FOLK big band Bellowhead are to split next spring after "11 amazing years".

The 11-piece announced through Twitter that they will mark their departure with a two-part farewell tour in November 2015 and April 2016. Before then, however, they can be seen headlining the Saturday bill of the Pocklington Platform Music Festival at The Old Station on July 18, with tickets on sale on 01759 301547 and at pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk or platformfestival.net Janet Farmer, manager of Pocklington Arts Centre, the festival organisers, says: "I was as surprised as everyone else regarding the band's announcement to split up after such a successful few years together. While they will tour again in November and April next year, their summer show in Pocklington will be one of their final ever festival appearances.

"They've promised these last few shows will be a celebration and party, which I think will only add to the atmosphere of the festival. When we started booking the event, we had Bellowhead at the top of our list to headline because of their reputation for their stunning live shows. They're widely acknowledged as one of the best live acts the UK has produced in recent years, wowing audiences in venues across the UK and Europe and becoming a key fixture on the festival scene. You don't win the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards Best Live Act five times for nothing!"

The band's announcement came via Twitter on June 3. "This is a sad message to send but after 11 amazing years we've decided to call it a day," it read. "It's been an incredible journey for us all and we've loved every minute of being Bellowhead but Jon [singer and fiddle player Jon Boden] has decided the time has come for him to stand down as lead singer and the rest of us don’t feel that we wish to continue without him.

"We have therefore decided that we should give Bellowhead the send-off it deserves and go out with a bang. So we will be performing a two-part farewell tour finishing as we started all those years back, with an intimate gig at Oxford Town Hall, the very first venue we ever played as a band."

The valedictory note continued: "We are all looking forward to the remaining gigs and intend to make them our best shows yet so we hope you can come along for the party. We hope you will not be too upset with us for calling time on the band. Of course Bellowhead would have been nothing without the support of our amazing fans over the last decade. We are all incredibly grateful to you for coming with us on this journey and want to thank you all for being part of the Bellowhead story."

That story began in 2004 with an appearance at the first Oxford Folk Festival, performing "for fun" as an experimental one-off project that fused folk, funk, rock, world, jazz, music hall and classical music. Named Bellowhead on account of "the bellows of the melodeon power the whole sound”, the 11-piece band of Boden, John Spiers, Benji Kirkpatrick, Andy Mellon and co have since made a self-titled debut EP, E.P.Onymous, and five studio albums, selling more than 250,000 copies.

Most notably, their third album, 2010's Hedonism, recorded at Abbey Road Studios, became the highest-selling independent folk album of all time. In 2014, they signed to the prestigious major label Island Records to release Revival, duly entering the UK album charts at number 12.

Over the years, Bellowhead have received two silver discs; won eight BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards; released a songbook with Faber; spent eight years as artists in residence at London’s Southbank Centre; recorded theme tunes for The Archers and The Simpsons, at the request of the producers, and brewed their own beer, not once but twice.

Tickets go on general sale tomorrow at 10am online at gigst.rs/Blwhd for 16 gigs in November and 15 next April, culminating in their May Day farewell concert on May 1 2016 at Oxford Town Hall. Their Yorkshire shows will be at Harrogate International Centre on November 23, Sheffield City Hall, April 21 and Halifax Victoria Halls, April 25. The band members will go their separate ways next spring to "work on new, many and varied musical projects". It's in keeping with all the musical and theatrical traditions that make Bellowhead what it is, that we will end at our peak and leave the audience wanting more," they say. "The shows always finish on a high, and so should we."