After looking forward to the Steeleye Span/Ralph McTell concert for more than four months with eager anticipation, I was extremely disappointed and came away from the Adelaide concert feeling that I had been let down. It could have been, and should have been, so much better. The sound mix was abysmal; you would think that after twelve gigs in Aus/NZ the sound "technician" would have got it right. In the opening set, Ralph played a couple of superb guitar numbers but the lyrics of his songs just got lost somewhere between him and the audience which is a tragedy because he is a great songwriter and his words deserve to be listened to.

Much the same goes for Steeleye, instrumentals, solos, duets and unaccompanied songs were passable, not great, but tolerable. However when they sang and played as a group the words were just an indistinguishable noise and came out as an additional sound to the instruments. One final piece of criticism is that Liam Genocky's extended drum solo, although technically very good, was totally out of place and completely unnecessary.

A potentially brilliant evening spoiled by one man. The irony is that when the "sound technician" was introduced to the audience near the end of the concert, much to my surprise, he received polite applause…………instead of the complete silence he deserved.

I realise the above is pretty negative but there was a fair bit to be negative about. If you doubt my words, check out Ralph McTell's web site for confirmation at http://www.mctell.co.uk/main_fr.htm and read between the lines in Ken Nicol's tour diary at http://www.kennicol.co.uk/Steeleye%20Diary%202004%20page%203.htm.

On the positive side, Steeleye's encores just about saved the evening and it was great to see RM & SS again and have the opportunity to chat to Ralph and Maddy, grab the Tee shirt and a couple of SS CD's. Unfortunately, Ralph's CD's sold out before Adelaide but I guess this is a case of good news for Ralph, bad news for his fans. You don't get too many of Ralph's CD's at commercial outlets in Adelaide. One final bit of info. I had a chat with the tour photographer during smoko (the interval) and he informed me that you will be able to check out the tour photos down the track on http://www.chrisbates.org/.

A memorable evening, but for all the wrong reasons.