Steeleye Span embark on UK tour in November and December to promote their latest album, Conflict. We recently caught up with Steeleye Span’s Maddy Prior to discuss the new album, tour, her solo work and more…

A Steeleye Span special featuring the interview will be broadcast on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, Sunday 12 October, 18:00 GMT.

You’ve got the new album out  Conflict, which is obviously quite topical at the moment, isn’t it?

Yes, it is that that was kind of the intention. I mean I consider traditional material to be relevant just in different clothes and different transport systems. A lot of it is much the same people. People don’t change.

What’s the motivation as Steeleye Span has been going for over 50 odd years. How easy or hard is it for you to actually get the motivation to record new music?

Oh well, it’s not. It’s not hard at all, really. I mean, that’s because that’s what we do. Music has been my life and a large part of it has obviously been singing. And it’s interesting that whatever band you’re in, that’s what you do in that band. And Steeleye has got a sort of particular remit. I think we push the boundaries a bit on this album, but not more than some other albums have done that we’ve done. I think it’s like 24 albums or something.

With the November and December tour coming up, how do you decide the set list? All Around My Hat will be a given!

Well, it’s our kind of anthem and we always do that at the end, but luckily we don’t have to do any others really. So, we’ve got a big back catalogue to choose from and that’s what we do. We kind of go through and see what songs we haven’t done for a while. Sometimes like ‘Dogs and Ferrets’ that hadn’t been done since we first recorded it. I thought, well, I don’t know why we haven’t done it. I know why we didn’t do it now because it’s really hard to perform.

One of the great things about Steeleye Span are acapella songs like that one and also Somewhere Along the Road and Reclaimed, one my favourite Steeleye songs.

One of my daughter’s songs that was, Ellen Rose. It’s more or less her arrangement, she’s just brilliant. We did ‘Shipbuilding’ as well as a mainly acapella piece and that was lovely to do. So we look at songs and look to do them different ways, unless they’ve got riffs that kind of dominate and you can’t really change them very much. We still managed to change them quite a lot. Even with the riffs.

Steeleye are at the rockier end of folk…

We’re quite loud. We’re quite full on, a proper band, as it were, in that sense with the lead guitar and rhythm guitar, and they take turns and that.  We have done a huge amount of traditional material over the years. Yeah, that’s been our sort of our remit. That’s our base if you like. But then you always move away from it and then move back to it. That’s kind of what you do with traditional music. It acts as a sort of foundation, and you kind of then move from that to whatever you’re going to do. And sometimes you take it with you and sometimes you don’t.

When you first started out what was the first traditional song you remember learning and singing and why did it resonate with you?

I think I learned ‘The Lark In The Morning’, as the first traditional song which I learned at school. We did it with Steeleye, but only because I found it in the English folk song journals. And then I thought oh, it’s the proper folk song. I didn’t like school versions of things they were a bit straight but Lark in the Morning, fantastic song that Miss Macy taught us. She also taught us John Barleycorn but never explained that it was about beer!

There’s a lot of violence in the traditional songs and in children’s nursery rhymes. There’s quite a lot of violence in those and particularly lullabies and Grimms fairy tales  are always quite dark.

How did you start the singing and music schools you now run?

Well, it started because my mother came to live with me and I live in the middle of nowhere and I think looking out the window and only seeing sheep was a bit much so. So I thought that I could run courses without necessarily being residential, which we weren’t then. We ran them and people stayed elsewhere and it was very largely because my mother was there and I thought I should be at home more as well. Then when my mother passed it just kind of carried on. I realised that I really like teaching.

There’s a massive group of young people now that have been raised by my generation of folk enthusiasts. They are aficionados of folk music now, and they know a lot about it. They know all about the old traditional singers and they’re very much into the academic side of it all, which is fascinating.

Folk clubs were very important when Steeleye were starting out?

Well, it depended on what sort of folk club it is. They were all very different. A lot back in the day were in pubs. But that doesn’t happen so much anymore because the pubs have changed their nature. There used to be the snug and they’d be the public bar, whereas now it’s all one, so there’s no room for singing anymore. Most of them tend to perform in small arts centres and things like that, and a lot more of the folk music goes on in festivals. Festivals are very strong.

You have your own festival, Forgotten Lands.

Yeah, it’s lovely. It’s in the field next to my house.

We’ve had some lovely festivals. It’s very small. All very safe and secure. You know what I mean? It’s in one field and it’s very bijou.

Turning back to the tour you’ve got in November and December. How do you decide which venues you go to? Do you tend to go to the same ones?

Well, we don’t decide, John Dagnall books it for he’s the manager. And he basically puts out that that we’re going on tour at that time and he arranges it with the various venues. He tries to make it so that we’re not going up and down the country all the time. You know there’s always two or three long drives, but he works it out  and he knows all the people at the venues. He knows the sort of venues we play.

Steeleye play quite different sized venues don’t they?

Yes we do. The Cadogan we do regularly that’s sort of become our London gig and quite often we finish a tour there which works for us. We then all go in our different directions. A couple of people in London, couple of people in Hastings and a couple of us are up in in north Cumbria.

When you started out with Tim Hart and formed Steeleye, I assume you never thought you’d still be doing it all these years later?

Well no, I don’t know what I thought we would be doing. I didn’t think about it at all back then.

I did a week in a Wimpy bar for £10 and a gig on my own with the banjo for £8 and I thought I’ll do this for a bit and that was because you could do that then. You didn’t have to make a decision about your life, you kind of bumbled along and it kind of happened. Whereas now I think people have to plan and think about how they’re going to approach life and work and things.

Yes, there’s a lot more pressure on young people now, especially on musicians starting out now. I have seen some excellent young musicians at the folk gigs in Harwell Village and you think, how can you make a living out of this because you’re going all around the country and the expense of it?

Yeah. I mean, when we first started, of course, there weren’t that many playing folk. People said, why don’t you get a proper job? Now this is the proper job. This is what people would like to do full time but it’s always been hard to do it full time. You’ve got to commit and of course we made no money at the beginning. It gradually built up. But Tim and I working around the folk clubs, we didn’t make a fortune, but we made enough.

It is that drive that keeps you going, because you obviously love the music and love the performing side of it?

Yeah. I mean, it’s great. It’s great making music with great musicians and I’ve always worked with really good people. So, it’s been fantastic. I mean, what’s not to like?

You toured with the Carnival Band but that finished last year?

Yes. Well, we’re not going to do any more Christmassy things because they’ve all got families and they want to be at home, and that makes sense. And they’re kind of more classical players and classical minded. You know what I mean? So that’s slightly different world. They think slightly differently. But I suspect we’ll do something. Maybe, maybe not. I don’t know. Like I say, we’ve kind of roll with the punches, really.

On the new album you have ‘Low Flying’ which is a great song, very poppy and you can almost imagine that being on daytime radio, but perhaps not what you’d expect from a folk band?

Yeah and because it was written in the 80s. I’ve now decided that anything written in the 80s is now traditional because all the references on that, people don’t know them anymore. Young people will have no idea what you’re talking about.

We brought in those songs of Rick’s – like ‘Genocide’ – because they’re now history and still relevant.

I think in the folk world you’ve got to have an interest in history. It comes with the territory and also its all about the way people behave, what they do and that doesn’t change. The folk ballads are about human nature.

Honey Bee is another unusual song on Conflict with its ska beat.

It is ska. I was into Prince Buster in early days. When I was a mod.

Well, it’s gone out outside our remit a bit on that album, but the one before it, ‘Green Man’, I think was more in our line but, you know, there’s always a few tracks that are on the edge. But I think that’s what keeps the health and longevity of Steeleye.

Steeleye have worked with many musicians including Ian Anderson, David Bowie, Francis Rossi. Who did you most enjoy working with?

Oh well, they were all interesting in different ways. I mean, Ian is great ’cause he’s kind of been there throughout because we were on Chrysalis together right at the beginning. He produced my first solo album and so we’ve kind of got a connection. That goes back a long way and he’s a great performer and great musician and writer. I love his writing.

Those two albums Songs From The Wood and Heavy Horses, both brilliant albums. They took the English quality and made something else of it.

What sort of set list can fans expect on the upcoming tour?

There’ll be some of Conflict on inevitably, but also we’ll be looking at the back catalogue and seeing which songs everybody fancies doing because for some of them it’s all new.

There’s a lot of it to listen to, so they have a listen and see which ones they like. I put some forward as well. In the few weeks before the tour we start emailing about what we’re gonna do and what we think we’d like to do. Who’s gonna sing it? You know, that sort of thing. We do three or four days rehearsals before every tour.

Going back to your solo stuff because you’ve done several solo albums and you also did the Silly Sisters with June Tabor in 1976

I’ve always had another string to the bow, if you like.  I did some work with Nick Holland and Troy Donockley. I loved the material that we did and we had longer pieces as well which was a different thing for me. I  worked with Giles Lewin and John Kirkpatrick, then I did music with Hannah James and Giles (2012, 2017).

We’re looking to do something with Jon Boden.  He came to our festival. We did some Tim Hart and Maddy songs which was lovely.  I’m looking to do a bit of work with Spud (Andrew Sinclair, Steeleye’s guitarist), who lives up this end. We’re looking to do some work together next year maybe. I’ve always got something on the go.

Would you consider doing other solo album or do you prefer, like you say, working with other musicians?

I’ve always worked with other people. I am a team player.

Interview by Jason Ritchie

Album review (Conflict, 2025)

2025 UK tour dates -

Sun 16th November The Queen’s Hall Edinburgh 01316 682019
Mon 17th November St Luke’s Glasgow 01415 528378
Wed 19th November The Phoenix Theatre Blyth 01670 367228
Thu 20th November The Platform Morecambe 01524 582803
Fri 21st November Preston Playhouse Theatre Preston 03336 663366
Sun 23rd November The Tung Auditorium Liverpool 0151 794 1500
Mon 24th November The Witham Barnard Castle 01833 631107
Tue 25th November Kings Hall Ilkley 01274 432000 Buy Tickets
Wed 26th November Corn Exchange Theatre Stamford 01780 766455
Sat 29th November The Beacon Wantage 01235 763456
Mon 1st December Borough Theatre Abergavenny 01873 850805
Tue 2nd December St George’s Bristol 01179 294929
Wed 3rd December Cheese & Grain Frome 01373 455420
Thu 4th December Farnham Maltings Farnham 01252 745444
Sat 6th December Medina Theatre Isle of Wight 01983 823884
Mon 8th December The Sub Rooms Stroud 01453 796880
Tue 9th December The Haymarket Basingstoke 01256 844244
Wed 10th December Ropetackle Arts Centre Shoreham 01273 464440
Thu 11th December The Spa Pavilion Felixstowe 01394 284962
Sat 13th December Revelation Ashford 07548 679199
Mon 15th December The Stables Milton Keynes 01908 280800
Tue 16th December The Y Theatre Leicester 01162 557066
Wed 17th December The Apex Bury St Edmunds 01284 758000
Fri 19th December Cadogan Hall London 02077 304500

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