HOW A GOON CAME TO PLAY UKULELE FOR STEELEYE SPAN

By Colin Irwin

© Melody Maker
26 October 1974

Part 1

It was like the coming of a new Messiah. Everyone sat around nervously awaiting the arrival of HIM, the man who was gonna make this recording session a Very Special Occasion. The sort of stuff to make a rock legend. A real happening. No one in the band seemed to believe it. There they were, little ol' Steeleye Span who’d started out some five years ago as a bunch of folkies with nothing much but a few new ideas. But here they were recording their seventh album and HE was going to be on it.

They'd all got to the studio early in honour of his coming, and they sat around talking amongst themselves until conversation dried up and they just waited HE's late, fiddler Peter Knight observed, and doubts began to creep in about whether he’d make an appearance at all. Knight told a joke which wasn't very funny, but it whiled away a couple of minutes, and Maddy Prior spilled her drink.

Then they decided to play the tracks through again it was ‘New York Gals’ a famous shanty sometimes known as "Can't You Dance The Polka," given an entirely new bouncy treatment full of saucy touches and vintage Maddy back-up harmonies. There's a break in the vocals somewhere in the middle, and that's where HE‘s going to come in and transform the album. That's if HE turns up...

But the fears are unfounded. The word goes round quickly and a tremor of excitement is felt in the studio. It's HIM. And sure enough, in strides Steeleye's manager Jo Lustig, followed by the man himself - Peter Sellers. The introductions are formal and polite, Steeleye look in awe at Sellers. This is, really the man who had them all on their backs laughing, The Pink Panther, The Wrong Arm of the Law, The Man with a Girl in his Soup.

Yes, this tanned, fit-looking gent is really Sellers, fresh from another successful hearing at the divorce courts. Incredibly Sellers seemed diffident, even apprehensive He's not completely new to the recording studios, after all he's had a couple of big hits in the past with Sophia Loren, not to mention the Goons. But this is still a long way from his normal avenue of activity and sitting in with a rock band (even a traditional based rock hand) is an entirely different matter to cutting a novelty comedy record.

He's here because Bob Johnson of Steeleye saw Sellers playing ukulele in a film once and thought the solo in the middle of "New York Gals" would he an ideal part for him. It was just what they needed to give the track an extra bit of impetus - the reasons Sellers has been asked to play with Steeleye are, of course, purely artistic Who was the cad that suggested it mightn't be a bad publicity gimmick, either?

Sellers was happy to agree to do the session. He has a long and deep interest in music, at one time playing drums in a band. It didn't need much to persuade him to bring his ukulele along to this session, even if he hadn't previously been too well-versed with the intricacies of Steeleye Span's music.

There are a few self conscious jokes as Sellers unveils his Martin ukulele and then he settles down to listen to the track and hear what they want him to do. He listens impassively and at the end of it, mutters "Hmmm" The others wait for his verdict and finally he say. "Okay, let's see if I can do it," and picks up his ukulele. There's trouble with tuning the instrument in the right key, but through a systematic process of slowing and speeding the track to make the tuning fit, they finally get it right.

Sellers plays his part adequately enough and gets more ambitious as his confidence grows and he finds that over in the sound room they like what they hear. Eventually there's no holding him. Give him his head and he'll dominate the whole track. He's already given word to postpone an appointment with Vogue until another day and you get the impression he wouldn't mind the chance to have a go at some of the other tracks as well.

Earlier there had been some discussion amongst the members of the hand as to whether they could possibly ask him to do a bit of Goonery as well. They decided they couldn't, but it didn't matter for as he tired of playing the same ukulele piece over and over again, Sellers suddenly launched into "Play that matelot, Min"

By the end of the session the track was filled with strange sounds and quick fire cracks, almost obscuring Maddy's backing voice. Hilarity broke out in the studio, Peter Knight, who had been playing a leading role in the production operation, had to leave his seat he was laughing so much, and the others were falling about similarly.

Even Maddy didn't seem too concerned about the smothering of her voice. It makes you wonder what this lot are goona do next. They had David Bowie playing sax on one track on the last album and their stage act has become a showpiece for the unexpected, from the theatrical rock 'n' roll medley encore to the mummers play introduced on their last tour.