I am the colleague that Howard Mills mentioned in his review.
Though not being a Steeleye Span-o-rak like Howard, I came across them briefly several times since my tape recorder days in the 70's.
Howard kindly borrowed us the 2004 DVD, so we came well prepared.

The Anvil is a bit like a university's auditorium, with the advantage of a clearly visible stage, and the disadvantage of a slightly formal atmosphere. Which may explain why people gently swayed with the music but nobody moved openly to the rhythm. A week later I had the same impression when I saw Waterson:Carthy there.

But as soon as the band hit the stage, I stopped noticing. The other reviewers have already covered the music in detail. I was amazed when the first half ended because I thought they only started ten minutes earlier! The same happened when the concert was over and I realised that I had totally lost track of time.

After we came back to the surface and left the hall, we followed Howard who hoped to meet the band and, lo and behold, there they came. I was very impressed by their willingness to chat with us and sign our CDs, as if they had just had a session in a pub. I really felt honoured as their "customer".

We both enjoyed the concert very much and will certainly come back next time. We'll have to change the logistics though, because our children (6 and 8 years) vehemently demanded to be taken along, after entertaining the house with "Bloody Men" for a couple of days (I made them their own copy to protect the original).

^{Volkmar Grote
2007}