Page 102 - Classic Rock (January 2020)

Steeleye Span
Cockney Rejects
It’s biggies all night when the band play a special show in London.
uitarist Mick Greggus
previews the veteran
Gband’s 40th-anniversary
show at which they will play their
Greatest Hits 1 and 2 albums in full
and in sequence.
Did you achieve closure
through the writing of the
book Life After Lloyd, following
the unexpected death of
Rejects bassist Tony ‘Lloyd’
Van Frater?
Yeah, it was cathartic, as back in
2015 it really felt like end of the
band, and that the disaster of Tony’s
death was a signal to disappear into
the ether. But the vengeful master
that is rock’n’roll wasn’t done with
us yet, and it still isn’t.
Why does the book use the word
‘punk’ so sparingly?
I don’t consider us a died-in-the
wool ‘punk’ band. People might
not understand that myself, Jeff
and Vince started as total rock
hounds; we loved Nazareth, Led
Zep, early Queen, Mountain and
early Aerosmith. And when the
Pistols, Stranglers, Gen X and the
Clash came along, we regarded it as
good rock music, just with a slightly
different vibe.
102 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM
Tell us about the violence that
pretty much broke up the
Rejects during the early 1980s.
It was mostly our fault and we
don’t moan about it. We were hard
bastards from hard backgrounds,
and luckily no one got killed. We
still meet fellas today from those
encounters, and we shake hands,
have a beer and put it down to the
exuberance of youth.
In what might be seen as
a radical move, the band brought
in UFO’s Pete Way as a producer,
and even became simply The
Rejects in 1984.
“Rejects gigs are
one big party
these days.”
Look, we were always
experimenters in sound, and after
our two ‘classic’ punk albums we
left that stuff to the imitators who
had sprung up in our wake. Moving
on to what we had always loved,
hard rock, Pete was a natural choice
for producer, as he and I spent many
a stoned night dissecting early ZZ
Top, Free, the Stones et al.
With frontman ‘Stinky’ Turner
evolving into Jefferson Turner,
can you see why some people
resisted the change?
Of course! I bet the hair brigade
thought: “Who are these fucking
’ooligan ’erberts and what the fuck
are they doing on our territory?”
But quietly they loved those fucking
albums! Guilty pleasures, eh?
Have you got a favourite Pete
Way anecdote?
Several years ago Pete and I had
a conversation about the late Steve
Marriott, whom I had been lucky to
work with. When he asked: “Was
Steve still difficult to live with after
he died?” I was speechless.
Should a Classic Rock reader
want to attend a Rejects concert
is it safe for them to do so?
It’s safer than any rock gig. At
a recent farewell show from UFO,
I was mildly amused to see a bunch
of pissed-up, aggressive old geezers
squaring up to each other, flopping
beer everywhere. Rejects gigs are
one big party these days. There’s
never a hint of any trouble. DL
Cockney Rejects play London on
December 14.
There’s a lot more to the
band than All Around My Hat.
e talk to frontwoman Maddy
Prior as the folk-rock veterans
Wwrap up a lengthy tour to
celebrate a half-century as a band.
Fifty almost completely uninterrupted
years of Steeleye Span is quite an
achievement. Is there a secret?
No. We never thought it would last this
long. It wasn’t even a question. When we
began, bands never hung around for more
than a few years. So we kind of made it up
as we went along. The bottom line is that
you must be passionate about the music.
Apart from a hiatus between 1978 and
1980, did the band ever come close to
breaking up?
Yes. It almost disintegrated in about 2013,
and then we perked up again. The music
is really what matters, regardless of who’s
in the band. Back in the 1970s that sort
of thing was much more important. And
we got out of having to make two albums
a year, which helped relieve the pressure.
The anniversary album Est’d 1969 was
very well received. Acknowledging the
past and yet keeping things in the here
and now must have been a challenge?
I think it really helped that we got in some
younger players that don’t really know
much about folk music at all. And it worked
because they approach the songs without
any awareness of tradition.
A hit single can be a blessing and a curse.
Which of those categories does the band’s
1975 revision of the traditional song All
Around My Hat fall into?
It’s a hard one to sing, but it’s definitely been
a blessing. Without it we might not have
survived for this long, and I love the fact that
it got me onto Top Of The Pops.
During the 1990s you guested with Status
Quo on their own version of All Around My
Hat, and even toured with them. Is that
friendship still ongoing?
Absolutely. I’m still in contact with Francis
[Rossi]. What a great bloke he is.
Are Steeleye Span often confused with
Steely Dan?
Oh yes, though it used to happen much
more back in the day. Not so much now,
because Steely Dan aren’t known so well
as they used to be, but back in the 1970s it
happened all the time. DL DOD MORRISON/PRESS
The tour ends in London on December 17.