Together for fifty seven years now, Steeleye Span changed the face of folk music forever by taking it into the world of gold discs and international tours. Now they return with Conflict, their first full studio album in over five years. All traditional singers have sung modern and self-composed pieces alongside old songs, Conflict is an album that follows in that very tradition. The album’s title was chosen as much to reflect the times we find ourselves in, but also the stretch and tear of our relationship with this planet that hosts us.
The band will undertake a full UK tour in support, their first live dates of the year. As ever – and with such a rich history to choose from – the night will offer a selection of songs from across the years and firm fan favourites.
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Folk music is one of my favourite genres of music, and it’s great to listen to tracks from over the years, and Steeleye Span’s back catalogue of successful tracks captivated me from my first listen. It’s great how their folk music focuses on a mixture of Irish ballads and more up tempo tracks, almost Irish jigs. The entire band are incredibly talented, and seeing the two drummers work in synchronisation with the fiddler performing some outstanding melodies was mind blowing.
When they played their faster tracks, Maddy Prior shouted out to the audience that if anyone knew how to Morris dance that it was our chance, so everyone was jumping and dancing around like mad. They played through a great selection of their music, playing some from before their hiatus, and a vast amount of tracks from Now We Are Six Again. When they played Hard Times of England, they had everyone singing along, and they even had a projection if lyrics so that everyone could join in.
Although Maddy’s voice isn’t as strong as it once was, it still sounded fantastic, and all of the other musicians sound as if they were still in the 80s, phenomenal performances all round.