Bob Johnson

Bob Johnson was an associate of Steeleye Period through the band’s most commercially successful period, from 1972 through 1977. Given birth to in 1944, he used the guitar like a young man and had a solid desire for folk music, which drew him in to the early-’60s folk revival in Britain. During the middle-’60s, Johnson created a folk duo with fiddle virtuoso Peter Knight. Between your two, Knight experienced the greater obvious music qualifications given his position like a classically qualified participant, while Johnson later on directed his educational efforts elsewhere, generating a qualification in mindset, which would serve him well many decades later. Both worked jointly through 1970, when Knight became a member of Steeleye Period, which had simply undergone a significant membership modification in the wake of the very first record. Two years afterwards, amid another account shakeup within the music group, Knight brought Johnson in to the lineup being a guitarist and vocalist. He and bassist Rick Kemp got a tough take action to follow, changing folk revival story Martin Carthy as well as the band’s co-founder, Ashley Hutchings, however they quickly carved out a location for themselves one of the group’s burgeoning fandom. Steeleye Period had been relocating a considerably heavier electric path with their audio, and Johnson changing Carthy for the reason that lineup was a little bit like Joe Walsh being successful Bernie Leadon within the Eagles — all of a sudden, rather than one feet in electrical folk music as well as the additional in traditional acoustic noises, Steeleye Period could rock from folk melodies like nobody’s business. You start with the recording Below the Sodium (1972), Steeleye Span’s heaviest electrical recording up to now, their audio began drawing within an ever widening target audience, not only of folk fanatics but university students who loved the hard rock and roll stylings of functions like Jethro Tull. In both years that adopted, with the help of a long term drummer and their embrace of the full-on rock audio, Steeleye Period became known internationally as you of England’s best folk-rock rings, touring America and getting weighty airplay on Radio, and obtaining support on the albums from such big-name guests as David Bowie. Johnson’s playing (alongside that of Kemp and drummer Nigel Pegrum) was essential to that fresh audio; if he wasn’t as noticeable as multi-instrumentalist Knight or co-founder (and fellow guitarist) Tim Hart, his existence was still experienced, particularly when they rocked industry configurations as an starting act for groupings like Jethro Tull. Their albums Today WE HAVE BEEN Six, Commoners Crown, and THROUGHOUT My Hat attained low six-figure product sales, and it appeared as if Steeleye Period would have an extended future. Johnson continued to be using the group across six albums and many tours, however in 1977, following discharge of Rocket Cottage, an record that fell sufferer towards the punk-inspired backlash (apparently against all set up serves) in Britain, Knight instantly departed the lineup and Johnson implemented him out immediately after. The two composed and produced the idea record The Ruler of Elfland’s Little girl, an all-star creation that included Mary Hopkin, Alexis Korner, and Chris Farlowe. The record was a industrial and critical devastation, and by 1980 he was back Steeleye Period, where, following the departure of Tim Hart that same season, Johnson was still left because the group’s just guitarist. He was a primary person in the group for another two decades, however in 2000 health issues compelled him to keep the group. Although he offers participated on a few of their recordings since that time, Johnson hasn’t toured using the group because the 1990s. He proceeds to instruct music, however, and in addition methods his formal occupation, harking back again to his level in psychology, like a therapist.