When I told one acquaintance how excited I was to be seeing Steeleye Span in concert, they stared at me for a moment and then exclaimed “ but won’t they all be really old now?” “What, like the Rolling Stones?” I replied.

The worldwide reputation or otherwise of any band makes no difference to the numbers on those birth certificates, but one thing Steeleye Span proved on Tuesday night was that age is really a state of mind and actually they’re still playing like they did in their thirties.

The tour is celebrating a collaboration with author Terry Pratchett, who has been a self-confessed “Spanner” all his adult life and whose novel “The Wintersmith” is the source of inspiration for the new Steeleye Span album of the same name. Tonight’s performance was a carefully crafted weave of the new material with Spanner’s favourites, as songs like “Black Jack Davey” and “Thomas the Rhymer” gaining rapturous applause, but new songs including “Crown of Ice” and “The Summer Lady” were almost equally well received.

The addition of the rounded tones of newcomer Julian Littman to the line-up has added an extra dimension to an already accomplished string of voices, but one of the biggest stars of the show was Jessie May Smart, whose virtuoso violin performance provided an irresistible counterpoint to every melody had me wishing that the Barbican Centre didn’t have a no dancing policy at seated gigs!

And THE voice, the piercingly sweet and melodic tones of the one and only Maddy Prior? They are still there, a little raspier from a lifetime of singing in pubs and clubs, but the voice of Maddy Prior has lost none of its flexibility, she still has the power to stir the hairs on the back of your neck. A great performance from a truly inspirational band, whose fusion of folk, rock (and even a small rap written by Alex Kemp, Maddy Prior and Rick Kemp’s son) never ceases to please and who have added another great body of work to add to my already burgeoning Steeleye Span shelf

Review by Alison Spaven