Steeleye Span.

21st Dec. 2009, Buxton Opera House, Buxton

Now We Are Six (Again) – 21st December 2009

Howard E. Mills.

When the dates for the 2009 Autumn/Winter UK tour started to be announced back in June we were looking for a suitable venue and picked Buxton (the last night of the tour) because:

Booked tickets at the Opera House by phone (we were one of the first to book, were recommended to take Row K in the stalls), relatively cheap tickets booked with Lufthansa and accommodation organised. Of course we did not take snow into consideration. Snow? At Christmas?

We were lucky to make it. We left home with –9C and driving snow. Our plane got to Manchester with delay to be followed by an interesting drive up a not-well-cleared A6 to Buxton.

The Monday dawned with superb weather – brilliant sunshine and several inches of snow. The Pavilion gardens were a picture. My wife & I made several walks round the town – in the afternoon the Steeleye road crew were waiting alongside the Opera House – the Pantomime was running late….

The concert was sold-out but a small number of seats were empty as presumably the weather had prevented some people from attending. Shortly after 8pm the band marched onto the stage to polite applause.

Thanks to an e-mail from Ken I am able to produce the set list for the night: The first half:

    Little Sir Hugh
    Cold Haily Windy Night
    Seagull
    Sheep-crook and Black Dog
    They Called Her Babylon
    Bachelors Hall
    I Live Not Where I Love
    Si Begh Si Mohr
    The Gallant Frigate Amphitrite

Right from the start the sound was excellent (except for a bit of feedback during the second set). After Little Sir Hugh from Commoner’s Crown Rick launched into Cold Haily Windy Night with gusto. He seemed to be in really good form (I believe he led on three of the songs). Peter then introduced Pete Zorn as the 6th musician on the stage.

We wondered why that there were not the usual coloured sheets hanging from the stage ceiling until we realised that the band were performing within the stage set for the Dick Whittington pantomime….

Steeleye played items from many of their albums. As with the Buxton concert 5 years previously they played one of my wife’s favourites: I Live not Where I Love sung by Maddy with Peter’s violin and Ken’s acoustic guitar with Rick quietly backing with his bass. Rick introduced his Bachelors Hall saying that they had not played this since the 1975 tour – I saw that concert in Manchester’s Free Trade Hall. Was it really 34 years ago?

The first set ended with The Gallant Frigate Amphitrite from the new album – this live version sounded much more convincing than the studio version – Maddy’s voice had more “edge” to it.

After the interval the second set:

    All Things Are Quite Silent
    Ranzo
    Great Silkie of Sules Skerry
    The Unconquered Sun
    Van Dieman's Land
    Peace On The Border
    The Three Sisters
    Fiddle Tunes - The First House In Connaught
    Bonny Black Hare

The second half seemed to go by as fast as the first; Ranzo sung a capella with Peter playing violin pizzicato and Liam keeping time on the drums was very effective. The Maddy/Peter duet Great Silkie of Sules Skerry was breathtaking as always. Ken introduced his Unconquered Sun, saying that it was for this date and the previous 29 concerts had just been rehearsals for this night. Rather poignant this one as I work for an IT manufacturer called Sun Microsystems which is currently in the process of being bought out…… The second half ended with the raucous Bonny Black Hare.

Whilst the band were in very good form I got the impression that the audience were frozen in their seats. Maybe mulled wine should have been handed out as people arrived. All songs in the first half were greeting by fairly short, polite applause. In the second half they loosened up a bit (maybe the bar in the interval had its effect) – during Ranzo a few hands were seen to be tapping on knees. Only at the end came there some vocal calls for MORE.

Encores:

    All Around My Hat
    Hard Times Of Old England

As the band reappeared Maddy said that they pretty well had to play their anthem and if they had to sing it so did the audience. After the community singing session they launched into the re-vamped Hard Times which included Pete Zorn on saxophone. My wife said that the band were in no way harmed by having a 6th musician on the stage – a “fuller” sound.

With Peter Knight’s Good Night, Safe Journey Home Everyone it was made clear that that was the end of the proceedings.

Despite the fact that an announcement had been made prior to the start of the concert that there would be a signing session afterwards the theatre staff were doing their best to have everyone out of the building pronto. We managed to avoid this and arrived in the foyer. Up one flight of stairs Maddy was sat at a table signing, talking and being photographed. We waited until the end and were not only rewarded with having our CD autographed but had a long talk with Maddy – despite the fact that she & the whole team must have been exhausted. We were just about to depart and be removed as the last from the foyer when Ken appeared and we had the opportunity to talk.

To sum up: probably the best Steeleye concert we have attended.

Back in two year’s time?