Oxford - 18th. April 2004.

Steeleye are touring UK in 2004! Whilst I was a research student at Manchester University I saw Steeleye several times in the late 70s / early 80s in Manchester (Free Trade Hall) and once at the Davenport Cinema in Stockport. But that’s almost 25 years ago! I moved out to Germany (near Hamburg) in 1982 so its not a simple matter of just grabbing tickets for a nearby location.

Venue selected (Oxford as it was at a weekend), airline tickets & hire car booked, friends conveniently living in Oxford bribed to let us stay for 2 nights at the cost of inviting them also to the concert! They also procured tickets for the circle. Parents-in-law organised to look after the kids…. I was accompanied by my wife, Heike, who being German has little connection to English folk music but she knows some of the music from the CDs.

Sunday poured with rain all day. We had seats in the circle at the concert. I reckon the average age of the audience was well over 50! The stage was set up simply with no gimmicks. The band walked on and launched into King Henry. That went down well. This was followed by Padstow. The whole evening was (I thought) a successful mixture of the older songs (Long Lankin, All Around my Hat, Sir James The Rose, Blackleg Miner, Let her go Down etc.) together with songs from the new CD “They Called Her Babylon”. I had not heard “Babylon” prior to the concert so all the new songs were unknown to me. I was particularly impressed by The Mantle of Green – a rather sad song.

The general impression one got was that the band was playing very well as a united group rather than a collection of individualists. Especially the combined harmonies sounded great.

The sound? There had been various comments from the Oz tour about the sound quality. I am not an expert & know you cannot expect studio quality in a live concert. In the first half the vocals were not always clear. Peter came across well as did Maddy, particularly when she sang the quieter numbers (e.g. The Mantle of Green). Another excellent example was Betsy Bell and Mary Gray where Maddy sang accompanied by Peter on his violin. Maddy’s voice seemed to have plenty of power and didn’t falter during the whole night. However, when the band was at full power the voices went unclear at times. In the second half I got the impression that adjustments had been made as it seemed that things improved.

Talking about the interval: it was good that there was no “warm-up” group and we got Steeleye pure with an interval in the middle. You should have seen the queues for the Gents in the interval (thinks: 25 years ago there were no such queues and we had had a long drive to & from the venues – we are all advancing in our years!!!)

The audience? Each song received polite applause – no whistles etc. During Hat many sang along (some sang to the other songs which at times was distracting). As the concert finished the audience woke up with calls for MORE. The band obliged and after the first encore were brought back for Gaudete as the second encore. This was BRILLIANT – the harmonies were excellent. We (my wife & I & friends) were all impressed.

So we all trouped out. Whilst waiting to buy a copy of the new CD Peter appeared at one side. Quick says my wife: hurry up and maybe he’ll sign the CD! So I queued up & by the time I turned around Peter was gone but Maddy was there! She very kindly signed the CD and posed for a photo. Pity about missing Peter. Then my wife says try that door – that led to the now empty theatre – and there was Peter helping pack up on the stage! A quick call & he let us in, had a quick chat & we got some more photos. Thanks Peter & Maddy.

An evening to remember.

Steeleye Span