Jon Boden, former frontman of the progressive folk eleven-piece Bellowhead, is sharing a live performance video of the ‘Afterglow’ album-track, ‘Bee Sting’, shot as part of the Hudson Sessions at Abbeydale Picturehouse, Sheffield
The video comes just ahead of Boden’s 18 date UK tour which is set to take place throughout November and finds him performing both as a solo artist and with his band The Remnant Kings who will stop at Scala, London on November 22, 2017. ‘Afterglow’ (out now via Hudson Records) – which features Radio 2 playlist single ‘All The Stars Are Coming Out Tonight’ – is Boden’s first studio release since calling an end to Bellowhead, a 12-year project which sold over a quarter of a million albums, with worldwide sell-out shows including the Royal Albert Hall.
The much celebrated ‘Afterglow’ album follows on from Boden’s 2009 solo concept-album ‘Songs From The Floodplain’ which lead him to be named as Folk Singer Of The Year at the BBC Folk Awards. Whereas Floodplain largely dealt with the rural setting, Afterglow looks to juxtapose this and immerse the listener within a post-apocalyptic, post peak-oil street carnival – a location of decaying buildings, burning oil drums and homemade fireworks, in which Boden tells the story of two lovers trying to find one another.
Speaking about ‘Bee Sting’, a track that points to Jon’s past experiences at Lewes’ (East Sussex) infamous bonfire night, he says: “There is a wildness about it that is often hinted at in large bonfire night celebrations, but Lewes really takes it a lot further, with half-barrels of burning tar being dragged along the narrow, medieval (and one would imagine rather flammable) streets, plus there are several bonfire societies who compete to burn the most impressive effigy – often of present day political figures. And then there is the sheer weight of numbers – the streets are rammed and it is not possible to move against the tide of the crowd. This is where the idea of the two lovers nearly meeting up very early in the evening but then being parted by the weight of the crowd came from.”
Across his career Boden has been awarded a record-breaking 12 BBC Folk Awards, earned through his work with Bellowhead and Spiers & Boden. Following his curation of the Cambridge Folk Festival earlier this year and a recent intimate album launch at Camden’s Cecil Sharp House, Jon will commence his solo tour next week at Pocklington’s Arts Centre on November 6 before ending at Ludlow’s Assembly Rooms on November 14. From here Boden will tour with The Remnant Kings, beginning at Gateshead’s Sage on November 17 and taking in a date at London’s Scala on November 22.
Solo – November
Mon 6th Pocklington Arts Centre
Tues 7th The Core at Corby Cube
Weds 8th OPEN, Norwich
Thurs 9th Cornerstone Arts Centre, Didcot
Fri 10th Connaught Theatre, Worthing
Sun 12th Theatre Royal Winchester
Mon 13th Number 8, Pershore
Tues 14th Ludlow Assembly Rooms
Jon Boden & The Remnant Kings dates – November
Fri 17th Sage Gateshead
Sat 18th The Leadmill, Sheffield
Sun 19th Victoria Hall, Settle
Mon 20th Haverhill Arts Centre
Tues 21st St. Mary’s in the Castle, Hastings
Weds 22nd The Scala, London
Thurs 23rd The Lighthouse, Poole
Fri 24th The Globe, Cardiff
Sat 25th The Cheese & Grain, Frome
Sun 26th Lincoln Performing Arts Centre
