Editing Steeleye Span (section)

===Late 1970s and early 1980s===
While they never regained the commercial success of ''All Around My Hat'', Steeleye remained popular among British folk rock fans and generally respected within the music industry. It has been widely reported that Peter Knight and Bob Johnson left the band to work on another project together, ''[[The King of Elfland's Daughter (album)|The King of Elfland's Daughter]]''. The actual situation was more complex.  Chrysalis Records agreed to allow Knight and Johnson to work on "King" only as a way to persuade the duo to continue working with Steeleye. Since the record company had no interest in "King" for its own sake, it made no effort to market the album. Chrysalis' ploy failed and Knight and Johnson quit.{{citation needed|date=May 2020}}

Their departure left a significant hole in the band. For the 1977 album, ''[[Storm Force Ten]]'', early member Martin Carthy rejoined on guitar.<ref name="Larkin"/> When he originally joined the band for their second album, Carthy had tried to persuade the others to bring [[John Kirkpatrick (folk musician)|John Kirkpatrick]] on board but the band had chosen Knight instead. This time, Carthy's suggestion was accepted and Kirkpatrick's accordion replaced Knight's fiddle, which gave the recording a very different texture from the Steeleye sound of previous years.<ref name="Larkin"/>  Kirkpatrick's one-man [[morris dance]]s quickly became one of the highlights of the band's show. This line-up also recorded their first album outside of the studio, ''[[Live at Last (Steeleye Span album)|Live at Last]]'', before a "split" at the end of the decade that proved to be short-lived.<ref name="Larkin"/>  Carthy and Kirkpatrick had only intended to play with the band for a few months and had no interest in a longer association.

During 1977 and some time thereafter, Nigel Pegrum and Rick Kemp created a "porno punk" band called The [[Pork Dukes]], using pseudonyms. The Pork Dukes released several albums and singles over the years.

The band were contractually obliged to record a final album for the Chrysalis label and, with Carthy and Kirkpatrick not wanting to rejoin the re-formed band, the door was open for Knight and Johnson to return, in 1980. The album ''[[Sails of Silver]]'' saw the band moving away from traditional material to a greater focus on self-penned songs, many with historical or pseudo-folk themes. ''Sails'' was not a commercial success, in part because Chrysalis chose not to promote the album aggressively but also because many fans felt uncomfortable with the band's new direction in its choice of material. The failure of the album left Hart unhappy enough that he decided to leave the band. He later gave up commercial music entirely, in favour of a reclusive life in the Canary Islands.

After ''Sails of Silver'' there were to be no new albums for several years, and Steeleye became a part-time touring band. The other members spent much of their time and energy working on their various other projects and the band went into a fitful hibernation. "Sails of Silver" was used as a theme song for the science fiction literary show "Hour of The Wolf", on NYC radio station WBAI 99.5FM since the 1980s. This introduced many younger US listeners to the band.

In 1981, [[Isla St Clair]] presented a series of four television programmes, called "The Song and The Story", about the history of some folk songs, which won the Prix Jeunesse. St Clair sang the songs, and The Maddy Prior Band did the backing instrumentals.