Concert Hall – Lighthouse, Poole
Saturday 12 December at 7.30pm
Tickets £21 (Discounts: Seniors, Students, U18s, Groups, ATL)
Tickets & information 01202 280000
www.lighthousepoole.co.uk
Booking Fees: Prices quoted are for tickets booked in person at the Ticket Office. Tickets booked by telephone or online are subject to a booking fee of up to £1.75 per ticket
British folk rock pioneers Steeleye Span are back on the road with a new live show and heading for Lighthouse, Poole’s centre for the arts on Saturday 12 December.
The band was formed in 1969 by Fairport Convention founding member Ashley Hutchings after meeting Maddy Prior and Tim Hart on the London folk scene. The first line up was completed by husband and wife Terry (later of The Pogues) and Gay Woods before they were replaced by Martin Carthy and Peter Knight, the first in a long list of line up changes that, apart from a short spell at the end of the 1970s, have never stopped Steeleye Span performing and recording.
In a career in which the creative highs have far outweighed commercial ones, the band’s appearances on the UK singles charts are limited to the 1972 Christmas hit Gaudete and All Around My Hat from 1975, the result of a two-album collaboration with Wombles/Katie Melua producer Mike Batt.
Still fronted by iconic singer Maddy Prior the band are now firmly establishing in a new era following the departure of Peter Knight, their fiddle player since 1970, at the end of 2013 and the arrival of his very able – and youthful – replacement, the prodigiously talented Jessie May Smart whose playing not only fits the Steeleye Span mould but also broadens the band’s musical palette.
Last year saw the release of a deluxe version of Wintersun, their 2013 album based on the writings of the late Sir Terry Pratchett, with an extra disc of four new studio tracks. The release delighted long term fans as not only does it now stand as a fine tribute to Sir Terry and his writings, it also manages to recall Steeleye Span’s early peaks and simultaneously break new ground.
