Steeleye Span

1st. May 2004, Coliseum Theatre, Aberdare.

A review by Howell Rees

Photograph by Howell Rees

From the initial warm applause and cheers as they took the stage to the final encore, this was one of the better Steeleye Span gigs I have been to in the last decade or so. The Coliseum Theatre in Aberdare is an old theatre, which has been renovated and is now often home to roots and folk acts as part of Valley Roots within South Wales.

Being the first day of May, Steeleye opened with “Padstow”, a song about the Padstow May Dance and immediately had the audience joining in. This set the scene for what was to be an evening of old and new songs. On the older songs during the first half of Steeleye’s set this covered “Prince Charlie Stuart” from the Please to See the King album, with Peter Knight playing both fiddle and keyboards to produce the effect of bagpipes and “Four Drunken Nights” from Ten Man Mop. The newer songs from the new album were also featured, with Peter, Maddy and Ken playing “The Mantle of Green” and Rick Kemp on vocals for “Sawain”.

As a change from the normal set list, Steeleye played “All Around My Hat” at the end of the first half of the set before the audience retired to the bar in the twenty-minute break.

The second half of the set was as good if not better than the first with Peter and Maddy again on the own for “Betsy Bell and Mary Gray”, Peter’s violin playing out of this world. Ken Nicol also shone on “Babylon” and “Sir James the Rose” and has stepped into Bob Johnson’s shoes with no problems whatsoever. With another change to the set-list, Steeleye finished with a rousing rendition of “Van Dieman’s Land” from the new album, which again showed how well Ken has fitted into the band.

The first encore was “C’am Ye O Frae France”, rapidly followed by the second encore of “Gaudete”. The audience were still clapping and cheering as the house lights came on, shame we couldn’t have had a third encore!

The other highlights of the evening were Liam’s drum solo in the intro to “Drink Down the Moon” and a brilliant version of “Long Lankin” with superb fiddle playing from Peter and guitar from Ken and a long “Tam Lin”. Steeleye really shone on this night, both the audience and the band seemed to be in the mood to enjoy the evening and a great time was had by all. In the words of Neil Young, “Long May You Run”.