Show of Hands with Miranda Sykes
"One of the hardest working and most popular bands in the land" – that’s how BBC Radio 2’s Mike Harding recently described Devon duo Show of Hands (Steve Knightley & Phil Beer).
The rise and rise of Show of Hands now sees them celebrating an enduring 15-year partnership and widely acknowledged as the finest acoustic roots duo in England.
Acclaimed singer songwriter Knightley and multi instrumental wizard Beer will arrive on the 2007 summer festival circuit hotfoot from their 3rd sell out show at the Royal Albert Hall – an unprecedented hat trick for a band of their kind.
Winners of the Best Live Act title in the 2004 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards (the only category voted for by the public), Show of Hands continued their prolific awards nominations earlier this year, when they were short-listed for both Best Duo and Best Original Song – for Knightley’s song Roots, which was released as a single. One of their most successful ever songs, Roots is a stirring retort to ex Culture Minister Kim Howells comment that his idea of hell was “three Somerset folk singers in the pub” – guaranteed to get festival audiences on their feet.
2006 saw the release of Witness – the band’s most ambitious album to date described as “a cinematic journey of the West Country” and widely played across BBC Radios 2, 3,5 and 6 and regional radio. Songlines magazine said of it: “A beautiful portrait of modern rural Britain, intensely compassionate and filled with carefully contained rage – Roots is probably their manifesto.”
With a genre defying sound, indy ethos and inspired material they have headlined at festivals from Glastonbury to WOMAD, Celtic Connections to Cambridge and last year went down a storm in Canada and Germany.
Playing out the music on a vast array of instruments from slide guitar to fiddle, mandolin to South American cuatro they have a knack for fusing the narrative and melodic strengths of English music with global rhythms and textures – connecting with audiences everywhere, from India to Australia, Cannes to Calgary.
This summer they will be on the bill at Glastonbury, Larmer Tree, Cambridge, Cropredy and Sidmouth, among others and will be joined by rising young roots star Miranda Sykes on double bass and vocals.
Their festival dates will be followed by an autumn tour in two parts – the first emulating their early days with a retrospective trawl through their vast back catalogue and the second with special guests at larger town theatres around the UK.
"One of the finest folk duos ever to grace the scene" - Mike Harding
"A great festival band" - Johnnie Walker, BBC Radio 2