MADDY Prior MBE is one of the members and lead singer of British folk-rock band, Steeleye Span.

The 76-year-old singer is one of the founding members of the band, which is best known for songs such as All Around My Hat and Gaudete.

Maddy, who has been performing for most of her life, joined Steeleye Span when she was 23 and has dedicated her life to performing folk-rock music.

Steeleye Span was founded in 1969 and, apart from a brief two-year split, the band has been performing ever since.

While Maddy is the only original member remaining in the band, Steeleye Span continue to make music and perform – including their upcoming 55th anniversary tour, which is coming to Warrington next month.

“We sing wonderful music which is a curious kind of niche thing in a way but it’s music I love, and people clap, and you get paid – what can be better than that,” said Maddy.

“The material is just so powerful, and we have a big repertoire, so [when you perform] you’re never going to get bored.”

Some of the songs the band perform are hundreds of years old and Maddy has enjoyed growing with the music as she has gotten older.

“The songs have a kind of profundity to you and they kind of change with you through life,” she said.

“There's one song, we call it Blackjack David, and when I was young I always thought it was about true love and not caring what the world thought.

“Nowadays I think it’s about a man that’s totally unsuitable for my granddaughter!”

Warrington Guardian: Maddy is looking forward to touring with the band again as it gives her a sense of 'regularity'Maddy is looking forward to touring with the band again as it gives her a sense of 'regularity' (Image: Park Promotions)

Maddy is looking forward to the upcoming tour, which will start on Thursday, May 2 because touring gives her a sense of regularity.

“Going on tour is the most regular my life ever gets because there’s a system to the day, which I don’t get most of the rest of my life,” she said.

“When I get on stage that’s as good as it gets.”

Maddy, who has been performing for most of her life, has had to adapt to new methods to prepare her voice to perform as she gets older.

“I don’t have the body of a 20-year-old, therefore I don’t sing like a 20-year-old – nor would I want to,” she said.

“But I sing differently now, and I like that, it’s a different voice.”

It’s not usual for artists to continue performing for as long as Maddy has but, while she’s proud of the length of her career, it’s the body of music she has created that gives her the greatest sense of achievement.

“I’ve always said that what I’m interested in is a body of work that I’m proud of, and I feel that and a lot of what I’ve done I’m very proud of,

“It’s been different to that which most other people are doing, we kind of formed our own world with Steeleye and nobody else quite does what we do.”

Maddy once referred to Steeleye Span as ‘like a bus’, due to the amount of members that leave, join or return.

She herself left the band in 1997, but returned in 2002 after performing and recording music as a solo artist.

“Steeleye Span is the backbone of what I have done, but it’s not all that I’ve done,” she said.

“The thing about being in a band is what you do in that band, you never do anywhere else.

“You think that you can do the same thing somewhere else, but you don’t – the material is what dominates it.”

Originally from Blackpool, Maddy says she is looking forward to performing up north as it feels like ‘coming home’.

While the audiences of their new tour can’t expect money thrown into the crowd, which the band once did, they can expect new music as well as their hits.

Steeleye Span will perform at Parr Hall on Monday, May 6 at 7.30pm and tickets start at £28.50 – which you can find here.