Well that says it all really! The Victoria Hall at Saltaire near Bradford was sold out for Bellowhead's Halloween gig, and the band didn't disappoint. Since I started following them at their inception, they have become more assured, more integrated, and more inspiring.

Watching them last night was, on some occasions a bit like watching the Large Hadron Collider go critical, as they wove progressively more intricate arrangements into tighter and tighter and faster and faster loops, while embellishing the whole operation with elements of choreography and lunatic "business".

By the end of the evening the audience were leaping and whirling themselves, getting the band back for a second encore, before going home in a state of astonishment.

Bellowhead are something entirely new on the folk scene, and are going from strength to strength. I suggest you get to see them while they're hot - Boden, Spiers et al could do what hasn't been done for a generation, and bring folk-based music into the mainstream, with luck and a following wind. They certainly deserve to.

Jim
The Yorkshire Polymoth