Steeleye Span
September 2, 1987 (late show)--Nightstage, Cambridge,Massachusetts
Audience Recording, 1st generation, (master not kept, uncirculated, this is the lowest generation available)

Sony Walkman Pro WD-6 using an AIWA CM-70 tie-clip style stereo microphone.
recorded by harwilmer


Padstow
Lady Diamond
White Man
Isabel
Take My Heart

Canon by Telemann
Betsy Bell and Mary Gray
Hard Times of England
One Misty Moisty Morning
Came Ye O'er Frae France
Encore:
All I Have to Do Is Dream
All Around My Hat
instrumental (help needed with title)
blues jam

Maddy Prior, Peter Knight, Bob Johnson, Nigel Pegrum, Mark Williamson

Clearly a Back in Line tour show, although, we already have 2 songs from Tempted and T ried. The big positives of this show are the great sound (Nightstage was a nice intimate venue prepared to deliver inter/national touring acts of folk, jazz, and blues with great sound to the "older" club going market), AND the band seemingly being happy and light-hearted. The big problem here from my vantage point is that Mark Williamson seems to clearly be a "hired gun" on bass, a musical mercenary, as evidenced by his token cameo performance of the Everly Brothers tune and the blues jam at the end, not to mention various R&B-ish affectations in the background vocals (only a few, but you will know exactly where to place the blame). He played bass well, they must have needed him on short notice, but you knew he didn't belong, and was not going to be around the next time you heard from our friends. That said, this show did wonders for my appreciation of the Back in Line material, and it now ranks up there as one of my favorite Steeleye Span albums without qualification. I think when it came out it had such a generic 80's production, that you wondered what Span was thinking, or if they weren't at all. Years later, it doesn't sound any more, or less, dated than anything else, and therefore the production is fairly neutral in my ears, leaving a very strong cycle of songs that sound great individually and even better as a whole album. But, listen for yourself: hear the performances of the songs offered (and then go back and listen to the album, too). There seemed to be some technical problems, and some of the light-heartedness gets a little sloppy in places. But, this was a really small club, and the audience was all right in intimate proximity of the band. I would love to hear what happened in the early show, to get some idea of how the setlists complemented each other, or not. Oh, yeah, there is also "a laugher"; you'll know who I mean...