Steeleye Span are one of the institutions of British folk-rock. Formed in 1969, they are still going today and, tonight, I saw them for the first time live at Loughborough Town Hall. Granted, that isn’t a top flight venue but it is a decent sized one and it was pretty packed, even if I was still safely in the younger half (perhaps even younger quarter) of the audience.

The only original member is Maddy Prior. Unsurprisingly, she looks a little older than she did in her first decade with the band but she maintains her charisma and excellent, wide-ranging voice. All the other members are later replacements but that is why the band deserves the title “institution”; long may it continue, even when Maddy has decided at last to hang up her microphone.

There were plenty of songs I knew well, like Thomas the Rhymer and All Around My Hat, some newer material and some older ones that I probably would know if I was a true dyed-in-the-wool fan. In that latter category, Dogs and Ferrets and Low Flying (the latter actually on an album by Maddy and long-time Span bassist Rick Kemp) are ones that particularly stuck in my mind.