Spiers & Boden Arts Centre Swindon

THE fact that Spiers & Boden are in the middle of their farewell tour has not exactly sent shockwaves through the music world.

Yet the contribution these two brilliant musicians have made to folk music and its modern revival cannot be ignored. For 15 years they have been a busy and influential duo, recording and performing prolifically in this country and abroad.

Ten years ago they started a pet project, forming the 11-piece band Bellowhead, who have gone from strength to strength and the demands of which have forced John Spiers and Jon Boden to call it a day as a duo.

They gave us a memorable send-off – the show was an exercise in excellent musicianship combined with an encyclopaedic knowledge of traditional music, and a great sense of fun.

And the near sell-out crowd at the Arts Centre would seem to agree.

Jon sings and plays the fiddle, and occasionally strums a guitar and stomps a foot board; John squeezes a selection of boxes – accordion, melodeon, concertina. It’s as simple as that, and they make it look simple – and yet some of the arrangements are complex; hand/eye/foot/mouth co-ordination has to be spot-on.

We had a repertoire of songs about randy sailors, devilish pirates, strange beggars and optimistic condemned men. And there were jigs a-plenty which had us all at least tapping our feet.

A cheer went up when Jon announced “This one’s from Swindon” – the Braydon forest to be precise – and the duo launched into Bold Sir Rylas, borrowed from gypsies in the early 20th century by local folk hero Alfred Williams. There was an even bigger cheer when they played another Williams-discovered song, The Prickle-Eye Bush, which, along with a rousing rendition of New York Girls, gave us a couple of songs familiar to Bellowhead fans.

The audience enjoyed the show, and so did the performers, who smiled constantly as they played with seemingly telepathic ease.

It was the sweetest of goodbyes – at least until Bellowhead are back in town. - STEPHEN WEBB