Editing Steeleye Span (section)

===Wilderness years===
For much of the 1980s, the members of the band tended to focus on outside projects of various sorts.  Johnson opened a restaurant and then studied for a degree in psychology at the [[University of Hertfordshire]]. Pegrum ran a music studio. Prior and Kemp devoted much energy to their own band — The Maddy Prior Band; see [[Maddy Prior#Solo albums|Maddy Prior (solo albums)]], recording four albums,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gaudela.net/prior/memento.html|title=Maddy Prior – Discography: Memento|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071009120206/http://www.gaudela.net/prior/memento.html |archivedate=9 October 2007|first1=Maddy|last1=Prior|first2=John|last2=Dagnell |date=1995}}</ref> and also had children together. The result was that the band's output dropped sharply, producing only three albums over the space of ten years (including a concert album), although the band continued touring.

After a quiet spell, the group's 12th studio album (and first without Tim Hart) ''[[Back in Line]]'' was released on the Flutterby label in 1986.<ref name="Larkin"/> With no "relaunch" as such, the band retained a low profile, although they covered "[[Blackleg Miner]]" (a composition to support an 1844 strike revised many times by folk artists in the 20th century) to show solidarity with striking miners. Some argued this became a political anthem for the NUM during the [[UK miners' strike (1984-85)|miners' strike of 1984–5]] and was used to intimidate working miners.<ref name="SteeleyeSpan">{{cite thesis |url=http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/14091/1/575419.pdf |title=The Nottinghamshire Miners, the UDM and the 1984-85 Miners Strike: Scabs or Scapegoats? |last1=Amos |first1=David |date=December 2011 |publisher=University of Nottingham |degree=PhD|access-date=19 July 2015 |quote=The song 'Blackleg Miner' was revamped by the folk-rock group Steeleye Span in 1970, and became part of their repertoire in live performances during the 1970s and 1980s. During the 1984–85 miners' strike the song was used by striking miners in some coalfields to intimidate those who continued to work. The song became a political statement for supporters of the strike. |page=291 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150722071627/http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/14091/1/575419.pdf |archive-date=22 July 2015  }}</ref>  Steeleye Span continued to perform the song live and included a different version on their 1986 release ''Back in Line'', which some claim puts greater stress on the line that threatens death against blacklegs {{citation needed|date=February 2021}}.

In 1989, two long-term members departed. One was bassist Rick Kemp, who needed to recover from a serious shoulder injury, exacerbated by playing bass on stage. His eventual replacement (after two tours, each with a different bassist) was Tim Harries, who was brought in less than two weeks before the band was scheduled to start a tour. A friend of Pegrum's, Harries was a self-taught rock bassist, as well as a classically trained pianist and double bassist. With Harries on board, Steeleye released ''[[Tempted and Tried]]'' (1989), an album that formed the basis for their live set for many years to come.

Not long after recording ''Tempted'', drummer Nigel Pegrum emigrated to Australia for personal relationship reasons. He was replaced by eccentric drummer [[Liam Genockey]] (most recently of rock band [[Gillan (band)|Gillan]]), easily identified by his long, plaited beard. He and Knight were simultaneously members of "Moiré Music", a free-jazz band with a classical flavour, led by Trevor Watts. Unlike Pegrum, who employed a traditional rock drumming style, Genockey favoured a more varied drumming style, influenced by both Irish and African drumming, in which he hit, brushed, and rubbed the various surfaces of his drums and cymbals, creating a more varied range of sounds.  Consequently, when the band embarked on their 20th Anniversary Tour, they did so with a totally new rhythm section.

Both Harries and Genockey were interested in experimenting with the band's sound, and they helped re-energise the other members' interest in Steeleye. The band began reworking some of their earlier material, seeking new approaches to traditional favourites. For example, Johnson experimented with an arrangement of "Tam Lin", that involved a heavy Bulgarian influence, inspired by Eastern European versions of the Tam Lin legend. In 1992 the band released ''[[Tonight's the Night...Live]]'', which demonstrates some of this new energy and direction.  The band continued to tour the UK every year, and frequently toured overseas as well.