Bellowhead founders and frontmen Spiers and Boden have announced a Spring Tour for 2024, something any folkie should find impossible to resist.
In 2021, John Spiers and Jon Boden reunited for their sublime and highly anticipated album Fallow Ground, what Folk Radio’s Billy Rough called “a genuinely warm-hearted, exuberant, and life-affirming album”. Before this, the duo’s last album offering was a celebratory reworking of their ’greatest hits’ titled The Works in 2011, which featured Martin and Eliza Carthy, Andy Cutting, Maddy Prior and Martin Simpson.
As noted by Billy Rough in his album review, after The Works, Fallow Ground is “a stripped-back affair, but frankly, you don’t need much else with two experts. Combining Spiers on melodeon and concertina as well as occasional vocals, and Boden on lead vocals and fiddle, with the occasional stomp added in for good measure, and you have the makings of a thoroughly captivating and fetching treat.”
In a Folk Radio interview, they revealed how it was always their intention to reunite:
“We stopped for practical reasons,” says Boden, “For one, Bellowhead was really taking off, and it just felt like we were sort of fighting against ourselves a bit for time, for material and everything. So, that was why we stopped, but it was always our plan to come back, and over the last couple of years, we’ve had a few little conversations about how maybe, you know, now would be a good time, but we needed a new album. There was no way we were going to come back without a new album because it just needed new stuff.
“That was really the process, but it’s kind of difficult doing an album of traditional stuff because you’re always looking for good material that hasn’t been done much before, and it gets harder as you go along. You know, it feels like there is sort of a limited number of songs and tunes out there that are suited to any particular line-up, or you know, or they’re destined to be Spiers and Boden tracks.
“So, it was a couple of years thinking ‘oh yeah, we need to get some material together,’ but that coincided with lockdown so we were both able to go back to our bookshelves, get the books and CDs out and start listening and reading and just trying to find some stuff that jumped out at us and fortunately it did!”
The duo recorded this lovely video for Bailey Hill / Wittenham Clumps to accompany the album.
The first tune, Bailey Hill, was written by Jon Boden, and John Spiers wrote the second. Both tunes are inspired by hills to which they have a personal connection, expanded on below. For this track, Spiers plays a Welsh-made one-row-four-stop melodeon in D made by Rees Wesson – “an absolute doozy of an instrument!“
In our interview with them here, Boden reveals that ‘Bailey Hill’ relates to a location that holds fond childhood memories. “‘Bailey Hill’ is a fort just outside Sheffield. It’s abandoned really, covered in trees, no signage saying this is a Norman fort or whatever, but it’s lovely. It’s sort of been reclaimed. It’s covered in bracken, and it’s a place we used to go for picnics quite a lot and spend quite a lot of time up there.”
Spiers’ tune ‘Wittenham Clumps’ has a similar history, providing a valuable link to Spiers’ past and early session playing. “I wrote that a long, long time ago before I even met Jon. I was playing that in sessions in Oxford; in fact, all the old crowd in Oxford will probably recognise that tune; I used to play it almost every session!
“It’s just one of those places I’ve always known. The clumps refer to two hills with little bunches of trees on top of them, and one of these had a poem carved in the trunk of a tree. It was legible in the 1960s. When I first saw it in the 1980s the tree had grown over the poem, and some letters were bigger than others. Now the tree’s dead, and it’s just photographs that remain.”
Spiers & Boden Spring Tour 2024
Wed Feb 28th | SETTLE | Victoria Hall
Thu Feb 29th | TENBURY WELLS | The Regal
Fri March 1st | UFFINGTON | Thomas Hughes Memorial Centre
Sat March 2nd | BRADFORD-U-AVON | Wiltshire Music Centre
Sun March 3rd | BIRMINGHAM | Mac
Mon March 4th | NORWICH | Maddermarket
Wed March 13th | EXETER | Phoenix Arts Centre
Thu March 14th | CARDIGAN | Theatr Mwldan
Fri March 15th | SWANSEA | Taliesin Arts Centre
Sun March 17th | BUXTON | Pavilion Arts Centre
Mon March 18th | HEXHAM | Queen’s Hall
Tue March 19th | DONCASTER | Cast
Wed April 10th | WINCHESTER | Theatre Royal
Thu April 11th | MAIDENHEAD | Nordon Farm Arts Centre
Fri April 12th | LEICESTER | The Y Theatre
Sat April 13th | BANBURY | The Mill Arts Centre
Mon April 15th | COLCHESTER | Colchester Arts Centre
Tue April 16th | HERTFORD | St Andrew’s Church
Ticket links and more here: https://spiersandboden.com/live-dates
We will have more news shortly from Jon Boden (keep an eye on Folk Radio) as well as an interview with him and Eliza Carthy – Jon and Eliza are currently our Artists of the Month, and their new album – Glad Christmas Comes, is out now on Hudson Records.
Jon and Eiza are currently on their very popular Wassail Tour, and those tickets are selling fast:
Eliza Carthy and Jon Boden’s Wassail Tour 2023:
Thu Dec 7th | KENDAL | Brewery
Fri Dec 8th | MANCHESTER | The Stoller Hall
Sat Dec 9th | LIVERPOOL | The Music Room (+ matinee)
Sun Dec 10th | WHITBY | Pavilion Theatre
Mon Dec 11th | HALIFAX | Minster
Tue Dec 12th | LONDON | Cadogan Hall
Thu Dec 21st | SUNDERLAND | The Fire Station
Ticket links and more here: https://jonboden.com/shows