s not like I would ever fall to pieces, but I want to play 100 per cent.”

And he says he can’t wait to bring the tour to Oxford, this time playing the O2 Academy, in Cowley Road - tonight (Thursday, November 10).

“It will always be the Zodiac to me, and a few other people too,” he chuckles, referring to the venue’s former name.

“I have played there many times over the years and it’s nice to be doing it on this tour. It’s the only all-standing gig and I like that. Playing stand-up gigs was one of the best things about Bellowhead and I’d like to see if I can carry that on.”

As a treat for Oxford fans, Jon will lead a singing workshop before the gig.

“It will be about an hour before the show,” he says. “I’ll teach some choruses and we’ll have a run through. We’ll also do some harmonies.

“It’s a total experiment and I’m not sure what it will amount to, but it’s free for ticket holders, so should be interesting.”

He has always been a champion of communal singing. “One of the things I am most proud of with Bellowhead was the after-show sessions,” says Jon, who in 2010, released a folk song online every day of the year.

“It’s great to play and sing and hopefully interest people in the idea of social music making, and so many people haven’t come across it.

“And Oxford seems the most appropriate place to try that – especially as there is no seating.”

And, I suggest, because we have the best voices?

Oh yes!” he laughs. “Definitely that too.”

  • Jon Boden plays the O2 Academy Oxford tonight (Thursday).
  • Tickets from ticketweb.co.uk. Join a singing workshop before the show