When Steeleye Span ended their most recent tour with a sold-out show at Cadogan Hall in London, they began it with The Green Man, a song about environmental concerns written by their former guitarist Bob Johnson that had been lost for 40 years and never performed or recorded until 2023. It was a poignant reminder of the key role that Johnson, who has died aged 79, played in Steeleye’s lengthy history as a band that took folk-rock to the charts and into large concert halls around the world.
Johnson was a rock guitarist with a background in blues and folk, and he fused those influences to provide new melodies or arrangements for epic traditional ballads such as Thomas the Rhymer, Long Lankin or Tam Lin that became crucial to Steeleye’s sound and success.
He joined Steeleye Span in 1972 at the suggestion of the band’s fiddle player, Peter Knight, during what seemed to be a difficult time for the group. Two of their most distinguished and popular members, Ashley Hutchings and Martin Carthy, had just left, and Johnson was then largely unknown, as was the new bass player, Rick Kemp. Their arrival, as their singer Maddy Prior said, “changed it completely – we became much more of a rock band”.
Below the Salt, the first album from the new lineup, featured Johnson’s fresh version of the traditional song King Henry, along with Gaudete, an a capella carol that he had heard sung in church, and which became a hit single, reaching No 14 in the charts. The new Steeleye brought traditional songs to a new audience around the world as they toured extensively in the US backing major rock bands including Procol Harum, Jethro Tull and the Beach Boys.
They also acquired a rock scene manager, Tony Secunda, who loved publicity stunts. During their Australian tour in 1975 he caused outrage by announcing an unusual contest that was open only to women, with first prize being the opportunity to spend 12 hours after a show with the male band member of their choice. There was fury in the press and a government minister tried to cancel the concert, but it went ahead anyway – and the winner chose Johnson. However, there was no scandal to report afterwards: she brought her boyfriend along, and all three of them left after a few drinks and a polite chat.
Exhausted by the touring, Johnson left the band to work with Knight on a 1977 concept album, The King of Elfland’s Daughter, based on the 1924 fantasy novel by Lord Dunsany. Johnson and Knight were joined by a star cast that included Christopher Lee and the blues hero Alexis Korner, but it was not a commercial success. “It was a lovely project and completely Bob’s idea,” said Knight, “but the record company had no intention of promoting it.”
Johnson re-joined Steeleye for the 1980 album Sails of Silver, but by now folk-rock was out of fashion, swept away by punk and disco. The band’s schedule was far less hectic, allowing him to study for a degree in clinical psychology at Warwick University, followed by an MA at the University of Hertfordshire and occasional work as an occupational therapist in Harley Street. Ill health forced him to leave Steeleye once again in 2002, but he returned to contribute two songs and guest vocals for the band’s 2013 concept double-album, Wintersmith, which was based on stories by the author Terry Pratchett, a Steeleye fan.
Born and brought up in Clapham, south London, Bob was the son of Chella, a music teacher, and Leonard Johnson, a salesman who had been invalided out of the army. He went to Westminster City grammar school, where he met his lifelong friend Wally Demel, with whom he went to folk clubs, singing whenever the opportunity arose. Leaving school in the early 60s after taking his O-levels, he played in a variety of bands, including with Paul Raven (later known as Gary Glitter) and PJ Proby. He met Knight, who moved into the Maida Vale flat he shared with Demel, and in 1968 they began playing around the folk clubs as a duo while he worked by day as a cleaner.
When Knight went off to join Steeleye in 1970, their partnership ended, but Johnson kept up his playing, and in early 1972 recorded an album with the dulcimer player Roger Nicholson.
By then he was married to his first wife, Jane Loveless, and, mindful that the music industry was not providing him with a decent income, had found new work as a computer programmer.
With a decent office job in his possession, he was initially reluctant to join Steeleye when the invitation came. “He said: ‘I can’t – I go to the office now,’” said Loveless. “But I said: ‘Of course you must join,’ and he did, eventually.” It was the right decision, for as Knight pointed out, Steeleye Span was the “perfect vehicle for his interest in traditional music and rock, and once he joined, he didn’t want to do anything else”.
He is survived by his second wife, Mandy (nee Horlock), an artist whom he married in 2001, and by his children, Holly and Barnaby, from his first marriage, which ended in divorce in 1996.
• Bob Johnson, musician, born 17 March 1944; died 15 December 2023
