Reviews
Event: Steeleye Span 40th Anniversary Tour
Venue: Epsom Playhouse
Town: Epsom
Date: 30th November 2009
Website: http://steeleye.freeservers.com/
http://www.maddyprior.co.uk/
Have to confess that I haven't seen Steeleye Span since 1975, almost thirty five years ago. Soon afterwards they released All Around My Hat, and suddenly became really popular, and for some reason I didn't ever bother to go and see them again, though I recall I really enjoyed them at the time.
Finally caught up with them again after all of these years at Epsom, during their 40th Anniversary tour.
The stage was decked out with five huge silk banners hanging from the ceiling, looking like tapestries hanging in a banqueting hall in a castle, or banners decorating a jousting tournament. Three of the banners were emblazoned with a Dan-Brown-like ambigram portraying their initials "SS" in a circle. All very appropriately medieval looking.
There was no support. The band played two full sets, and during the interval we were treated to tracks from the Steeleye Span nursery rhyme album - according to Maddy Prior, an essential requirement for any car journey if you have children.
Apparently they are now on their 17th line up of the band, though for their recent tours of Australia and the States Rick Kemp (bass) was unwell, so they were temporarily joined by Pete Zong (which could be considered as their 18h line up). For most of this evening, Pete joined them again, (normally on acoustic guitar, though he played a variety of other instruments). I guess this six-piece band could well be looked on as their 19th line up!
For the first set, Maddy wore a long red gown, and changed to a lilac dress with a diaphanous blouse for the second set. Not surprisingly, I don't think she danced quite as much as she did back in the 70's, but she still made a stirling effort, and made full use of the stage, at times dancing bbehind Lian Genockey's drums.
There was no concept of Steeleye Span being Maddy Prior and her backing band. All members seemed equally important, and most of them introduced songs. Many of the songs were, as expected, traditional songs, but many were their own compositions.
Knowing that I hadn't seen them for so many years, I was (rightly) convinced that I wouldn't be able to keep a set list, so I didn't bother to take a pen, but I did recognise several of the tracks they played.
They opened with "Little Sir Hugh", and also played "Sheep-crook and Black Dog", "Seagull" (which featured Pete Zong on whistle), "Seven Hundred Elves", "Bachelors Hall" (Rick said that they hadn't played this since the 70's), "They Called Her Babylon", "Great Silkie of Sules Kerry" (Maddy accompanied with Peter Knight on violin) and "Van Dieman's Land".
I do love their folkier songs, but towards the end of the second half they got rockier, and these blew me away, particularly "Bonny Black Hare", which really demonstrated how good a drummer Liam is. They rounded the second set off with another heavier song, "Thomas The Rhymer".
They played three encores, including, of course, "All Around My Hat". Ken Nicol (guitar) then burst into an uncharacteristic blues solo which morphed in to "Hard Times Of Olde England". Not the jiggy version that I remember from my youth, but a completely re-scored blues version. Fantastic. They ended the evening with "The Song Will Remain".
Pete Bradley