“A showcase for wondrous mandolin and banjo… and the the majesty and clarity of Maddy Prior’s voice”: Steeleye Span’s 50th anniversary edition of Now We Are Six

Nodding at AA Milne’s children’s poetry book of the same name, 1974’s Now We Are Six was Steeleye Span’s sixth LP, and the record which saw their folk go folk rock. When former Uriah Heep man Nigel Pegrum left a Worcestershire commune to join the drummerless Steeleye, their intricate sound got much beefier.

“When I auditioned, every one of Steeleye looked like a superstar,” Pegrum reveals in sleeve notes for this handsome reissue, flagging a glamour not often associated with folk. “They were covered in silver and turquoise Navajo jewellery and looked a million bucks.”

Steeleye sounded like a million bucks too. Brilliantly engineered by Robin Black, fresh from working on Lou Reed’s Berlin, Now We Are Six is home to such Steeleye classics as Thomas The Rhymer and The Mooncoin Jig – the latter a showcase for the wondrous mandolin and banjo playing of Peter Knight, as ace guitarist Bob Johnson (who died in December 2023) settles in to a delicious choogle.

David Bowie did two takes and was out of there in half an hour

This newly remastered reissue also reminds us of the majesty and clarity of Maddy Prior’s voice. Nobody handles the folk-singing ornamentations known as ‘turns’ better than Steeleye Span’s ace frontwoman.

Playfully, both the title track and the LP’s superfluous version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star were credited to The St Eleye (geddit?) Primary School Junior Choir, though the faux-naïf vocals were the work of Prior and her bandmates. The LP’s other curio, famously, is its version of Phil Spector’s To Know Him Is To Love Him, wherein David Bowie plays decent alto sax.

“He did two takes and was out of there in half an hour,” notes Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson, who recruited Bowie for the session, and was a “production consultant” on the record.

This reissue also features four live recordings drawn from February 1974 sessions for BBC Radio 1’s The Bob Harris Show and Sounds Of The Seventies. The versions of Two Magicians and Thomas The Rhymer, especially, are magnificent.

Now We Are Six (50th Anniversary Edition) is on sale now via Chrysalis.