What can the De Valence Pavilion in Tenby give to folk music fans after they’ve given them the best of the best? asks Malcolm Stacey .

This is the question the management needs to ask, after a stunning folk concert given by Bellowhead in the town.

Nobody can really dispute that these 11 young musicians do not constitute the top folk band in Britain at the moment.

And the huge burst of national publicity they received just before Christmas was, for once, not hyped up out of proportion.

They are amazing. They are marvellous. They are superb.

But what is so good about them? Well, as a packed De Valence Pavilion found out, they blend very old-fashioned folk music with jazz, disco and a big band sound, without upsetting folk purists at all.

It’s the sort of joyous, tub-thumping music they would have played at Victorian village dances, Tess of the D’Urberville’s style, if they had the benefit then of knowing a few modern musical genres.

Many of the songs and instrumentals are old and original. A lot they write themselves. You can’t really tell which is which. They don’t swap from old to new, they just play like, well… Bellowhead.

This reviewer doesn’t move to music. He wishes he could. However, none of us in the audience could help it. This is foot-tapping music. Forgive the cliché, it just is.

There were a few doubts, when the pavilion allocated so much floor space for dancing, at the cost of seating. But the plan worked brilliantly. Not an inch of floor space was unused by ‘ranters’ and ‘jiggers.’ The rhythms are loud and utterly compulsive. They’re enhanced by many a low-octave instrument, including the bouzouki, the euphonium, cello and the weird-looking bass clarinet.

Violins are much used, but so is a zippy brass section.

Then throw in bagpipes, banjo, penny whistle and kazoos. The use of such traditional, basic, much-loved instruments is such a change from electric guitars and keyboards.

Bellowhead’s vocal style leaves you no doubt you’re in touch with folk music at its least diluted. But then they add some very sophisticated harmonies and the result is top class noisy entertainment, yet still the sort your great, great grandmother would approve of.

Tenby will not hear folk music of this calibre ever again – unless Bellowhead pay a return visit.