AFTER 12 amazing years, the UK’s most successful folk band Bellowhead are calling it a day. The band plan to mark their departure in characteristically ambitious style and have announced a two-part farewell tour, which continues this month.

Their final show on May Day, May 1, will be an intimate concert at Oxford Town Hall, the very same venue where it all began.

Formed just for fun in 2004 they never imagined that one day they’d be headlining festivals and selling out tours of major concert halls. From their first self-released EP, Bellowhead have gone on to record 5 studio albums of which they have sold over 250,000 copies. Hedonism, their third album, was recorded at legendary Abbey Road and is the highest selling independently released folk album of all time. They are proud recipients of two silver discs, have won eight BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, released a songbook with Faber, spent eight years as Artists in Residence at London’s Southbank Centre, recorded theme tunes for The Archers and The Simpsons at the request of the producers, and brewed their own beer... Twice!

In 2014 the band signed to prestigious major label Island Records and released Revival, which entered the UK Album Charts at no.12 and led to three BBC Radio 2 play-listed singles and appearances on mainstream TV.

Their live date at 02 Guildhall Southampton on Wednesday is sold out.