Steeleye Span

27th Nov 2011, Buxton Opera House, Buxton.

Now We Are Six (Again)

Howard E. Mills

Back in May 2011 the first dates for the Autumn/Winter UK tour were announced and as in 2004 & 2009 we chose Buxton since the Opera House is a really nice venue & Buxton seemed to be the only concert in the North-West – the area where I originate from in the UK.

We booked the concert tickets, accommodation at the same guest house as in 2009, flights from Hamburg to Manchester Lufthansa & a hire car.  In contrast to 2009 we were not affected by bad weather & the flights were on time.

It looked to be at least close to being a full-house as there were very few free seats in the stalls.  Shortly after 7:30 pm the band marched onto the stage to the usual polite applause.

From various postings we had learnt that the first half would be the Now we Are Six album in its entirety (why this was so is a bit mystifying since this was also the first set for the 2011 Spring tour).  I’m trying to remember whether I attended a concert on the original tour – I certainly attended the Commoner’s Crown tour at the Manchester Free Trade Hall and I do possess the original LP (rather scratched).

First half:

Seven Hundred Elves
Drink Down the Moon/Cuckoo's Nest
Now We are Six
Thomas the Rhymer
The Mooncoin Jig
Edwin
Long-A-Growing
Two Magicians
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
To Know Him is to Love Him

From the start the sound was spot-on: no feedback or distortion.  Drink Down the Moon always goes down well & Rick – having recently passed his 70^th birthday – gave a good rendition of Edwin.  Maddy did a good performance of Long-A-Growing followed by Two Magicians.

Then we came to the last two.  Many years ago some critic when reviewing a Moody Blues album stated that it had excellent tracks but with just about every one of their albums there was at least one track that made you want to throw the album out of the window – and so it was also with the last two.  OK – Maddy explained that they had been under pressure to produce a new album every 6 months (although that’s not born out be the album release dates as shown in Wikipedia).  On this night Twinkle was the closest we got to the Maddy-and-Peter duet with shades of Great Silkie.

After the interval the second set:

Today in Bethlehem
Sing We the Virgin Mary
Bright Morning Star
Two Constant Lovers
Edward
Who Told the Butcher
Creeping Jane
Cold, Haily Windy Night
Bonny Black Hare

The second set kicked off with three carols with Bright Morning Star as a 6-piece harmony.  Peter then sang Two Constant Lovers from Cogs.  Rick gave his usual resounding rendition of Cold, Haily.

As in past years the audience were fairly subdued: the songs in the first half being greeting by fairly short, polite applause.  In the second half they loosened up a bit and towards the end 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
Gaudete

After the encores they marched off the stage & despite a number of loud calls for MORE the lights came on & the theatre staff ushered everyone out.

Looking back on the concert: Maddy’s voice was fine; Peter’s violin playing of course excellent & as mentioned above Rick appeared to be in good form; Pete Zorn was somewhat hidden down the back and his enthusiastic strumming on acoustic guitar could not really be heard – he was more noticeable when he reached for flute, saxophone etc..  What can one say about the new guitarist?  Not much really – he played electric guitar & once keyboards but did not lead on any songs.  There were no “new” songs during the concert – somehow we got the feeling that Ken was missed (Peter even tried to make a joke along these lines) – Ken had contributed many of the highlights on recent albums (Babylon, Unconquered Sun & the masterpiece Demon of the Well).