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Steeleye Span.
 Around
18 months ago British folk-rock legends Steeleye Span had pretty
much ceased to exist. Various members had left one by one and
the mantle was tenuously held by fiddler Peter Knight, a member
since the early 1970s. Yet here we are now with a rejuvenated
band on their 35th Anniversary tour and a new CD to herald their
return. As Knight himself puts it, "It's fantastic, isn't it?
It's always nice to come out the other side of something, you
know, and all's well that ends well in my opinion."
The reformed lineup boasts members from their "classic" periods - Maddy Prior on vocals, Rick Kemp on bass, Liam Genockey on drums and Knight himself - along with new guitarist/singer/songwriter Ken Nicol, once of the Albion Band. He takes the place of long-standing guitarist Bob Johnson, who declined the offer to rejoin the band for health reasons.
"It just so happens that we couldn't have found anyone better than Ken after Bob decided to leave," explains Knight. "He's a lovely, lovely guy, his contribution to the Steeleye album is fantastic and he's a great player. He's not a wimpy player, he really plays out and enjoys it. He's a joy to be on the stage with, and his personality is like he's been in the band for the last thirty years, know what I mean?"
The new CD is entitled 'Babylon', and may or may not be available in time for the Australian tour. It is a mix of traditional and original material; some of which is contributed by new boy Nicol, including the title track. "All I know about it is how he introduces it on stage which is that a woman singlehandedly gets the better of a load of troops, but she does have the help of two hundred men or something. But exactly what it's about I'm not sure. You'll have to ask Ken when he comes over."
Live, Steeleye focuses on this newer material as well as songs that they know the audience will expect from them. They don't perform tracks from the more recent albums featuring former members Gay Woods or Tim Harries as the material was more personal to them and therefore not so appropriate to the current line-up. However, recent live reviews indicate that whatever they play, the band still emphasises the rock aspect of folk-rock.
"Well that's right, yes," agreed Knight. "My feeling is the band's as good as it's ever been. I mean, they talk about the early years of Steeleye being the sort of golden period, but the music was very new then, it was very unfamiliar. These days, there's lots of bands that combine traditional music with all sorts of other musical areas. It's no longer new, so we tend to be a little bit more critical, you know, but the band's cooking now which is really good."
After 35 years of existence, including a couple of near-permanent splits and a large number of personnel changes, it is a tenacious and special band that is able to still produce uniquely identifiable music and perform it with renewed vigour, which is just what the current line-up of Steeleye Span achieves. Sometimes, quality actually does last.
Michael Hunter
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Steeleye Span, with special guest Ralph McTell, perform at the Norwood Concert Hall on Sat 20 March.
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