Gone to Australia: On Tour 1975-1984 [Import, Live]

Steeleye Span | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 1, 2001)
• Original Release Date: 1975
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import, Live
• Label: Raven [Australia]
• ASIN: B00005NHND
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #387,528 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Black Jack Davey

2. Sails Of Silver

3. Let Her Go Down

4. Alison Gross

5. Barnet Fair

6. Gone To America

7. Longbone

8. Bach Goes To Limerick

9. All Around My Hat

10. Gaudete

11. Sligo Maid

12. Cam Ye O'er Frae France

13. Bachelor's Hall

14. Blackleg Miner

15. Spotted Cow/Sailor's Bonnet

16. Thomas The Rhymer

17. The Mason's Apron

18. Sun Waves/The Devil's Dream

Editorial Reviews

Expanding on the rare & elusive 1983 Australian-only 'On Tour' LP, 'Gone To Australia' includes the remixed tracks from that album, plus previously unreleased live performances of such Steeleye favorites as 'Barnet Fair', 'Cam Ye O'er Frae France', 'Black Leg Miner', 'Thomas The Rhymer' & 'The Mason's Apron'. The set is rounded out by 'Sum Waves'/The Devil's Dream' from a 1975 live performance that was painstakingly restored from the ultra-rare & only surviving acetate of this recording. Includes deluxe 12 page color booklet featuring rare photos & detailed liner notes by band members Maddy Prior & Peter Knight.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Loudness war to the extreme, March 8, 2010

By 

Pedro Corbett (Rio de Janeiro, BRAZIL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gone to Australia: On Tour 1975-1984 (Audio CD)

This album is one of the most regrettable examples of extreme "loudness war" mastering I have ever had the displeasure of analyzing. Besides the usual absurd raising of volume levels with complete disregard to the dynamics of the songs, there are nothing less than 24477 clipped samples on the left channel and 18536 on the right channel. This happens when the sound levels go beyond the limits of the audio CD specifications and parts of the sound wave are "cut off" - or, in other words, the waveform literally flatlines and any sound at those points is simply lost. Even in the parts where clipping does not occur, the absurd raising of the sound levels results in some very uncomfortable listening. Again, these audio "engineers" should definitely go work in some other field more adequate to their abilities like dog walking or whatever, where they can't slaughter music like they have done here.

4.0 out of 5 stars A Great Live Band, March 1, 2006

By 

Michael L. Knapp (Placerville, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gone to Australia: On Tour 1975-1984 (Audio CD)

Steeleye Span is & has been a great live band but you couln't quite tell so by their live recordings. Gone To Australia is another good but flawed live album. Like Tonight's The Night, Live at Last & the Journey there is great material but the emphasis seems to be on slower songs. This CD is worth having, but probably not as an introduction. To personally solve the problem I just made a compillation disk of the live material & got one great car CD.

3.0 out of 5 stars not the best song selection, August 11, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Gone to Australia: On Tour 1975-1984 (Audio CD)

Hard-rock intensity indeed! I`m sure that fans of HARD-rock would dismiss Horslips just as readily as fans of folk-ROCK, like our earlier contributor, might write-off Steeleye Span.
Horslips, and the other bands mentioned, are not in the same genre as Steeleye Span, anyway, so what`s the point in comparing.

Gone To Australia is not a good introduction to Steeleye Span, in my opinion, as it contains too many tracks from the album Sails of Silver(1980), on which most of the tracks were self-penned and, admittedly, writing purely original material, as opposed to adaptations of traditional songs, was not their forte.
The sound quality is mostly good, though(unlike on a certain Horslips live album). There are good versions of some of the Seventies material.
Steeleye Span never purported to be heavy-rockers. I discovered Steeleye Span`s music only quite recently, after having been raised on rock music(incl. Horslips) since I was a kid, and I find the lack of long and showy guitar solos refreshing. The subtlety and restraint with with this band has always approached its music is to be admired, and guitarist Bob Johnson could make just as much noise as any of the folk-ROCKers if he had so chosen. But he didn`t so choose.
Time after time, year after year, Steeleye Span has somehow managed to take old, forgotten and obscure songs and adapt them in such a way that even though they are completely re-invented, the way in which it has been done is so subtle as to fool the unknowing into thinking that the Steeleye version is the original version! That`s how good they are. But what the uninformed don`t realise is that so many of the songs that Steeleye recorded over the years had never been recorded before, even acoustically. If it weren`t for bands like Steeleye Span and Fairport Convention, all of these wonderful songs would still be hidden away in dusty old manuscripts.
Anyway, the point is this, it is patently ludicrous to slate a band like Steeleye Span, who after all gave this wonderful musical heritage back to the people, just because they don`t sound like Horslips, a band who, to be fair, were pretty hit-and-miss, possibly more hit than miss. At least Steeleye Span always knew what they wanted to do, and they got on with it consistently over the years.
So, if you don`t appreciate Steeleye Span and would prefer to listen to Dearg Doom whilst playing air-guitar in front of a mirror(LOL), you have every right to do so. But don`t compare the two, please. Any band who would concoct, play, record, and release the likes of Short Stories-Tall Tales is not worthy of comparison with the sophisticated musicians that are Steeleye Span.
By the way,for anyone new to, but interested in Steleye Span, the best albums are those from 1972-1978 inclusive. Also, Tonight`s the Night, and In Concert, are good live albums.