Now We Are Six Again

I have been a fan of Steeleye Span since 1971, when I obtained their second album `Please To See The King'. Now, in 2011, the band has been producing great Folk Rock music for an impressive period of 42 years.

When I heard that Steeleye Span were going to do a series of concerts where they `revisited' the complete album "Now We Are Six", I had my doubts. Not that the original album wasn't good. On the contrary. It was (and still is) a great album and was a milestone for Steeleye Span in 1974. But the band's personell has changed a lot since then, and besides that, there were a few tracks on the album that - to say the least - not all fans were happy with. I am referring to the two children songs `Now We Are Six' and `Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' and the cover of the Phil Spector song `To Know Him Is To Love Him', which did not fit into the Folk Rock concept at all.

But being a long-time Steeleye Span fan, I bought the album and I was very pleasantly surprised to hear this live registration of the classic album. In my opinion, most of the numbers sound even better than on the original studio album. Maddy Prior's voice has gained warmth an strength over the years. The arrangements of the original recordings are treated with much respect, and `Now We Are Six', and `Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' are appoached in a more serious way and sound far better than the original versions. Especially `Twinkle Little Star'. Maddy is singing not just one verse, like on the studio album, but several other verses as well. Combined with some beautiful violin improvisations by Peter Knight, this has turned into a real `Steeleye' number!

My favourite tracks are `Seven Hunderd Elves', `Drink Down The Moon' and `Long-A-Growing', sung by Maddy with much more power and emotion than on the original studio album.

Peter Zorn and Julian Littman, the `newcomers' to the band, are doing a great job and they 'fit in' amazingly well, as you can hear on the instumental `The Mooncoin Jig'. This almost sounds like a studio recording, but it is live!

I do hope that this `new' Steeleye Span will produce some studio albums soon.

The second CD contains a number of live recordings of long-time Steeleye favorites, but in my personal opinion, we could do without numbers like `All Around My Hat' and `Gaudete'. As good as they are, they are to be found on (almost) every live recording of Steeleye concerts and the band has so much more good material to offer...

All together a great album, and an absolutely marvellous live recording of the classic album `Now We Are Six.' The sound quality is of a high level too! So, go out and buy this. You won't be disappointed!

'Wil Tirion

It is interesting to see that Steeleye have been playing Now We Are Six as a complete piece earlier this year. In the spring of 1974 when they were touring and plugging the album they only played a good half of it. Songs like Seven Hundred Elves, Long and Growing, Twinkle Twinkle, and Now We Are Six were certainly not on the play list. At that time there was a TV programme called Steeleye Span in concert to which they played Seven Hundred Elves and Long and Growing. The new live recording is of a very high standard and does not disappoint, with a bonus disc with new and old favourites. Now Steeleye are back to a six piece band with Julian Littman following the departure of Ken Nicol, and multi-instrumentalist Pete Zorn. Well packaged cd with the song lyrics printed plus notes.

Without giving too much away, let me say the sound quality is excellent and the songs are given new life. The live version of Now We Are Six sounds even better than the original studio album, and the Bonus CD has some wonderful versions of Steeleye classics. The cover art is attractive, but understated. The best part about the cover is that the lyrics to the original album are presented in full with occasional comments from Maddy. And as is usual with Park recordings of live performances, band chatter and audience applause are kept to a minimum.Now We Are Six Again