Steeleye Span are celebrating a remarkable 55 years as they hit the road for their latest tour.
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00:00Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers, and it's
00:05always a fantastic pleasure to speak to you, Maddy Pryor of Sealife Span, and the band
00:10is back on the road again, isn't it, for this autumn, with a number of dates, and we were
00:15talking about the year, you're celebrating, is it 55 years, that's?
00:20I think it's 55 years of the band, yes.
00:22That's astonishing, isn't it? And what do those numbers mean to you?
00:27We didn't, there was no expectation really, we just kind of, it's just kind of gone on,
00:35because it's there really, it's a bit like climbing Everest, you do it because it's there.
00:40And you just keep on going.
00:42Yeah, and I really enjoy Steelife, every band has its own remit and its own style and
00:51way that you behave in it, and you never behave quite the same way in any other band,
00:58and any other working situation. Steelife, I can do things in Steelife that I can't do elsewhere,
01:04I don't know why that is.
01:05And we would expect you to do them as well.
01:07Yeah, and I'm convinced that that's why people reform, because they don't recognise when they're
01:13first in it, that it's special, because they think they can replace it, and you can't.
01:21But it sounds like a key for you has always been not to look too far ahead,
01:25just to enjoy the moment.
01:27No, no, this week is quite enough. I mean, we plan, we plan the tours and things ahead,
01:34but I don't know what that tour is going to be, or what songs we're going to do on it, we just...
01:38Well, I think you can guarantee one song, can't you?
01:41Yeah, yes. Oh, well, Hat. Hat is our anthem, it's our calling card.
01:46Oh. Presumably, the buzz from singing Hat is just as great as ever, isn't it?
01:53Yes, yes, because the audience sing it, and you do know that everyone in the room
01:58has heard it, even if they disapprove of it.
02:00But how could they disapprove? I don't believe that.
02:03Oh, well, you know, it's not... Well, it's a hard song to sing, but it's got something about it,
02:10I don't know, I don't know why.
02:11Well, it's so evocative, isn't it? It brings all our memories back, doesn't it?
02:14Well, it does, but...
02:17But you're saying it's a hard song to sing, even after all these years.
02:20Yeah, it's quite hard, I think, yeah, because you've got quite a range.
02:23Yeah, absolutely. And also, you're saying so interestingly that the foundation of the band
02:29were those fantastic line-ups you had in the 70s, wasn't it? That's what's really set you up.
02:34Yes, that first line-up of the six of us was very special. We were all young,
02:43and we were all kind of very enthusiastic about what we were doing, very committed
02:48in a kind of strange way to this thing that had kind of developed. And it became... And sort of
02:55after Hat, we went to America, and it became a very sort of different sort of band, but much more
03:02like a rock band than a folk band, if you like, in our approach to things. And we did a lot of
03:08visuals and stuff like that.
03:09And then it's found its level again, presumably.
03:12Yes, yeah, and it kind of... It rolls and changes over the years, you know,
03:17different people are in the band, and some people know a lot about music, folk music,
03:22some people don't know anything, you know, so it's interesting. And they come to it just as
03:27steel-eye music, which is kind of interesting.
03:31Absolutely. We're looking forward to catching the latest. Maddy, always lovely to speak to you.
03:36Thank you so much for your time.
03:37Thank you, and you, Phil. All the best.