BELLOWHEAD are no more. The Farewell Tour came to a close where it all started a dozen years ago, in Oxford Town Hall, with a May Day valedictory concert after autumn and spring tours that only emphasised how much this glorious folk big band will be missed.

We said a Yorkshire goodbye in frontman Jon Boden's adopted home city of Sheffield on the day we learned Prince's purple reign had ended, and as you do when the end comes, you reach for the records. Or in Bellowhead's case the new deluxe double CD and accompanying DVD, nicely packaged in hardback by Navigator Records with a 24-page commemorative booklet.

The DVD recording was made on last autumn's rounds in where else but the suddenly fashionable Leicester – it must be that Richard III effect again – and captures Britain's best live band in exhilarating form over 23 traditional numbers reinvigorated by Jon Boden's 11-piece to take in jazz as much as folk. You wish that, for just one tournament, England's football XI could play with such harmony and verve and brio.

The editing has removed pretty much all the banter by myriad band members that has come to be such an enjoyable part of each show, and the two CDs do likewise, putting the focus on the songs instead. This is always a dilemma with live albums, where the spoken passages grow wearisome over the years but also capture the moment, but on reflection it is the right decision.

The cheers will suffice and now it is cheerio to Bellowhead who lived up to their promise: "The shows always finish on a high, and so should we.” And so they did.