John Spiers: My Original Melodeon Hero | Chatterbox with Mel Biggs Ep.13

John Spiers is famously one of the busiest and most unavailable box players on the English folk music circuit. Most well known for his long-term collaboration with Jon Boden in Spiers & Boden, and together co-founding their multi-award winning global phenomenon big band Bellowhead, John can also be seen playing with Steeleye Span's Peter Knight as a duo, Peter's Gigspanner Big Band, and Saltlines, as well as in duo with fiddler & vocalist Jackie Oates. Join me this month as I get to fangirl my original melodeon hero - the reason I picked up a box in the first place - and find out more about his journey into folk music and what a wild ride it's been to experience such a monumentous career trajectory from the quaint, rural Oxfordshire villages he sessioned in as a young adult, to the bright lights of Bellowhead's reign. John's Links: Website | https://johnspiers.co.uk/ YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/user/squeezyjohn1 Bluesky | https://bsky.app/profile/squeezyjohn.bsky.social Mel's melodeon workshops at The Stables, Milton Keynes Jan & Mar 2025: https://stables.org/workshops Join my PATREON for extended episodes, guest tutor Melinars & learning resource archive: www.patreon.com/melbiggsmusic Visit my website for on demand classes, courses, live dates, merch & more: www.melbiggsmusic.co.uk Intro & outro music: 'Dream Big' by Mel Biggs. All rights reserved. Listen to the full track on my album 'From Darkness Comes Light': www.melbiggsmusic.bandcamp.com Get in touch: [email protected] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Find and follow… Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MelBiggsMusic/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melbiggs_melodeonteacher/ SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/mel-biggs-music