In 2017 former Bellowhead front-man and multiple BBC Folk Award winner Jon Boden introduced the new big band Jon Boden & The Remnant Kings, supported by the release of the album ‘Afterglow’. They played at major venues across the UK with material from the album interspersed with songs and tunes from across Jon’s career.
In Spring 2019 Jon will be touring the Afterglow experience into small theatres that would be unable to host the 11-piece band, with a line-up featuring Jon and the Remnant Kings string section, under the title Jon Boden & The Remnant Strings. Jon Boden & The Remnant String features Jon Boden (fiddle, guitars, concertina, stomp-box), Helen Bell (viola), Morven Bryce (violin) and Lucy Revis (cello).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eGHaqX0GWM
“Recalling Gabriel-era Genesis with a dash of Bush and Bowie” - The Observer
Jon is very excited about this tour. As a fiddle player, he finds it exhilarating to be immersed in the sound of string arrangements. The arrangements are quite intricate and Jon put a lot of work into them. In the mix of the big band, the strings can get a little lost, so with a stripped back string band it is a great way to be playing the songs. Atmospheric sounds are very good for story telling, and it gives a little more space and focus on the strings.
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Jon Boden and The Remnant Strings by Chris Saunders[/caption]
During the show, Jon tells the story of the album “Afterglow”, which is about a post-oil world, following the course of two lovers over the night of a city carnival. The big band was a big spectacle, and Jon finds it really exciting to be able to play the more intimate acoustic version of the material.
“Ambitious, genre-busting folk” - The Guardian