Steeleye Span are celebrating a remarkable 55 years - Hastings date
and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565
Dates include the White Rock Theatre, Hastings on Sunday, October 27; The Pavilion Theatre, Worthing on Monday, October 28; and Fareham Live on Tuesday, October 29.
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Hide AdMaddy Prior admits she still quite can't get her head around it.
“No one ever thought we would go for so long. That was never part of the plan. We have just carried on. But I have to say that I'm one of those people that just moves from day to day. I've never really planned much more than that far ahead. Obviously you plan tours but otherwise I just plan for today and then think about next week when you get there. My grandchildren always seem to have a much clearer idea of where they're going, or at least most of them do. But there really are some people that seem to say ‘Right, I'm going to do this for five years and then I will stop and I do this for ten years’ and they've got it all mapped out. Really I just can't think beyond next week!”
But some things do change: “When I was young, I was terrified and now I think with the performing the stress is slightly reduced from terrified to anxious but really that's part of it. That’s what gives you the adrenaline and the energy to go out there. It does surprise me when you see the numbers of years but the good thing is that I don't feel those numbers. When you get something wrong with you then maybe you do. When I had something wrong with me when I was 30 years old I felt old but when you're reasonably fit and there are no particular aches and pains then you are fine. And I find my life very satisfying. I’m very content with it and I still love doing what we do. Yes I was a very anxious person as a young person and I used to get quite het up about things and I was probably quite stroppy and difficult. I don't think I am now! I certainly don't feel it, but I suppose anywhere you are around the stage there's always going to be a certain level of stress.”
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Hide AdLooking back, Maddy admits some things are perhaps a bit of a blur: “But there was a bit of structure in the band that we had throughout the 70s pretty much, and that was the band that put down the groundwork for what we have done. We have extrapolated from there with different forms and different line-ups but really that was the important starting point that we had and the fact that nobody had really done anything like that before.
“But we do always try to do different things. We're working on a new album and you have to move forward. Otherwise you will get bored. But the fact is that we've got such a big back catalogue and the nicest thing is that if you leave a song for a few years and then come back to it, then it greens up and is ready to do again but we've always got Hat which we will always do.”
All Around My Hat was a huge hit for the band in the mid-1970s.
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Hide Ad“We have never quite understood it! We put out Hard Times first and we thought that would be a big hit but I think it just comes out of the radio. You want songs that come out of the radio and I think when you hear Hat it lifts you. It's just one of those things and we're very very lucky to have had it. It gave us an in into another area of music which was not quite in the pop vein but rather nearer the centre. And it made the record company very happy which always helps!”
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