The support band is really odd, I mean she is just downright weird. Laura J Martin is like a one woman marching band, playing the flute part over pre-recorded noises, layered singing and some pretty good beats. The engineer struggles a bit with the sound, probably because it is all routed through a looper but she is generally well received, even if it is jsut because the girl is quite clearly insane!

Given the strangeness of the first act, I might be forgiven for wondering whether we were in for more weirdness, whether Alice Russell has taken on a bizarre new DIY direction, but with a blast of furious funk her band debunks my fears and almost literally raises the roof. She seems to have boundless energy and her band is tight and funky.

And the voice is HUGE. There are classic 70s soul-type songs, 80s electro-funk and pure disco and everybody dances like crazy people. I've seen her perform with other people, but here singing her own songs Ms Russell is fearsome, a crowd-pleasing dervish of frightening power who can make you laugh out loud one minute and close to tears the next.

The gig inspires me to seek out her albums, Pot of Gold is the most recent and it is only okay, more laid-back than the live experience and a bit too RnB for my tastes, but on the other hand I really enjoy her 2005 album My Favourite Letters.

On the way home, there is a bible on the seat of the bus.

The well known song All Around My Hat doesn't make an appearance until the encore and I just can't get this little shouty voice out of my head. They must have had to play this song at every gig since 1975 and you can only imagine what it must feel like after thirty-four years. Of course the song itself is much, much older than that, but in this place, given it's folk-rock interpretation, all I can think is Maddy Prior thinking Thirty-four Fscking years! Every gig for Thirty-four Fscking years!

But this is Steeleye Span , legends of the electric guitar-tinged folk tune, playing a variety mix of prog-folk, trad. folk, 80's-folk, even a bit of cringeworthy country-folk. They are no strangers to the reworked tune or playing a song that's hundreds of years old as if they've just invented it. Some of the music does seem very dated, but this is the stuff that sounds like every band did in the 80's - all clean power chords, pads and strings. It's a weird mixture of styles and eras (I'm not a big Span groupie so I don't know all the songs) but there is certainly some good epic story-telling, impressive fiddle-work, a few jigs and reels and Maddy Prior's phenomenal voice, just as powerful as it always was.

Certainly the audience (primarily of a 'certain age') are enjoying themselves, singing along and getting involved. The usual sort of crowd smugness abounds, as fans outdo each other in lyrical knowledge and generally it is a good night, though somehow not as electrifying as it should be.