Folk-rockers Steeleye Span back in Sussex
Pioneers of folk-rock Steeleye Span are on the road on the back of a new compilation album.
Transcript
00:00 Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor for Sussex Newspapers. Great pleasure
00:06 this morning to speak to Julian Littman of Steel Eyes Fan. Now, there's something, I
00:11 don't know, you always associate Christmas with Steel Eyes Fan in a way, don't you? And
00:15 you're coming up, you're touring in November, playing Eastbourne and Brighton. And it must
00:21 be lovely to get back on the road with the band.
00:24 Well, it is, it's lovely. And we only did one tour this year, just to get the Covid
00:29 thing caught up with. So we're really looking forward to it. Yes, we're coming to Devonshire
00:34 Park and what's the one in Brighton called? I can't remember, you'll have to...
00:38 Don't worry, I shall find it and mention it.
00:41 It's called the Market, Market? Anyway.
00:43 Oh, the Old Market, yeah.
00:45 Yeah, that's where we're playing. And so, yeah, we're really looking forward to it.
00:49 And you're doing a compilation specifically for this tour?
00:52 We're doing, yeah, we're doing a compilation album to go with the tour. There'll be some
00:57 old favourites on it and there'll be some new stuff and there'll be some, yes, some
01:04 brand new. I mean, obviously we do a lot of adapting stuff from old traditional folk tales
01:10 or folk songs. But on this one, one of the great things is, and I'm very excited, is
01:15 that, and it was Maddy's suggestion, which is great, is that we are going to do a version
01:19 of Shipbuilding, the Elvis Costello song, which I think he wrote with Clive Langer
01:24 for Robert Wyatt originally of Soft Machine. And we've done just an acapella version, three
01:30 of us, and it works a treat. So I'm really looking forward to that. And Elvis doesn't
01:36 know yet, but I know Elvis from back in the day.
01:40 At what point do you tell him?
01:43 Well, if he hates it, I won't say anything. If he loves it, then I will bellow it from
01:49 the mountaintops. But yeah, I will send it to him once we've done the mix.
01:53 And obviously there are a couple of songs that you absolutely will have to do, songs
01:57 that you can't possibly not do.
01:58 Oh, we'll be doing, of course we'll be doing, as it's called in the band, Hat. We'll just
02:03 call it Hat. And we will be doing, of course, Gaudete, especially as it's Christmas time.
02:08 And we'll be doing things like Tam Lin. I haven't got the setlist in front of me, but
02:14 there'll be plenty of things for the band.
02:15 That's always been one of the lovely things about C&I, isn't it? There's nothing worse
02:19 than the band that plays its hits slightly reluctantly, that doesn't want to go.
02:23 Yeah, I mean, you know, we...
02:24 You've got to embrace your hits and your past successes.
02:26 Yeah, we do. We really enjoy playing all around my hat. It's great. It's great, you know,
02:32 it's great fun. And we, yeah, it's just, and Gaudete is great, sounds lovely. And all the
02:41 other stuff that, you know, the more stuff that we've, that's been going for years, all
02:44 the old traditional stuff that people like Bob Johnson adapted and the rest of the band
02:50 contributed to, you'll be hearing plenty of stuff that makes you go, "Ah, that's C&I,
02:56 that's C&I."
02:57 And that is obviously absolutely timeless, isn't it? Can anyone begin to explain why
03:02 that one song is such a hold?
03:04 I couldn't possibly. Maddie might have a better idea. It's, you know, because, you know, it's
03:10 got, it's rock and roll. It's basically straight rock and roll. Because, you know, Status Quo
03:15 did a version.
03:16 Yes.
03:17 Yeah, yeah, they did a version, which I think Maddie might have sung. Anyway, when, when
03:23 Steelye were on the road with Quo, no, Maddie was on the road with Quo, doesn't matter,
03:28 I can't remember what he was. Anyway, Quo used to finish with All Around My Hat and
03:31 Maddie used to come on and sing it with them. And so...
03:34 That's quite a combination, isn't it?
03:36 Yeah, it's great. And we've got Francis Rossi coming on and doing one of the tracks with
03:41 us on the new album. So that's great. He's doing, he's doing, he's doing The Hard Times
03:47 of Old England.
03:48 Oh, fantastic.
03:49 Which should be great. He's, and he's played guitar on it and he's sung on it as well with
03:53 Maddie.
03:54 I saw him just a couple of weeks ago doing his evening of nattering and acoustic.
03:57 Oh, was it good?
03:58 Oh, it was brilliant.
03:59 He's very funny as well, isn't he?
04:01 He is extremely funny.
04:02 Yeah, yeah, yeah. I never met him. I never met him because he did, you know, like these
04:07 days we all do it. Send the files, you can't send them back and stuff, you know. But yeah,
04:12 it sounds great. Sounds really good. Yeah.
04:14 Fantastic. Brilliant. Well, good luck with that tour. Looking forward very much to seeing
04:18 you again. And thank you ever so much for your time.
04:21 All right. Cheers, Phil.
04:22 Thank you.
04:23 See ya. Bye bye. Bye bye.
04:24 Bye.
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