STEELEYE MANIA HITS STATES
(Would you believe)
Andrew Means
© Melody Maker23 Dec 1972
Ever since Steeleye Span went out to the States a couple of months ago word has been drifting back that they've virtually obliterated all other forms of music on the continent. First as second on the bill to Procol Harum and then on their own they have apparently been greeted with adulation everywhere they've played.
They've done television work and interviews, and they've been well covered by radio. In fact they have had the sort of reception there that would seem right for a group like Led Zeppelin, but sounds totally absurd for Steeleye. They have been helped in their rise to fame and fortune by the lack of preconceptions the Americans felt about their music.
All the same, it's a substantial defeat for those who have denied that there is a market in America for traditional music. Their popularity has meant a great deal of work for them. But in spite of fatigue and the time difference, Steeleye's vocalist and guitarist Bob Johnson broke into a slice of morning sleep to give a very sprightly account of the tour on the transatlantic telephone.
"It's all absolutely amazing. I suppose it just seemed unlikely that our type of music should go down so well in the States. Obviously we all wanted it to. It's turned out to be really fantastic. I really don't know why. The people who have spoken to me have said that it was almost an answer to the bad musical state that they feel that America is in, which sounds like Hollywood. Because it's so different people really seem to like it."
"Perhaps we are just lucky. Perhaps we have just come here at a time when they needed something a little bit different. They are much warmer somehow than they are in England. It's a very different sort of audience reaction. It's like starting again because they have no preconceptions about the music. They are a different sort of people. People I've met seem to see it as a glittering alternative to rock and roll. We are all very happy about the whole thing, apart from being tired and homesick."
Was the material and stage act similar in the States to what they had been doing in England?
"It's identical. The stage act and the material are identical. The only concession we've made I think is that some of our gig times have been a little shorter. We've had to be a little more conscious of the feeling of a gig, how it's going, so perhaps we have tended to do more up tempo numbers. We still stand and talk on stage and Maddy still dances. They love Maddy dancing. I suppose that's an obvious concession to American love of dramatic sets. I think it's taken them completely by surprise. It goes down extremely well."
"I think if we had to sum it up we could say that we came over to America expecting a completely different audience and a completely different country, and all we've done is go out and play exactly as we do in England, and we've gone down exactly as well as we did in England. We've been lucky. We're just so overwhelmed at the whole thing. We're just delighted that it's happening to us."
Evidently one of their songs, "Gaudete" unaccompanied with Latin lyrics has caused particular enthusiasm, to the extent that it was released in America as a single. Bob recounted the story of one gig at which they had been met by widespread shouting when they began "Gaudete" they thought that they were being verbally demolished and ended the set as soon as they could, only to discover that the word everyone had been shouting with such excitement was "accapella."
"I don't know why it's gone down so well. I suppose five people standing on stage and singing an unaccompanied number has just blown their heads off. Obviously to us it seems a normal thing to do to stand up and sing unaccompanied. Some of the questions they've asked have really amazed us."
Bob conceded that the American experience might possibly make their music more up tempo, as American audiences seemed to prefer a greater proportion of up tempo songs and wouldn't take so many slow songs as an English audience. But he remained adamant that Steeleye Span weren't about to be changed by success.
“We're not going to change anything at all. Obviously that would be stupid, they have accepted us as we are, which is fair enough,"