Snape Proms, Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Tuesday 26th August 2008

I saw Bellowhead on TV as part of the BBC Proms at the Albert Hall this year – and was so pleased that this eleven piece folk-big-band was coming to be part of the 2008 Snape Proms.

Formed in 2004, Bellowhead have played some of the top festivals in the UK and Europe and in 2005 they received the prestigious BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for Best Live Act.

So how would you describe Bellowhead’s music? Well, this is a big band sound for traditionally inspired English folk traditions of song and dance.

The Bellowhead website says “ the feel is exciting, intoxicating, slightly sinister and deeply funky” … and a sound made from bouzouki, guitar, mandolin, tenor fiddle, oboe, banjo, sousaphone, helicon, tuba, soprano and tenor saxes, bass clarinet, trombone, fiddle, bagpipes, percussion, and cutlery pot and frying pan, is really quite something! The energy of the eleven band members is amazing, (reminding me of a folk Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band) but the music is LOUD! (My ears were humming a good hour after the concert ended).

The problem with that level of volume, and the sound imbalance at this concert (which, to be fair, was better in the second half) meant that I wasn’t the only member of the audience to complain that they couldn’t hear all the words and, with long folk songs with a strong storyline, this was frustrating. In the festivals where Bellowhead usually perform everyone would be up and dancing and hardly notice, but when seated in a concert hall it is more of a problem.

The dance tunes, some traditional and some written or arranged by band members, were a great success and as the band jumped and danced on stage, everyone in the audience was foot-tapping, clapping, nodding their heads or jigging in their seats. By the time the concert ended with a standing ovation, around thirty people were dancing by the stage, but, as some-one who is a great fan of Snape Maltings Concert Hall, even I have to say that it wasn’t the best venue to see Bellowhead. Next time I will try to catch them at a venue where I can easily stand, dance and jump along with them.

Rachel Sloane
August 2008