TIM HUGHES talks to folk legend Maddy Prior of Steeleye Span.

IN a world of fleeting fame, there’s something reassuring about a band that has stuck the course for 40 years.

Formed in 1969, Steeleye Span can justifiably claim to have changed the face of folk by fusing it with rock, layering it with pop and electrifying some of Olde England’s most venerable tunes.

And the key to their success is North Country folkstress Maddy Prior.

The queen of English roots-rock, Blackpool-born Maddy is among England’s greatest musical treasures.

Warm, funny, disarmingly friendly and oozing charm, Maddy has always been folk-rock’s poster girl. And even now, as a 62-year-old grandmother, more than four decades into her career, she is still packing in the crowds both as a solo artist and with Steeleye.

“Steeleye Span are where traditional music and rock collide,” she explains.

“We take old material and put it into a different context. Traditional music is always being revised, and we decided to do it in an electric way.

“Some have done it with reggae, rap and even brass, but we did it with electric guitars and drums.

“Each generation has its own vision and approach and develops new tastes. You have to touch base with what’s real.”

Did she imagine, when she started off as a slip of a girl on the 60s folk club circuit, that what had begun off as a bit of fun would turn into such an impressively long career?

“Oh no!” she laughs. “At the age I started I didn’t even think I would get this old. I worked for a week in a Wimpey bar and earned £10, then did a gig and earned £8. I realised I preferred the gig more, and 45 years on, I have not done a proper day’s work since.”

Taking their eccentric name from a suitably rustic character in a song called Horkstow Grange, Steeleye Span rose to prominence with the help of singer/ guitarist Tim Hart, Ashley Hutchings of North Oxfordshire’s Fairport Convention, and duo Gay and Terry Woods. Since those early days the band has morphed out of all proportion, with members coming and going in a steady stream.

The band’s family tree reads like a Who’s Who of folk, but, at the centre of it all sits Maddy, who this year is celebrating the band’s 40th anniversary with a 30-date birthday tour – arriving at Oxford’s New Theatre on Sunday.

“Steeleye is the backbone of what I’ve done, and has allowed me to try other things. And these gigs are always a highlight,” she says.

The show will see Maddy, who now lives happily in splendid isolation in northern Cumbria, rejoining the now stable line-up of Peter Knight, Liam Genockey and Ken Nicol. Oh, and ex-husband Rick Kemp – the father of her musician daughter Rose Kemp. Which, I suggest, must be a bit weird.

“Well, Rick and I were friends, then got married, and are now friends again,” she explains neatly. “We are where we started, and there is no awkwardness. And we have grandchildren together, so there can’t be.”

Forged during the first modern folk revival in the 60s, Steeleye now find themselves in the midst of another, even cooler rennaisance of British roots music – spearheaded by the likes of Abingdon’s John Spiers, Jon Boden, Eliza Carthy, Seth Lakeman, Jim Moray, Kate Rusby and Rachel Unthank.

“Yes, there is a real folk revival going on,” she says excitedly.

“But it is still not in the mainstream. It is reasonably cool to like folk music now, but 10 years ago it wasn’t. In the 90s folk was the worst thing you could get involved in!

“But it comes in and out of fashion, moving around in an ellipse… never quite getting to the centre and never quite disappearing, though sometimes getting close. But it has been a fantastic journey and the music is so strong. We know it well and it means something to us.”

The show comes at an appropriate time. Steeleye Span have long had a penchant for festive music and much of their success has been at Christmas time.

As well as festive hits All Around My Hat and acapella Latin carol Gaudete, there was seasonal album Winter, and a string of releases with her yuletide spin-off endeavour The Carnival Band – including A Tapestry of Carols, Gold Frankincense and Myrrh and single Stuff – which features, bizaarely, Monty Python’s Terry Jones.

By touring at Christmas, Maddy admits she gets a chance to try songs which would, frankly, sound a bit odd in the summer.

“The only time we have sung our Christmas songs at another time of year was at a festival of religious music in Japan,” she recalls.

“But they just didn’t get it. For one thing, they had a Santa Claus on a cross. They hadn’t quite understood what it was all about. But, then again, I suppose we would struggle with Buddhism.”

Steeleye Span play the New Theatre, Oxford, on Sunday. For tickets call 0844 847 1585. Their 21st studio album, Cogs, Wheels & Lovers, is out now on Park Records.