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NETTLEBED FOLK CLUB 10th. Feb. 2004
Nettlebed Village Club 10th February 2004 If you’re going around the world with a folk band, there is probably no better venue to start than in front of a full house at this long established home of the genre. A friendly welcome from the assembled masses is guaranteed, although it does help if you are the number one name in the business as well. Not surprising then, that when the MC announced Steeleye Span it was as ‘simply the greatest’. A familiar looking line-up took the stage. Maddy Prior led the line; husband Rick Kemp on bass, Peter Knight, as ever, on fiddle with Liam Genockey on drums. The rhythm guitar was taken by ‘new boy’ Ken Nicol, who proved such an inspired choice when he joined two years ago to promote the re-recorded ‘greatest hits’ package that Bob Johnson had made his farewell album. Whatever the glue is that joins members of this much-traveled bus when they step on a stage together, it was again much in evidence. As Peter promised, the musical journey has started up where it left off after ‘Bedlam Born’ in 2000 as the concert showcased several new songs from the groups forthcoming CD ‘Babylon’ to be released next month. Typically though, it was an old favourite that launched the evenings performance. Even Liam was persuaded to take a line of The King and a good job he made of it to for such a quiet chap! After that it was straight into Sir James the Rose and When I was on Horseback - the lyrics on the latter sounding much freer and easier than the earlier studio recording . Peter then introduced ‘She Begs’ an Irish instrumental and was accompanied by Ken on acoustic guitar. I am sure that there are better fiddle players than Mr Knight somewhere in the world but I haven’t heard them yet. His performances constantly take Steeleye’s songs onto another planet. Maddy then returned to the stage for Child Owlett, a song very much in the old seventies traditional blend of the comic and tragic. After that Peter again took the spotlight for one of his own favourites - Let Her Go Down. Without the benefit of any keyboards ( and this is probably one of the few shows I’ve been to where they weren’t used at all) he actually played the line by finger picking on the fiddle at the same time as singing! At the start of the song he claimed to have forgotten the piano. If so, it’ll certainly be a shame if he has it throughout the tour because it was quite an amazing performance and one that was not lost on the crowd. One thing that surprised me about Ken Nicol on the last tour was his willingness to be front man for his new band. He stepped forward again to introduce ‘ the maiden voyage’ of his new ‘Babylon’ (the title track of their forthcoming new album) that, notwithstanding its title, was about a typically Steeleye subject. The lyrics relate the true story, of a siege during the Civil War, of the house of Lady Charlotte who repelled the Parliamentarians ‘single-handed’ as Ken said - although then following quickly up with “Well actually she wasn’t exactly single-handed. She had a couple of hundred men with her” The song was also sung with traditional band accompaniment and that in itself was amazing. Mr Nicol had produced a new piece that could have been written by Bob and with a rocky enough beat to have been performed by Tim Harries and certainly very much in a Steeleye tempo yet somehow brought his own new angle to it. At this point I started to notice just how loud the Rick/Liam/Ken was. It really drove the group on in a way I’d not heard for a while and gave them an extra dimension. The new guitarist played along competently all night to the old numbers but when he had some creative input in the new material, he really excelled and the band, topped with Maddy’s familiar vocals and Peter’s superb fiddle became very exciting indeed. At the end, they closed the first part of the set with another old favourite - Misty Moisty Morning, which provoked an audible chorus of ‘ahhs’ from the sentimental when it was announced which obviously amused the band. Then the rush for the bar commenced…. Part two began with a very heavy ‘Long Lankin’ again driven by Ken who can really recall those heady days with his guitar. One of Maddy’s whimsical numbers - ‘Two Magicians’ followed and then an absolutely stunning version of ‘Drink Down the Moon’ - again very loud and ‘King Henry.’ ‘Cam Ye’ came afterwards, reminding me of 1990 when it closed the set and Liam went mad on drums. Now, with a bigger sound again, he has become integral to the groups harder edge. After that, another new one, Samhain, by Rick Kemp, about the traditional Pagan Hallowe’en and featuring a superb lead solo by that man Ken again. Rick, so often the epitome of the unseen bass player, came to the fore with some pounding strings. He’d written himself a pretty good bass lick ! To finish off with, Blackleg Miner and the usual Thomas - crowd pleasers both and then the eternal anthem as encore (enough said) So what’s to look forward to on the 35th anniversary world tour ? Well the most obvious fact is that, once again, the band seems to be composed of members who, onstage, blend musically in exactly the right way. If someone had sent out for a guitarist that composed in the same way as Bob and with the obvious enthusiasm for playing as Tim, it would have been dismissed as an impossible order to concoct but in Ken Nicol they have just that- as well as someone who brings his own originality to strengthen the traditional recipe that is Steeleye. With the powerhouse of drums, bass an guitar, the line-up can deliver both new, exciting songs and old favourites, all with a lively and fresh feel to them that is sure to please fans of all different interests especially with the familiar voice of Maddy still as strong as ever. As for Peter - for so long ‘the rock’ of the many line-ups of recent years, he clearly still enjoys his music and the same fiddle that played so beautifully on ‘Connemara’ and ‘The Water is Wide’ is now even stronger, whether blended in with other instruments or being spotlighted in instrumentals. With so many writers in the group, the prospect for the new album is not just mouth-watering but based on what has been heard here, positively unmisable. If you loved ‘Please to See the King’ and ‘Bedlam Born’ on this showing, you won’t be disappointed with what’s coming next.
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