Good Times of Old England

Span are still a touring and recording band, like their 70s folk-rock compatriots Fairport, and a good portion of their repertoire still draws its strength from the albums collected in this 12-CD box set of their Chrysalis catalogue, spanning 1972-1983, from the rugged Below the Salt to the fade-out that was Sails of Silver in 1980, co-founder Tim Hart’s last turn with the band. Between we get eight studio albums with a sprig or two of tasty extras, including alternate takes, instrumental versions and singles. Then there are the four live albums, finest among them a 1974 set from the Rainbow, and 1978’s brilliant Live at Last that featured the return of Martin Carthy, accompanied by squeezebox king John Kirkpatrick. The studio album that preceded it, Storm Force Ten, is one of this set’s revelations, and one of their most powerful albums.

The famous top-ten hit ‘All Around My Hat’ may be their calling card when it comes to taking their place at the banquet of music history, but there are lesser-known treasures aplenty, and the hours of music here include definitive interpretations of ‘Sheepcrook and Black Dog’, ‘Thomas the Rhymer’, ‘Alison Gross’ and ‘Fighting for Strangers’, and while some albums do contain filler (‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’, anyone?) they also contain strange wonders, and star turns from Peter Sellers (‘New York Girls’) as well as from one D Bowie (prior to his Diamond Dogs tour) playing mellifluous sax on ‘To Know Him is to Love Him’. If you have a taste for crunchy folk-rock imbued with glam and pop aesthetics, the £40 or so spent on Good Times of Old England will repay dividends time and again.