Steeleye Span

 

It’s always a pleasure popping down the road to recapture the ‘folk music’ of my youth and the Fairfield Halls in Croydon has certainly provided many such excursions over the years. I first saw Steeleye here in 1973 and again in 1974 when they released “Now We Are Six”. That recording, repeated here in its entirety on this, their latest tour as the opening set could have proved a folly but Steeleye being Steeleye they managed to pull it off with aplomb.

Along with Peter Knight’s majestic fiddle, Maddy Prior (vocals), Liam Genocky (drums) and Rick Kemp (bass) the band are now augmented by Julian Littman on guitar and multi instrumentalist Pete Zorn.

Of course, there were some great songs on this album including “Seven Hundred Elves”, the mystical “Drink Down The Moon” and the ebullient “Two Magicians”. The recording also provided the very danceable (with Maddy in full flow) fiddle/mandolin melody “Mooncoin Jig”.

And so, onto the second set featuring a selection of ‘hits’ (at least from the audience point of view) with Knight’s ballad “Let Her Go Down”, the heavily Scots dialect imbued “Cam Ye O’er Frae France” and possibly the highlight of the night (for me anyway) “Bonny Black Hare” where the ‘Bridge’ rock-fiddle had the crowd roaring their approval. The finale of “All Around My Hat” and acapella “Gaudette” provided the audience with an opportunity to sing along in a stirring Gareth Malone ‘moment’ and judging by the smiles on everyone’s faces leaving the auditorium they’ll all be back for more.

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