Bury St Edmunds: Bellowhead to play at return of Abbey Fest

ABBEY Fest is returning to Bury St Edmunds this year and organisers have confirmed that Bellowhead will be performing on the opening night.

The event runs over three nights from Friday to Sunday, July 20 21, with the 11-piece band taking to the stage on Friday.

Bellowhead feature wild, rousing dance tunes, ballads and sea songs and mix music from around the globe; from big band to soul, jazz-funk to classical strings, with more than a dash of Music Hall and yet retain a passion for English traditional music.

They were the winners of the Best Live Band accolade at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards and the band’s latest studio album, “Hedonism”, released in October 2010 and recorded in Abbey Road Studios, has gone on to sell a 60,000 copies. They recently sold over 20,000 tickets on a sell-out UK tour.

Band-members, who are based all over the UK, include John Spiers (melodeon, concertina) and Jon Boden (lead vocals, fiddle), Pete Flood (percussion), Justin Thurgur (trombone), Brendan Kelly (saxophone, bass clarinet), Andy Mellon (trumpet), Paul Sartin (oboe, fiddle), Rachael McShane (cello, fiddle), Ed Neuhauser (helicon, tuba), Benji Kirkpatrick (guitar, mandolin, bouzouki) and Sam Sweeney (fiddle, pipes).

More details of further acts are due to be released over the coming weeks.