Steeleye Span are an English folk rock band formed in 1969. Still active today, along with Fairport Convention, they are amongst the best known acts of the British folk revival, and were among the most commercially successful, thanks to their hit singles "Gaudete" and "All Around My Hat". They had four Top 40 albums and achieved a certified gold record with sales of "All Around My Hat". Throughout their history, Steeleye Span have seen many personnel changes.

With their star now conspicuously ascendant, the band brought in producer Mike Batt (best known for his musical association with the Wombles and, more recently, Katie Melua) to work on their eighth album, All Around My Hat, and their biggest success would come with the release of the title track as a single - it reached number 5 in the UK Charts in late 1975. The single was also released in other European countries and gave them a breakthrough in the Netherlands and Germany.  Other well-known tracks on the album included "Black Jack Davy" (sampled by rappers Goldie Lookin Chain on their track "The Maggot") and the rocky "Hard Times of Old England". But while All Around My Hat was the height of the band's commercial success, the good times were not to last long. Despite touring almost every year since 1975, they have not had another hit single, nor any success in the album chart since the late 1970s.  The follow-up album Rocket Cottage (1976), also produced by Batt, proved to be a commercial flop, despite having much in common musically with its immediate predecessor. The opening track, "London", was penned by Rick Kemp as a follow-up to "All Around My Hat", in response to a request from the record label that Kemp describes as "we'll have another one of those, please", and released as a single. The song failed to make the UK Chart, in complete contrast to "All Around My Hat", despite having much in common with its predecessor - a 12/8 time signature, upbeat tempo, solo verses and full harmony chorus. Rocket Cottage also included experimental tracks "Fighting for Strangers" (with sparse vocals singing concurrently in a variety of keys) and, on the final track, excerpts of studio banter between the band members and a seemingly impromptu rendition of "Camptown Races", in which Prior gets the lyrics wrong.  But while their seventh album, Commoners Crown, was one of their most interesting and varied, including the epic "Long Lankin", the advent of punk saw the mainstream market turning away from folk rock almost overnight, heralding a downturn in commercial fortunes for the band. However, as a thank you to their committed fans (and also to possibly to garner some publicity for their underperforming album), Steeleye Span showered attendees of a November 1976 concert in London, England, with the then-equivalent of US$13,600 in British pound notes. The unannounced idea was Maddy Prior's, and--remarkably--no-one was injured in the rush to grab the falling bills. Indeed, contemporary press reports indicated that it took some time for the crowd to even realise what was happening. Thanks to their connection with Mike Batt, band members appeared in Womble costumes on Top of the Pops, performing the Wombles hit "Superwomble".

Ask a question about this article.
How well did the band perform when they brought in the producer Mike Batt and Katie Melua?