We're going over the top - hold onto your hats.

So who would have thought, a band that wins the Radio 2 folk award for best live act (quite possibly twice) proves to be a worthy winner. Their show at the Trinity in Bristol was a blistering performance. From the moment they had all managed to get on stage – I counted 11 and there could have been others hidden about although there wasn’t space for them – they laid into a display of music that may loosely be described as folk but travelled all around Europe for its influences. Occasionally there were definitely nods to Three Mustaphas Three (what happened to them?) before veering off elsewhere. The line up comprised pretty much anything that hadn’t been designed to be electric with a strong brass section topped off with sousaphone occupying all the stage right area without falling down the steps – very adept, a selection of fiddles and cello, melodeon (looked like an accordion to me but I’m now wiser), bouzouki, guitar (hey, that’s a normal one), bagpipes, drum kit (another normal one) and endless more that you’ll have to check on their website if you want to know. And all played to great effect to produce a thunderingly good sound.
Anyway, with that line up and vast amounts of energy they stormed through a set of folk songs, dances, reels, probably some jigs and a shanty or two. Napoleon popped up at least once as did tales of hangmen and true love (though not necessarily for the hangman). Dancing was encouraged and led to some fairly deranged attempts – certainly at the back of the hall. Although to suggest that pogoing qualified as a traditional folk dance was possibly going a bit far – but then punk was a very long time ago so maybe it has now legitimately entered the realms of folklore.
If you want a thoroughly good night out whilst getting your exercise in then an evening dancing away to Bellowhead should feature very high on your list. Or to put it another way, my bet is that you won’t see a festival crowd sitting on their collapsible chairs and stuffing their faces whilst this band is onstage. And more good news – they seem to enjoy themselves too.
This place on the page is reserved for the support act and for Bellowhead on this tour you get Chris TT (let’s get the Audi thing out of the way now). Chris seems to take Robyn Hitchcock as his starting point and launches off into the blue yonder – songs featuring hedgehogs, talking trees and civil engineers and bankers. Clearly a man with a sense of outrage and fun (sometimes combined) and some talent too – but nothing you could dance to. That came later.