Benji Kirkpatrick and The Excess

Prolific roots musician Benji Kirkpatrick is well known for being a founder member of big-band folk trailblazers, Bellowhead, a current member of Faustus and Steeleye Span and sometime Seth Lakeman collaborator. Over the last few years, he has been writing and cooking up plans for his own project, which was unveiled in 2019 as Benji Kirkpatrick and The Excess.

‘Multi instrumental virtuoso’ (Tom Robinson, BBC Radio 6 Music), Benji is now bringing his own writings vibrantly to life in this classic power trio with Bellowhead band-mate, Pete Flood, on drums and Pete Thomas on bass.

As a huge fan of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream, ZZ Top and The Police, Benji chose the classic power trio format to provide “the perfect instrumentation” to realise his songs with the biggest imaginable impact, whilst being a containable line up.

Along with unique percussionist, Pete Flood, Benji formed the rhythmic heart of Bellowhead; so Pete was drafted in on drums, with the dextrous Pete Thomas recruited on electric and double bass: “Having played mainly acoustic music for a long time, I wanted to kick things up a bit with a rocky sound.” With Benji leading on acoustic & electric bouzoukis and guitar, the band stoke up rhythms, riffs and uproarious, soaring melodies; sometimes cacophonous, sometimes stark and raw, at times sensitive, always powerful.

The trio’s debut album is a dynamic, rhythmic alt roots album, with beautiful emotional moments and a strong underlying power. The album title ‘Gold Has Worn Away’ refers to the fading promises of Western capitalist society, Benji explains: “I feel that people are largely ready for songs about social and political matters, the times sort of demand it.”

Gold Has Worn Away was released in December 2019 on Westpark Records.

“A dynamic & powerful roots rock album for our age.” (FATEA Records Magazine)

“Formidable musicianship. Hard-hitting lyrics abound.” (Folk & Tumble)