Bonfire Radicals is a zesty 6-piece folk/world band with a fresh and exciting musical approach embracing original and traditional material.
The electrifying sound of 6 piece (un)traditional folk band Bonfire Radicals is both intensely creative and irresistibly fun. Expect the unexpected, with global grooves, instrumental fireworks, rich vocal harmonies and delicate a cappella emerging from a melting pot of original and traditional tunes from the British Isles to the Balkans. Emotive vocals, textural washes, intricate woodwind and fierce fiddle are woven together over a pulsating backdrop of guitar, bass and drums. Bonfire Radicals’ music dares their audiences not to dance.
The band have built up a strong fan base following their intense high-energy live performances across the UK including Cheltenham Jazz Festival, Beardy Folk Festival, Moseley Folk & Arts Festival, Purbeck Valley Folk Festival, selling out Birmingham’s legendary Hare & Hounds and Kitchen Garden Cafe, and airplay on BBC Radio 3.
This tour celebrates the release of Bonfire Radicals second album The Space Between. The album features a collection of original, traditional, and borrowed tunes all arranged by the band and given a new life and direction. It captures the adventurous breadth of their musical imaginations, revels in enthusiasm for folk traditions from around the globe and delivers it with the effortless dynamism that permeates their live shows. It urges you to dance with abandon, ears wide, hairs raised.
"Boldly raucous … Quite staggeringly special.” - Fatea Magazine
"Birmingham's finest progressive folk band". – Tradfolk
"Raucous and eclectic... sheer merriment bundled into a gorgeous set of ideas and influences - Songlines ★★★★
"Complex and contemporary, edgy and exploratory, Bonfire Radicals burn at borders of folk, rock and classical genres'. Irish Music Magazine
"We loved it! What a wonderful gig - such great music: diverse, full of energy, poignant in places, full of virtuosity and musicality... Can't wait for the next opportunity to hear you!" - Audience Member
‘boldly infectious… guaranteed to leave listeners smiling from ear to ear’
Songlines ****
‘quite a discovery’
Fatea Magazine
‘uninhibited gathering of inspired originality’
FolkWords
"there’s nothing high-falutin’ about the glorious mess of noise they make together!" Birmingham Post
"Bonfire Radicals are a Medieval plough-girls’ lunch of Chaucerian troupadors meets Captain Beefheart. Strings, myriad recorders and clarinet raga-beats to a ‘Balkan Divorce Dance’ breakdown. And what a delightful conundrum ‘n bass pizzicato jiggery-poguery it was." BRUMLIVE- John Kennedy
"their musical complicity and obvious enjoyment of each other’s company suggests there’s something raucous smouldering away beneath that wholesome facade"
B13 Magazine