Steeleye Span is a British folk-rock band formed in 1970 in Winchester, Hampshire , a member of the Fairport Convention Ashley Hutchins and continued (the latest started) experiments in the electric folk genre. Unlike the Fairport Convention and other members of the British folk revival movement, Steeleye Span was a commercial success: their three albums were in the Top 40, and the hit singles Gaudete (# 11, 1974) and All Around My Hat (# 5, 1975) [ 1] became "gold" [2] . As the reviewer of Allmusic notes, there are several parallels between the Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span: “both recreated folk songs in rock arrangements, had excellent vocalists (on the one hand, Sandy Denny, on the other, Maddy Prior), used multilayer harmonic structures. If in the early years the Fairport Convention had more innovative ideas, after 1970 the work of Steeleye Span looks more interesting ... What distinguished the two groups was that if Fairport came to folk from rock, then Steeleye made the return trip ” [2] .
| Steeleye span | |
|---|---|
 | |
| basic information | |
| Genres | folk folk rock electric folk psychedelic folk |
| Years | 1970 - present |
| A country |  Great Britain |
| City | Winchester , Hampshire |
| Labels | Park records Shanachie Records, Chrysalis records Flutterby Records, Mooncrest records B&C Records |
| Composition | Peter Knight Rick kemp Maddy priority Liam genockey Ken nicol |
| Former the participants | Bob johnson Nigel pegrum Tim hart Tim harries Gay woods Ashley hutchings Martin carthy John kirkpatrick Terl bryant Michael gregory Terry woods Mark williamson Chris staines |
Content
Group History
Ashley “Tiger” Hutchins , “the godfather of British folk rock” [3] , formed Steeleye Span shortly after the release of the album Liege and Lief Fairport Convention , when he realized that the rest of the band had some doubt about the new direction of his development. At the same time, a couple of Gays and Terry Woods from Sweeny's Men were looking for musicians for their new line-up. Hutchins, at one time considering joining their team, offered them an alliance and invited another duet, Maddy Prior and Tim Hart, to meet with whom he met at the Kiel Folk Festival in 1969. The quintet began rehearsing in late 1969 and in March 1970 recorded the debut album Hark! The Village Wait . A common acquaintance of Martin Carty suggested the name: Steeley Span - that was the name of the character of the Lincolnshire folk song “Horkstow Grange”, which narrated the quarrel of two fictional characters, one of whom was called John 'Steeleye' Span [3] .
Shortly after Gay and Terry Woods left the group (and they announced this decision before the release of their debut album), Carty accepted Hart's invitation and became a member of the Steeleye Span. After several rehearsals, the quartet members decided that they could not do without one more instrumentalist: so the group included a young violinist with a classical education, Peter Knight , who at that time worked in the music trade [4] .
In the summer of 1970, the newly-formed group first performed in front of an audience - this happened at the Cambridge Folk Festival - and in October of that year went on their first British tour, working on the second album in parallel. Please To See The King was released by B & C Records in March 1971 and rose to number 7 on the UK charts. [1] At that time, the band had already acted as warm-up artists on the British Jethro Tull tour. In September 1971, Steeley Span released their third album, Ten Man Mop , followed by a British tour. After them, Ashley Hutchins decided to leave the line-up: he did not like the fact that the group focuses on Irish folklore to the detriment of English. He left in December 1971 shortly before the release of the single "Rave On" [4] . Martin Carty followed. To the surprise of the fans of the group, they were replaced by two rock camp musicians: guitarist Bob Johnson and bassist Rick Kemp. The move turned out to be successful: it was in this roster that Steeleye reached the peak of commercial popularity. The group engaged manager Joe Lastig; at the same time, and its sound has become more commercial. Lustig has signed a big deal with Chrysalis Records for Steeleye Span to release ten studio albums. [5]
In 1972, Steeleye Span made their first American tour - in the first branch of Procol Harum - and released the album Below The Salt , followed by Parcel Of Rogues . It was decided that the group needed a permanent drummer, so that the bass player Kemp would not have to constantly adjust to the next "guest". So Nigel Pegram (who had previously recorded with Gnidrolog , The Small Faces and Uriah Heep ) joined the cast , - among other things, a great flutist. The combination found was ideal [6] .
Belatedly released single “ Gaudete ” from the album below the Salt became a Christmas hit single, rising in charts to 14th place [1] : thanks to him, the group first appeared in the television program Top of the Pops . The band called Now We Are Six their first sixth album (and the first as a sextet), and Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull invited the producer to the studio. Partly influenced by the latter, the epic track “Thomas the Rhymer” was created, which has since been constantly performed at concerts. The album was a success, but it caused bewilderment of the old fans - primarily “jokes”, like children's songs performed by the fictional The St. Eeleye School Choir and the cover of “ To Know Him Is to Love Him ”, where David Bowie played the saxophone. Similar attempts to amuse the listener continued on the next album, Commoner's Crown (1975), where Peter Sellers appeared with a Spanish guitar in the final track, New York Girls. The epic ballad “Long Lankin” and the playful instrumental play “Bach Goes To Limerick” [6] also seemed unusual to many.
The band hired producer Mike Batt [~ 1] to work on their eighth album, All Around My Hat , and achieved the greatest commercial success in their history, thanks in part to the title track released by the single and rising to 5th place in UK Charts in late 1975 [1] . Two other tracks were also widely known: “Black Jack Davey” [~ 2] and “Hard Times of Old England”. The next album, Rocket Cottage (1976), also recorded by Batt, turned out to be more experimental (Fighting for Strangers), but commercially untenable. The single "London", written by Rick Kemp on the order of the label and modeled on "All Around My Hat", did not hit the charts at all. The advent of punk rock has finally replaced folk rock from the mainstream. The band once again appeared in Top of the Pops along with The Wombles, but only thanks to the patronage of producer Mike Batt [6] .
It is believed that Peter Knight and Bob Johnson at this moment left the lineup to start the project The King of Elfland's Daughter (and the album of the same name). In reality, the situation was more complicated: Chrysalis agreed to let the duo go, but in exchange for a promise not to leave Steeleye Span. However, refusing to support the “royal” project, Chrysalis put an end to their own hopes: Knight and Johnson left the group completely.
By the time Storm Force Ten began work, Martin Carty was back on the lineup (as a guitarist). A few years ago, he was already trying to persuade the band members to invite John Kirkpatrick, but then the choice was made in favor of Rick Knight. Now, Carty’s offer was accepted and the Kirkpatrick accordion replaced the violin, which significantly changed the sound of the group. In addition, morris dance -style Kirkpatrick dances have become a popular part of concert shows. It soon became clear, however, that Carty and Kirkpatrick only joined the group for a few months and were not interested in a long collaboration.
In 1980, in order to fulfill their contractual obligations to Chrysalis and record their last album, the group returned Knight and Jones and released Sails of Silver , an album in which the bulk of the work was composed of material written on historical and folk stories. The album did not have success - the label refused strong support for him, and not all fans took the change of direction properly. Hart was so upset by this circumstance that he decided to completely quit music.
From that moment on, Steeleye Span came together in different compositions occasionally. The band spent most of the 1980s doing side projects. Johnson opened his own restaurant and went to study psychology at the University of Hertfordshire . Pegram founded his own recording studio. Prior and Kemp devoted themselves to the band The Maddy Prior Band, which recorded 4 albums. In ten years, Steeleye Span has released only two studio albums and one live album.
After prolonged silence, the group (for the first time without Hart) released their 12th studio album Back in Line (1986) via Flutterby Records . The scandal triggered her performance of "Blackleg Miner" in Nottingham . The song about strikebreakers, which appeared in Northumberland at the beginning of the 20th century, was revived by the group at the time of the general strike of the miners in 1984-85, which was not supported by the Nottingham mines.
In 1989, Rick Kemp left the band (who needed a recovery from a shoulder injury that didn't heal while he played bass on stage). He was replaced by Tim Harris ( English Tim Harries ), a friend of Pegram: he had a classical education (piano and double bass), but mastered the bass guitar on his own. With him, the group released the album Tempted and Tried (1989), the material of which formed the basis of their concert repertoire for all subsequent years.
Shortly after the release of the album, Nigel Pegram moved to Australia and was replaced by eccentric drummer Liam Genockey, a member of Moire Music, a band led by free-form jazz band Trevor Watts. Unlike Pegram, who played in a traditional rock key, Genokki was influenced by African and Irish traditions: he “beat” every element from the whole installation from all sides, creating a diverse and unusual sound. Inspired by the experiments of Harris and Genokka, the members of the group set about reworking their old material and finding new forms in folk classics (Johnson's experimental arrangement in Tam Lin). The result of this work was Tonight's the Night ... Live , 1992 album.
In 1995, almost all of the previous members (with the exception of Terry Woods) reunited for the concert, dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the formation of the group (later it was released under the name The Journey ). Guy Woods as a result became not only a regular member of the band again, but also his main vocalist - after Prior had problems with her vocal chords. She also plays a leading role in Time (1996), a studio album released after a seven-year pause. In 1996, Steeleye Span conducted a joint tour with Status Quo , which (together with Prior) recorded their version of “All Around My Hat” (# 47 in Britain).
“Steeleye Span is like a bus. He goes on his route, people come in and go out. Sometimes the route coincides with you, and then you are inside. Sometimes the bus turns in the wrong direction - you just get off ” [7] , - once said Maddy Prior . Her turn to leave the group came in 1997. A year later, Genokki, whose place was Dave Mattax, followed suit. The new lineup Steeleye Span released the albums Horkstow Grange (1998) and Bedlam Born (2000), the first of which seemed to some fans too folk, the second (of the other part) - rock. Disagreements arose within the group - in particular, regarding the concert repertoire: Woods advocated for old material ("All Around My Hat", "Alison Gross"), Johnson believed that new songs should be performed. For a while, only Peter Knight and Tim Harris actually remained regular members of the ensemble.
In 2002, Steeleye Span reunited in a classic line-up. Knight conducted a survey on the band's website and formed a repertoire of applications: as a result, the band released Present: The Very Best of Steeleye Span (2002), a double disc of old songs in a new processing. The ill Johnson on tour was replaced by Ken Nicol of The Albion Band : with him, the group recorded the new album They Called Her Babylon in early 2004, followed by Winter's Christmas release.
In 2005, Steeleye Span became winners of the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards (in the nomination "Good Tradition Award"). The group spent the next two years on tour, performing at several folk festivals, and in November 2006 released the studio album Bloody Men , recorded as a member: Prior (vocals), Nicole (guitar, vocals), Kemp (bass, vocals), Knight (violin, piano, vocals) and Genokki (drums). In December 2009, Tim Hart, one of the founders of Steeleye Span, passed away [8] .
Discography
Studio Albums
Live Albums
| Singles
DVD
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Notes
- Comments
- ↑ Later, Batt also worked with The Wombles and Katie Melua )
- ↑ From here, the Goldie Lookin Chain borrowed a sample fragment many years later.
- Sources
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Steeleye Span UK hits . www.chartstats.com. Date of treatment May 3, 2010. Archived March 13, 2012.
- ↑ 1 2 Richie Unterberger. Steeleye Span biography . www.allmusic.com. Date of treatment May 3, 2010. Archived March 13, 2012.
- ↑ 1 2 Steeleye Span. Mark 1 . steeleye.freeservers.com. Date of treatment May 3, 2010. Archived March 13, 2012.
- ↑ 1 2 Steeleye Span. Mark 2 . steeleye.freeservers.com. Date of treatment May 3, 2010. Archived March 13, 2012.
- ↑ Steeleye Span. Mark 3 . steeleye.freeservers.com. Date of treatment May 3, 2010. Archived March 13, 2012.
- ↑ 1 2 3 Steeleye Span. Mark 4 . steeleye.freeservers.com. Date of treatment May 3, 2010. Archived March 13, 2012.
- ↑ Tim Hart: Founder-member of Steeleye Span www.independent.co.uk. Date of treatment May 3, 2010.
- ↑ Tim Hart, of folk group Steeleye Span, dies aged 61 . news.bbc.co.uk. Date of treatment May 3, 2010. Archived March 13, 2012.