Steeleye Span - ATV's Music Room 1970
Steeleye Span - Live Ainsdale Beach 30 June 1971
Steeleye Span - Electric Folk BBC 1974
The initial idea by soon-to-be ex-Fairport leader Ashley Hutchings, was a band that would explore the electrification of traditional music from the British Isles. It started after discussions at the '69 Keele folk festival in June between Ashley, Maddy Prior & Tim Hart and Dave & Toni Arthur. They discussed their dissatisfaction of the isolationist nature of the British Folk scene, and the unwillingness to consider an 'electric' approach to traditional music from within the folk scene, rather than it coming from the Rock side, which it had so far. In the car on the way home after the festival Tim, Maddy and Ashley also got the seal of approval of Bert Lloyd for what they were planning. Ashley had already explored the use of traditional music in Rock setting with Fairport Convention, culminating in 'Liege and Lief' in Dec 1969. Ashley left Fairport to continue this 'Folk Rock' after the remaining members of Fairport had seen it as a one-off experiment.
Ashley initially tried to form a band with Sweeney's Men (Irvine, Moynihan and Woods) and had good initial discussions with Terry, with whom he had become very good friends with. Johnny Moynihan however was not interested after a falling out with Terry, whilst Andy Irvine wasn't keen without Johnny. This left Ashley with only Terry Woods (now with his wife Gay, who had come over from Ireland). They then considered the Pegg's, but they wanted to explore a more experimental direction. Finally, after an unsuccessful approach to the Dransfield brothers, Ashley then called upon Maddy and Tim, recalling their discussions at Keele. Tim and Maddy were at a point where they were to keen to expand their own sound having been successful as a duo on the folk club scene.
The name of the band, Steeleye Span, comes from a song about 100 – 150 years old. There’s this place called Horkstow Grange (the name of the folk song) up in Lincolnshire; the foreman there was a man called John Bolin, and there was a waggoner called John ‘Steeleye’ Span who worked there too… and both men obviously hated each other’s guts. They eventually had an enormous punch-up and the whole thing is commemorated in the ballad. Well the song has got changed somewhere along the line so that Steeleye Span is now a miser, and John Bolin is his foreman. In the song, Span takes every opportunity to shit on Bolin, who eventually loses his cool and hangs one on him. Then Span, instead of belting him back, takes revenge through the courts.
Alternative names were 'Lyubidan Waits' (Terry and Gay, named after an Irish God) and 'Middlemarch Wait' (Hutchings) Maddy and Tim wanted Carthy's suggestion but apparently Tim voted twice!
With Ashley's success from Fairport Convention they managed to get the successful producer Sandy Roberton as their manager, who had recently joined B&C records after working for RCA, and who were keen on getting into 'underground music'. This gave them the funds and the equipment they needed to go and live together in Winterbourne Stoke, a small village in Wiltshire, where they practised for 3 months 'getting it together’. Later described by Ashley as 'Two couples and a referee'. Although they all found the music inspiring, living so close created strains amongst the two chalk and cheese couples and 3 months of living this way proved too much.
The recording of the first album was fractious with the living arrangements spilling over into the recording sessions, and with one song still to finish Gay and Terry left after a bust up in the studio. The reasons highlighted since have mainly centered around Tim and Terry's relationship. They were both strong personalities with their own ideas about the direction of the music and didn't particularly get on, in part apparently because Tim & Maddy continued to gig together during the initial rehearsals, which straight away got the relationship off to a rocky start.
As far as Terry and Gay were concerned there was an agreement that if anyone left, the band split up and the remaining members would not use the name Steeleye Span. This 'betrayal' almost certainly accounted for Terry Woods never appearing with the band again, including the 1995 big Reunion concert where he was the only member to not appear. Terry said: "We ended up signing stuff that we should never have signed. It was such a nasty way for such a great thing to end". Terry and Gay went onto record albums together as a duo and as 'The Woods Band'. Released after the band split up and after Martin had joined, Hark! The Village Wait, the debut album was mostly traditional material apart from the opener - 'A Calling-On Song' which was written by Ashley based on an old tune (Earsdon Sword Dance'). 'Fisherman's Wife' Lyrics were written by Ewan MacColl. As became the accepted way for a Steeleye album, all the members brought different songs to the recording sessions. Guest drummers were Gerry Conway and Dave Mattacks, both of whom performed later with the band in the 90's. A 'Wait' is a Tudor village/town band or musician. No outtakes have appeared from the sessions but it's believed one song was recorded but not included.
The band had effectively split up when the Wood's initially left. Ashley went off to pursue a project with Bob and Carole Pegg. However, Tim Hart was keen to continue the project and called up his friend Martin Carthy to see if he would be interested. Martin had seen his playing partner of 3 years - Dave Swarbrick - join Fairport (Carthy had turned down Fairport) and was in his words 'living out of a suitcase', having just split up from his first wife. All these factors made Martin think why not, he "just fancied it...it was this huge thing - why not?" This then encouraged Ashley to leave the Pegg's, with whom he was working with again to come back and try again with Steeleye. As Maddy said, Martin joining gave Steeleye 'A stamp of approval' amongst the Folk audience. The significance of Martin joining cannot be underestimated. As well as providing a folk 'legitimacy' Martin also drove the group to being a fully electric band. Martin described the first album as 'mainly acoustic'. Martin's reputation also gave the band a boost in being able to start touring and get gigs straight away as there was considerable interest in seeing how he would play in an electric band - having only played acoustic guitar so far.
After practicing for 2 months at the Vicarage, St. Albans, the four members soon realised they needed another multi-instrumentalist to join them as they felt they were too guitar heavy. Peter Knight had been seen playing in the folk clubs, particularly the Irish Folk scene in London, so was known to Ashley, Tim and Maddy, having performed with Maddy on TV recently (now lost). He had also done some gigs with Bob Johnson. Peter was classically trained which appealed to Martin and Tim as they had a good musical knowledge themselves but wanted to explore more complex arrangements. This then completed the first Steeleye line up that went out and played live and produced two classic Electric Folk Albums. From: https://steeleyespanfan.co.uk/the-history/1969-1971
Ashley initially tried to form a band with Sweeney's Men (Irvine, Moynihan and Woods) and had good initial discussions with Terry, with whom he had become very good friends with. Johnny Moynihan however was not interested after a falling out with Terry, whilst Andy Irvine wasn't keen without Johnny. This left Ashley with only Terry Woods (now with his wife Gay, who had come over from Ireland). They then considered the Pegg's, but they wanted to explore a more experimental direction. Finally, after an unsuccessful approach to the Dransfield brothers, Ashley then called upon Maddy and Tim, recalling their discussions at Keele. Tim and Maddy were at a point where they were to keen to expand their own sound having been successful as a duo on the folk club scene.
The name of the band, Steeleye Span, comes from a song about 100 – 150 years old. There’s this place called Horkstow Grange (the name of the folk song) up in Lincolnshire; the foreman there was a man called John Bolin, and there was a waggoner called John ‘Steeleye’ Span who worked there too… and both men obviously hated each other’s guts. They eventually had an enormous punch-up and the whole thing is commemorated in the ballad. Well the song has got changed somewhere along the line so that Steeleye Span is now a miser, and John Bolin is his foreman. In the song, Span takes every opportunity to shit on Bolin, who eventually loses his cool and hangs one on him. Then Span, instead of belting him back, takes revenge through the courts.
Alternative names were 'Lyubidan Waits' (Terry and Gay, named after an Irish God) and 'Middlemarch Wait' (Hutchings) Maddy and Tim wanted Carthy's suggestion but apparently Tim voted twice!
With Ashley's success from Fairport Convention they managed to get the successful producer Sandy Roberton as their manager, who had recently joined B&C records after working for RCA, and who were keen on getting into 'underground music'. This gave them the funds and the equipment they needed to go and live together in Winterbourne Stoke, a small village in Wiltshire, where they practised for 3 months 'getting it together’. Later described by Ashley as 'Two couples and a referee'. Although they all found the music inspiring, living so close created strains amongst the two chalk and cheese couples and 3 months of living this way proved too much.
The recording of the first album was fractious with the living arrangements spilling over into the recording sessions, and with one song still to finish Gay and Terry left after a bust up in the studio. The reasons highlighted since have mainly centered around Tim and Terry's relationship. They were both strong personalities with their own ideas about the direction of the music and didn't particularly get on, in part apparently because Tim & Maddy continued to gig together during the initial rehearsals, which straight away got the relationship off to a rocky start.
As far as Terry and Gay were concerned there was an agreement that if anyone left, the band split up and the remaining members would not use the name Steeleye Span. This 'betrayal' almost certainly accounted for Terry Woods never appearing with the band again, including the 1995 big Reunion concert where he was the only member to not appear. Terry said: "We ended up signing stuff that we should never have signed. It was such a nasty way for such a great thing to end". Terry and Gay went onto record albums together as a duo and as 'The Woods Band'. Released after the band split up and after Martin had joined, Hark! The Village Wait, the debut album was mostly traditional material apart from the opener - 'A Calling-On Song' which was written by Ashley based on an old tune (Earsdon Sword Dance'). 'Fisherman's Wife' Lyrics were written by Ewan MacColl. As became the accepted way for a Steeleye album, all the members brought different songs to the recording sessions. Guest drummers were Gerry Conway and Dave Mattacks, both of whom performed later with the band in the 90's. A 'Wait' is a Tudor village/town band or musician. No outtakes have appeared from the sessions but it's believed one song was recorded but not included.
The band had effectively split up when the Wood's initially left. Ashley went off to pursue a project with Bob and Carole Pegg. However, Tim Hart was keen to continue the project and called up his friend Martin Carthy to see if he would be interested. Martin had seen his playing partner of 3 years - Dave Swarbrick - join Fairport (Carthy had turned down Fairport) and was in his words 'living out of a suitcase', having just split up from his first wife. All these factors made Martin think why not, he "just fancied it...it was this huge thing - why not?" This then encouraged Ashley to leave the Pegg's, with whom he was working with again to come back and try again with Steeleye. As Maddy said, Martin joining gave Steeleye 'A stamp of approval' amongst the Folk audience. The significance of Martin joining cannot be underestimated. As well as providing a folk 'legitimacy' Martin also drove the group to being a fully electric band. Martin described the first album as 'mainly acoustic'. Martin's reputation also gave the band a boost in being able to start touring and get gigs straight away as there was considerable interest in seeing how he would play in an electric band - having only played acoustic guitar so far.
After practicing for 2 months at the Vicarage, St. Albans, the four members soon realised they needed another multi-instrumentalist to join them as they felt they were too guitar heavy. Peter Knight had been seen playing in the folk clubs, particularly the Irish Folk scene in London, so was known to Ashley, Tim and Maddy, having performed with Maddy on TV recently (now lost). He had also done some gigs with Bob Johnson. Peter was classically trained which appealed to Martin and Tim as they had a good musical knowledge themselves but wanted to explore more complex arrangements. This then completed the first Steeleye line up that went out and played live and produced two classic Electric Folk Albums. From: https://steeleyespanfan.co.uk/the-history/1969-1971
