John Spiers | |
|---|---|
 John Spiers performing with Bellowhead in 2011 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | John Spiers |
| Born | 1975 Birmingham, England |
| Genres | Folk music |
| Occupation | Musician |
| Website | www |
John Spiers (born 1975) is an English melodeon, concertina and bandoneon player.
Spiers was born in Birmingham but moved to Abingdon at an early age. His father is a Morris dancer. He attended John Mason School in Abingdon, and then went on to study genetics at King's College, Cambridge. [1] [2] As a child he learned the organ and piano and when he was a university student he began to play the piano accordion and melodeon. [3] After spending some time busking he started a new career selling melodeons, of which he owns several. [4]
Spiers is best known for his work with Jon Boden in the duo Spiers and Boden and the band Bellowhead. He also played with Eliza Carthy's former band The Ratcatchers in the mid-noughties. After Bellowhead's dissolution in 2016, Spiers released two albums with Peter Knight: Well Met (2018) [5] and Both in a Tune (2021); the latter has been described as "an extraordinary collaboration between two musicians at the absolute top of their game". [6] Spiers also plays regularly with Knight's Gigspanner Big Band, whose 2020 album Natural Invention was described by Folk Radio UK as "some of the most important and exhilarating art ever to sit under the banner of folk music". [7] Spiers performs regularly in a duo with Jackie Oates, mostly but not just at Nettlebed Folk Club; Oates and Spiers released a joint album in 2020 called Needle Pin, Needle Pin. [8] A Christmas album, A Midwinter's Night, was released in December 2024. [9]
Several of Spiers' compositions have become English folk session classics, most notably the jig "Jiggery Pokerwork" (a homage to his first melodeon), and a tune encapsulating his views of the Conservative Party. [10] The former piece is well known among melodeon players for its notoriously unplayable B-section, particularly the infamous "Bb of doom".[ citation needed ]
The BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards celebrate outstanding achievement during the previous year within the field of folk music, with the aim of raising the profile of folk and acoustic music. The awards have been given annually since 2000 by British radio station BBC Radio 2.
John Michael Kirkpatrick is an English musician, playing free reed instruments such as the accordion and concertina and performing English folk songs and tunes.
Peter Knight is an English folk musician, a former member of British folk rock group Steeleye Span. Born in London, Knight learnt to play the violin and mandolin as a child before going to the Royal Academy of Music from 1960 to 1964. The recordings of the Irish fiddler Michael Coleman inspired him to take part in Irish pub sessions. He teamed up with guitarist and singer Bob Johnson until 1970 when he joined Steeleye Span. The parting was short-lived, as Johnson himself also joined Steeleye Span in 1972. Since 2016, he has performed as a duo with Bellowhead founder and melodeon player, John Spiers.
Spiers and Boden are an English folk duo. John Spiers plays melodeon and concertina, while Jon Boden sings and plays fiddle and guitar while stamping the rhythm on a stomp box. Spiers and Boden were founding members of the folk band Bellowhead.
Bellowhead is an English contemporary folk band, active from 2004 to 2016, reforming in 2020. The eleven-piece act played traditional dance tunes, folk songs and shanties, with arrangements drawing inspiration from a wide range of musical styles and influences. The band included percussion and a four-piece brass section. Bellowhead's bandmembers played more than 20 instruments among them, whilst all performers provided vocals.
Jim Moray is an English folk singer, multi-instrumentalist and record producer.
Burlesque is the first full-length album by Bellowhead.
Great Grandson of Morris On, produced by Ashley Hutchings, and recorded and released in 2004, is the fourth volume in the series of Morris dance tunes. Spiers and Boden experienced a blaze of publicity shortly after recording their contribution to this album, which later appeared on the compilation album The Magic of Morris. There are more amateur musicians on this album than on the previous volumes in the series.
Jon Boden is a singer, composer and musician, best known as lead singer and main arranger of Bellowhead. His first instrument is the fiddle and he is a proponent of "English traditional fiddle style" and also of "fiddle singing", both of which he employed in Bellowhead, in the duo Spiers & Boden, and previously as a member of Eliza Carthy’s Ratcatchers.
Matachin is the second album by Bellowhead, released on 22 September 2008. Its title refers, to 'An old dance with swords, masks and bucklers; a sword dance' that may have influenced the Cotswold Morris dance. It has been described as "...a magnificently murky and rum-sodden collection of 11 traditional and original songs from the 11 piece band who defy easy categorisation".
Jackie Oates is an English folk singer and fiddle player.
Hedonism is the third album by Bellowhead, released on 4 October 2010. It was recorded in Abbey Road Studios and was produced by John Leckie. The band also developed a new ale named after the album. Some of the band members took part in the brewing process.
Live at Shepherds Bush Empire is a live DVD by folk band Bellowhead, recorded in 2007 on the Burlesque tour and released in 2009.
Shrewsbury Folk Festival is an annual festival of folk and world music and traditional dance held in the town of Shrewsbury in Shropshire, England.
Tunes is the third album by folk duo Spiers and Boden.
Hedonism Live is the second live DVD by folk band Bellowhead. It was recorded in May 2011 at the O2 Academy Bournemouth.
Broadside is the fourth full album by Bellowhead, released on 15 October 2012.
Revival is the fifth studio album by Bellowhead. It was announced at their 10th anniversary concerts in Manchester and London.
Paul Sartin was an English singer, instrumentalist, composer and arranger, specialising in oboe and violin. He was best known for his work with the folk band Bellowhead, but also played with three-piece Faustus and the folk/comedy duo Belshazzar's Feast.
"Poor Murdered Woman" is an English traditional folk song. On Tuesday 14 January 1834, the events related in the song were reported in The Times.
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