The eleven-piece act played traditional dance tunes, folk songs and shanties, with arrangements drawing inspiration from a wide range of musical styles and influences.

This led to the formation of a ten-piece band, with Benji Kirkpatrick, Rachael McShane, Paul Sartin, Pete Flood, Brendan Kelly, Justin Thurgur, Andy Mellon and Giles Lewin completing the initial line-up.

In 2006 Gideon Juckes joined the band, primarily playing the tuba, and they released their first full-length album, Burlesque, featuring material from the Napoleonic Wars, the American minstrel movement and sea-shanties from Brazil.

Towards the end of 2007 they became Artists in Residence at the Southbank Centre,[3] making their inaugural appearance with a Christmas Revels event.

[10] The band recorded a new album, Broadside, in March 2012 at Rockfield Studios with John Leckie which was released mid-October 2012.

Bellowhead played their final gig at Oxford Town Hall, also the venue for their first concert twelve years earlier, on 1 May 2016.

Prior to the tour beginning, band member Paul Sartin died suddenly of a heart attack on 14 September 2022 at the age of 51.

[18] However, the tour was continued despite his death, and at multiple shows the band performed Faustus song "Brisk Lad" in memory of Sartin.