Oct: 55th Anniversary 'Green Man' Tour

Steeleye return for their second tour of 2024, continuing to celebrate their 55th Anniversary and promote the recent album 'The Green Man' Collection (see below). 

PR: " Together for fifty five years now, Steeleye Span changed the face of folk music forever by taking it into the world of gold discs and international tours. New album the Green Man Collection brings together tracks from their recent releases with new versions of three classics (including a reworking of ‘Hard Times’ featuring Status Quo’s Francis Rossi), a cover of Elvis Costello’s ‘Shipbuilding’ and the title track, a previously lost Bob Johnson song from the 1980s"

Excellent and detailed interview with Maddy Prior ahead of the tour: https://elgiva.com/maddy-prior-interview/

Set List (Thanks to Steve Calvert, Jonathan Lee at Hexham & David Tomlinson at Whitley Bay)
As always a fascinating set list, and after the last couple of tours being quite consistent, 12 songs are dropped and 3 completely new to Steeleye songs feature.  Once again some rarely played old songs are included, principally 'The Victory', from 'Storm Force Ten' having not been heard live since 1978. 'Longbone' from Sails of Silver, a Bob Johnson song, gets a first play since 1999. 700 Elves, although did appear on the two 2011 'Now We Are Six Again' tours, only previously appeared on the original 1974 'Now We Are Six' tour, and similarly for The Mooncoin jig', a very rarely played jig. 'Dodgy Bastards' album tracks get an airing again - Cromwell's Skull, Bad Bones and the title track tune all feature. As expected the latest release 'Green Man Collection' features along with ongoing favorites of this line up: 'Little Sir Hugh', King Henry, The Dark Morris Song & Thomas the Rhymer. 

Perhaps most interestingly are a further 3 new to Steeleye songs – ‘I was an Oak Tree’ (written by Jonathan Byrd); ‘Ghost Ship’ and ‘The Trees are Whispering’, to add to the other new songs played on the last couple of tours. The latter two sound like new original songs and are all destined for the new Album in the Spring, which is being trailed as having a theme of 'Trees' and will be a slight change in direction with more original or contemporary songs based on traditional themes more relevent to today. 'Hat' is once again a cover of a cover - the  'Status Quo' version!

Latest set list below is from Nottingham on. The Dark Morris Song was added after 1st night, At Tewksbury King Henry replaced Tam Lin & Edward replaced Shipbuilding, but the next night in Nottingham Edward was dropped and Thomas the Rhymer added as the pre encore closer. The Mooncoin Jig & Dodgy Bastards also swapped places). Once the set list had settled, 10 albums are represented. 

The Green Man; Little Sir Hugh; Hey Nonny Violence; Longbone; Ghost Ship; 'Tight Budget' (Poem read by Maddy); Dogs and Ferrets; Bad Bones;  My Giddy Aunt; The Victory (Julian on Accordion);   [Interval]
King Henry ; Jack Hall; I was an Oak Tree; The Trees are Whispering; Cromwell's Skull; Seven Hundred Elves; The Mooncoin Jig; The Dark Morris Song; Thomas the Rhymer. Encore: All Around My Hat ( Quo version); Dodgy Bastards.