
Ashley
(Tyger) Hutchings can safely be described as the 'Godfather' of
British Folk/Rock. Not only was he part of the first ever proper Folk/Rock
album,'Liege and Lief' by Fairport Convention, but the
founder member of both Steeleye Span and the many versions of 'The
Albion Band' where you can still find him. In fact it was the album 'Leige
and Lief' that changed Ashley's musical direction as now he wanted to
concentrate solely on this type of music, so he left the Fairports, who
still weren't quite sure.
At about this time Gay and Terry Woods (ex - Sweeny's
Men) were looking for musicians to start a new band. As Ashley
had had ideas of joining Sweeny's Men he suggested two people that
he had met at the 1969 Keele Folk Festival, they were Tim Hart
and Maddy Prior.
The band started rehearsals in late 1969 and in March 1970 they
recorded their first album, 'Hark! The
Village Wait'.
The name Steeleye Span comes from the Lincolnshire Folk Song, Horkstow
Grange, and it was singer, Martin Carthy who first showed it to
Tim Hart in Percy Grainger's collection of folk songs. There
was a vote by the band members on the name for the band and Tim Hart
cheated by voting twice. The song, Horkstow Grange, has only
recently been recorded by the band on the 1998 album surprisingly called 'Horkstow
Grange'.
This line-up only ever produced the one album and were fated never to
tour.
Copyright Richard Hollis.1999.