Reviews

"....Paul Sartin has already made inestimable contributions to Bellowhead and Faustus and must already be approaching godlike status. The legend grows here ........."

Colin Irwin, fRoots review of Food of Love

"The sheer variety of available sounds and textures, combined with the brilliant (and at times brilliantly wicked) inventiveness of two players who really know their instruments and their capabilities inside out, makes for a whirlwind listening experience."

David Kidman, NetRhythms, 15/06/08
Read the rest of the Belshazzar's Feast 'Food of Love' Review

"Bellowhead are now a rousing instrumental dance band who can switch from party mode to some real surprises"

Robin Denselow, Guardian, 27/02/2007
Read the rest of the review of Bellowhead's preformance at the Royal Opera House

" Bellowhead settle into being one of the most enthusiastic, euphoric bands you could ever wish to see. There's an inherent danger in reviewing one of their gigs that the use of the phrase 'unfettered joy' could start to grate through over-use. But it's as good a description as any to do them justice."

James Bentley, BBC Manchester, 24/02/07
Read the rest of the review of Bellowhead's preformance at the Met, Bury

"I really enjoyed London Town - it made me want to dance!"

Jools Holland,  21/11/2006

"The trump card is Paul Sartin's oboe, an instrument usually associated with a prissy pastoralism. Not here: I don't think it has been used to such telling effect in the context of Eng. Trad since Sue Harris with the Albion Country Band."

Raymond Greenoaken, Stirrings, 2005

"..a triumph of musical expression"

Colin Randall, The Daily Telegraph, 18 June 2005

"Singling out, quite unfairly, one single element, one has to remark on the way in which fiddle player Paul Sartin's oboe enhances the songs."

Nigel Schofield, Tykes News, Dr Faustus live at the Early Music Centre, York, 2005

"...an oboe accompaniment which sustains an almost unbearable series of notes which stretch like a tightrope upon which the singer hangs his carefully enunciated song..."

Paul Davenport, "efs" Autumn 2004, reviewing Martin Carthy's "Waiting for Angels"

"My personal find of the festival - Paul Hutchinson and Paul Sartin play like no-one else you've ever heard. Their music is breathtaking and wickedly inventive and the between-tunes interchange as intelligent and hilarious as the music. But don't let me give you the impression they're a lightweight comedy act: they finish the set with a haunting piece of oboe and accordion magic which has the audience spellbound."

BBC Radio 2 Mike Harding Show online, Sidmouth International Festival 2001

"Then there were the bright-young-things. Dr Faustus combined the multiple talents of Tim Van Eyken, (Radio 2's Young Folk Award holder) Benji Kirkpatrick (son of John), Robert Harbron and Paul Sartin. They played the Friday night ceilidh and appeared in concert on Saturday. .... With such impressive young talent taking to the stage, the future looks pretty rosy."

Lorraine Carpenter, The Living Tradition, Warwick Folk Festival 1999

"Paul Sartin is a real chorister and they (Belshazzar's Feast ) have that typical charisma found with friendly professionals letting their hair down as a folk duo..."

Trevor Gilson, Viewpoint Arts Southampton, 1 December 1997

"A very talented young man" 

Sir George Solti, April 1992

"...a fine woodwind section gilded with some aristocratic playing from the first oboist, Paul Sartin . . ."

The Times, July 1989