Tim Hart's comeback tour with Steeleye

[M. Jonas]

I recently announced that Tim Hart is doing a comeback tour with Steeleye
Span after 11 years absence from the music scene and 5 years of goat-farming
on the Canaries. Well, the Cambridge(UK, before you ask) concert was yesterday,
so here I am with a short review. First and most important: Tim hasn't lost
it: his voice is still excellent and his stage presence convincing. It wasn't
actually a full-scale reunion, Hart did a 30-minute solo set as opening act
with a mixture of familiar and "new" songs (i.e. I didn't know them, they
might have been from his 79 solo album), which was very entertaining, then
returned in the middle of the Steeleye set to do two songs from "Summer
Solstice" as a duo with Maddy and finally rejoined Steeleye for the encores
(All Around My Hat, a jig medley and Gaudete). He seemed very confident,
although he complained about the cold English weather and his electronic
guitar tuner ("invented after I left Steeleye"). He was also anxious not
to spill any water on Peter Knight's keyboard ("or I'm on the next flight
back to the Canaries"). All in all this left me hoping he might rejoin
Steeleye for good. I always thought he was the major innovative brain of
the band and his reappearance might help them out of their creative deadlock
of staging annual nostalgia tours.

Oh yes, the rest of the Steeleye set was brillantly performed (Maddy's voice
still gives me the kicks), but unremarkable, being largly identical to last
year's live album. I still think that Cam Ye O'er Frae France is NOT the
right song for a drum solo, but they probably have to do it to keep Liam
Genockey (sp?) happy.

BTW does anybody have Tim's self-titled 79 solo album and can tell me
what's on there and whether it's worth hunting second-hand shops for it?

Martin