Reviews
Live at Last
By Graham Lock
© New Musical Express
4 Nov. 1978
Steeleye's farewell album, recorded at the Winter Gardens, Bournemouth, last March. Not their finest work, but intermittently brilliant and, overall, not an unworthy epitaph.
The only non-traditional piece on the record is Brecht's "The Black Freighter", a marvellous song about the rich getting their come-uppance. Here it's given an equally marvellous treatment, full of drama and ferocity, with Maddy Prior's stirring vocals providing my favourite moments on the album.
The most ambitious track is "Montrose", a 15 minute epic of medieval heroism and intrigue - impressive, but it drags a little and never quite lives up to its promise.
The rest is more standard fare: the jaunty instrumental opening of "The Atholl Highlanders/Walter Bulwer's Polka", the heavily rhythmic near-chant of "Hunting The Wren", John Kirkpatrick's morris dance on "Bonnets So Blue" - which obviously loses its visual impact, though you can hear his bells dancing eerily from speaker to speaker, and Martin Carthy's lovely accompaniment is a treat in itself.
The last track is "The False Knight On The Road", which harks back to Steeleye's masterpiece "Please To See The King". They rattle through it at a fair old pace, lively indeed, but not quite with the precise clarity of the original studio version.
Still, it would be silly to carp. This is a fine record, from a group who have given millions enormous pleasure and provided them with a potted history of English traditional music to boot. Thanks.
There can't be many people left now playing electric folk. Somebody better start a Preservation Society quick.
*Click here to see the cover & track listing.