Steve Ashley

The Steve Ashley TimeLine …

1962 Steve's first appearance is in a folk club in West Drayton, Middlesex, where he sings 'Skewball' and 'John Barleycorn'.

1964-7 Resident singer at Maidstone Folk Club and Medway Folk Club. Vocalist and harmonica player in the art college blues band The Tea Set.

1967 Begins writing songs in the acoustic duo Tinderbox which he forms with guitarist and fellow songwriter, Dave Menday. Duo managed by record producer, Austin John Marshall.

1968 Tinderbox records a single for Polydor, 'Farewell Britannia' with bass player Tony Reeves. The song is a lament for the loss of the image of Britannia from the coinage. However, public outcry results in a reprieve and a place for the lady on the 50 pence piece. The single was never released.

1969 The duo appears on BBC Radio One on John Peel's Night Ride in a session with Shirley Collins before disbanding later in the year. Steve appears on record for the first time, singing harmony vocals on Shirley and Dolly Collins' album for Harvest Records, Anthems in Eden, recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London.

1971 Signs a publishing deal with Harbrook Music and begins recording his first solo album, Stroll On. In a process that lasts three years before its completion, the record features many leading folk rock artists and includes string arrangements for the London Symphony Orchestra by Robert Kirby, who had been making his name with Nick Drake

Anne Briggs covers Steve's 'Fire and Wine' on The Time Has Come (Polydor).

1972 Ashley Hutchings invites Steve to join the first Albion Country Band with other ex-Fairporters, Simon Nicol and Dave Mattacks plus Royston Wood and fiddler Sue Draheim. Shares lead vocals with Royston. 'Fire and Wine' and 'The Spirit of Christmas' are included in repertoire. Band tours the UK and Holland, signs with Island Records, but splits up in November without recording, although they record a session for John Peel.

1973 Steve forms Ragged Robin with Richard Byers, Brian Diprose and John Thompson. They record an album with Anne Briggs, perform at Cambridge Folk Festival and do a residency at Roy Guest's Howff club in London, before the band's retirement in the autumn.

Steve initiates Merlins Folk Club in King's Cross with fellow residents, Richard and Linda Thompson, Simon Nicol, Robin and Barry Dransfield, Lea Nicholson and Richard Byers

1974 Stroll On released on Gull Records to widespread critical acclaim. It wins Contemporary Folk Album Of The Year in the leading folk magazine Folk Review and is recommended as folk album of the year in the Sunday Telegraph.

Steve does half-hour solo concert on BBC Radio One's In Concert programme. British tour support for Supertramp.

1975 Solo British tour support for Planxty. Stroll On is licensed to Motown for US release and Steve does a six week solo tour of the States and Canada, opening for Gene Clark, Chris Hillman Band, Tracey Nelson and Leon Redbone.

Speedy Return recorded and released with orchestration and production by Robert Kirby. Steve completes a UK package tour with Decameron and the Dutch band, Fungus. Gull releases a single 'Old Rock 'n' Roll' with backing from Fairport Convention.

Performs live concert backed by Dave Pegg, Dave Mattacks, Richard Byers and Lea Nicholson on Capitol Radio's Sarah Ward and Friends

'The Spirit of Christmas' is released on Island/Transatlantic folk/folk-rock anthology The Electric Muse.

1976 Performs orchestral concert in Cheltenham with Robert Kirby conducting the arrangements for his settings on Stroll On and Speedy Return.

1977 Performs 'Fire and Wine' and 'Old John England' in BBC1's The People's Echo series with a band comprising, Fairport's Dave Pegg, Richard Byers and drummer, Bob Critchley.

1978 Forms Steve Ashley Band for Rotterdam Folk Festival appearance with ex-Decameron players Dik Cadbury, Al Fenn and Bob Critchley with fiddle player Chris Leslie. Ashley and Leslie begin long partnership, performing together for many years in UK, Holland, Belgium and Germany.

1979 First performance of Steve Ashley's Family Show with Dave Pegg, Simon Nicol, Chris Leslie and Martin Brinsford in Cheltenham. Bruce Rowland joined the line-up for later shows.

Steve and Chris appear at Fairport Convention's final (?) 'Farewell Concert' at Cropredy

1980 Commissioned to write three Henry Lawson settings for the Australian folk-rock band The Bushwackers.

1981 Anti-nuclear Demo Tapes projects recorded and released through CND with sessions from Fairport members, Simon Nicol, Dave Pegg, Bruce Rowland and Chris Leslie. Performs with this line-up at Fairport's 'Broughton Castle Reunion Festival'

Glastonbury Festival performance with Chris Leslie and Bruce Rowland as Steve Ashley and Friends

Arizona Smoke Review covers Steve's song Feelin' Lazy on their A Thundering on the Horizon album

Phil Beer covers Steve's song The Rough With the Smooth on his album Live in Concept

'Down The Pub' released as a single produced by Alan O'Duffy with Bruce Kent and Lord Noel-Baker on the B side. Steve performs this song unaccompanied to 250,000 demonstrators in Hyde Park

1982 Family Album released on Woodworm Records.

1983 More Demo Tapes released.

1984 Dave Pegg covers Steve's song Lonely Are The Journeymen on his solo album The Cocktail Cowboy Goes it Alone

1987 Solo tour of Italy

1990 Mysterious Ways released on Lighthouse/LINE Records.

Steve Ashley Band appears at Cropredy.

Appearance at Cheltenham Literature Festival

1991 Composes songs for Roger Deakin's allotment documentary: The Ballad of the Ten Rod Plot, for Anglia TV.

Records harmonica for Richard Thompson's theme music for the film, Sweet Talker

Steve Ashley Band appears at Cambridge Folk Festival

1992 Temporary retirement from live performance and recording

1995 Composes music for Roger Deakin's Stable Lads TV documentary

1996 Fledg'ling Records release Anne Briggs' album Sing A Song For You featuring Ragged Robin recorded 25 years earlier.

1999 Buckingham Industrial Park Records release a 17-track anthology The Test of Time and the now enhanced Stroll On Revisited. Steve returns to the stage with a performance of 'Fire and Wine' backed by Fairport Convention at Cropredy Festival.

2000-2 Tours UK with Decameron guitarist Al Fenn

2001 Topic Records release Steve's seventh solo album: Everyday Lives.

Steve tours Belgium with Al Fenn

His fifth Fairport festival appearance at Cropredy with Chris Leslie, Maartin Allcock and Al Fenn as Steve Ashley and Friends

2002 'Once In A While' is included in Topic's The Acoustic Folk Box.

2003 Buckingham Industrial Park reissues Speedy Return.

2005 Stroll On listed in 20 collectable Folk Rock Classics in Record Collector

2006 Steve Ashley's Sixtieth: Birthday concert with Fairport friends, Pegg, Nicol and Leslie, an orchestra conducted by Robert Kirby, Ragged Robin, Tinderbox and Steve Ashley Band

'Fire and Wine' and 'The Spirit of Christmas' included in Free Reed Records' Box Set anthology MidWinter

Steve Ashley Live in Concert released by Dusk Fire Records


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