STEELEYE SPAN – ALL AROUND MY HAT LP – Nr MINT A1/B1 UK 1975 FOLK

Steeleye Span – All Around My Hat
(Chrysalis Records  1975  CHR1091)
Matrix No’s: A1/B1 – UK Pressing

Sleeve in Excellent+ condition
– some wear to edges and small split in the bottom
Inner Sleeve has splits
Insert in Nr MINT condition

Vinyl in Nr MINT condition
(there are some surface marks visible on the vinyl when held up to the light but they don’t affect the sound quality)

Steeleye Span are an English folk rock band formed in 1969. Still active today, along with Fairport Convention, they are amongst the best known acts of the British folk revival, and were among the most commercially successful, thanks to their hit singles “Gaudete” and “All Around My Hat”. They had four Top 40 albums and achieved a certified gold record with sales of “All Around My Hat”.

Throughout their history, Steeleye Span have seen many personnel changes. Their typical album is a collection of mostly traditional songs with one or two instrumental tracks of jigs and/or reels added; the traditional songs often include some of the Child Ballads. In their later albums there has been an increased tendency to include music written by the band members, but they have never moved completely away from traditional music, which draws upon pan-British traditions.

All Around My Hat is a 1975 album by Steeleye Span, their eighth and highest-charting, reaching number 7 on the UK Albums Chart, and staying on the charts for six months. It briefly made the band a household name in the UK. In the United States it became the band’s first album to chart, reaching number 143.

The title track was Steeleye Span’s highest-charting single, reaching number 5 in the UK Singles Chart, with “Black Jack Davy” as a B-side. In 1976 the single “Hard Times of Old England” was issued as a single.

The song “Dance with Me” is a version of a Scandinavian ballad Herr Olof och Älvorna.

The album cover and back was designed by John ‘Connor, a friend of Hart’s, using an anamorphic projection that distorted the facial features of the band members but which looks correct when viewed from the side through special pinholes in the lyric sheet.

Track listing

1. “Black Jack Davy“
2. “Hard Times of Old England”
3. “Cadgwith Anthem”
4. “Sum Waves”
5. “The Wife of Ushers Well“
6. “Gamble Gold (Robin Hood)”
7. “All Around My Hat”
8. “Dance With Me”
9. “Batchelors Hall”

Personnel

• Maddy Prior – vocals
• Tim Hart – guitar, vocals, dulcimer
• Bob Johnson – guitar, vocals
• Rick Kemp – bass guitar, vocals
• Peter Knight – violin, vocals, mandolin
• Nigel Pegrum – drums, flute