Show of hands

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Show of hands
Show of Hands (2009)
Show of Hands (2009)
General information
Genre (s) Folk , roots music
founding 1987/1991
Website showofhands.co.uk
Founding members
Steve Knightley
Phil Beer
Current occupation
Steve Knightley
Mandoloncello , mandolin, cuatro , violin , guitar, background vocals
 Phil Beer
Double bass , background vocals
 Miranda Sykes

Show of Hands is a British folk and roots music duo consisting of the singer-songwriter Steve Knightley and the multi-instrumentalist Phil Beer. Since 2004 they have been accompanied by the double bass player Miranda Sykes.

history

Knightley and Beer founded Show of Hands in 1987 in Devon, south-west England . Beer was a member of the Albion Band until 1991 before permanently collaborating with Knightley. From 1987 onwards, a number of albums were created that were only available on music cassettes . The first album after Beer's transfer was the live album Live '92, which was recorded at a hotel in Bridport , Dorset . It was so successful that the duo went on tour with Ralph McTell in 1993 .

In 1992, Knightley and Beer formed the band Alianza with three Chileans in exile, who recorded an album and toured in 1992 and 1993. During this time, songs like Santiago, Armadas and Columbus Didn't Find America were created, some of which could be heard on the duo's first studio album, released in 1994. The 1995 album Lie of the Land received good reviews. In 1996 the band played for the first time in London's Royal Albert Hall .

In 2000 the album Covers was released with cover versions, for example of songs by Jethro Tull , Peter Gabriel , Bob Dylan and Ralph McTell. After several other albums, The Path was created as a purely instrumental album in 2003. The pieces are named after different areas of South West England. In 2004 Show of Hands won the BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for Best Live Band. In 2005 they were nominated as the best duo and were part of the Oyster band Big Session, which received the award for “Best Band”.

Miranda Sykes at Harberton Village Hall (2009)
Show of Hands as a trio (2009)

In 2004 she was accompanied for the first time by Miranda Sykes on double bass and as singer. In February 2010 the group won the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in the categories "Best Duo" and "Best Self-written Song" for the piece Arrogance Ignorance and Greed. The song Roots from the compilation album The Best of British Folk, the text of which is an appeal to the preservation of English traditions, was used in a video in the same year without a license by the right-wing British National Party . The band had the song removed from the video and joined the Folk Against Fascism campaign . The album Cobers 2 , released in November 2010, lists Sykes as a full band member for the first time. The 2012 album Wake the Union is commercially the band's most successful album to date. It reached number 73 in the UK album charts .

Others

  • Show of Hands also refers to the method of voting by showing of hands .
  • Both Knightley and Beer released solo albums containing material from Show of Hands.

Discography

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
Wake the Union
  UK 73 October 27, 2012 (1 week)
The Long Way Home
  UK 70 01/28/2016 (1 week)
Battlefield Dance Floor
  UK 48 10/10/2019 (1 week)

Music cassettes

  • 1987: Show of Hands
  • 1990: Tall Ships
  • 1991: Out for the Count

Studio albums

  • 1994: Beat about the Bush
  • 1995: Lie of the Land
  • 1997: Dark Fields
  • 1998: Folk Music
  • 1999: Anglicana
  • 2000: Covers
  • 2001: Cold Frontier
  • 2003: The Path
  • 2003: Country Life
  • 2006: Witness
  • 2009: Arrogance Ignorance and Greed
  • 2010: Covers 2
  • 2012: Wake the Union
  • 2016: The Long Way Home
  • 2019: Battlefield Dance Floor

Live albums

  • 1994: Live '92
  • 1996: Live at the Royal Albert Hall
  • 2002: Cold Cuts
  • 2005: As You Were
  • 2008: Live at Exeter Phoenix
  • 2011: Backlog 2

Compilations

  • 1995: Backlog 1987-1991
  • 2000: No Song to Sing
  • 2000: Show of Hands
  • 2007: Roots - The Best of Show of Hands
  • 2011: Backlog 2

Singles

  • 1995: Columbus (EP)
  • 1997: Crazy Boy
  • 2004: Are We Alright / Crooked Man
  • 2006: Witness / If I Needed Someone
  • 2007: Roots / Country Life
  • 2010: Arrogance Ignorance and Greed
  • 2010: Arrogance Ignorance and Greed / Evolution / The Man I Was
  • 2010: Arrogance Ignorance and Greed / The Keys Of Canterbury

Video albums

  • 1996: Acoustic Workshop
  • 1998: Stairway To Devon
  • 2001: The Big Gig
  • 2004: Show of Hands on Film - The Video Collection
  • 2007: Tour of Topsham
  • 2013: Show of Hands with the Urban Soul Orchestra - Live at Shrewsbury Folk Festival
  • 2013: Making the Waking

literature

  • Richard Yarwood, Clive Charlton: 'Country Life'? Rurality, folk music and 'Show of Hands'. In: Journal of Rural Studies. 25, No. 2, 2009, pp. 194-206. Abstract (English)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ List of winners 2004 at www.bbc.co.uk (English), accessed on August 10, 2014
  2. ↑ List of winners 2010 at www.bbc.co.uk (English), accessed on August 10, 2014
  3. ^ Show of Hands blast bankers, BNP, MPs and expenses at London's Folk against fascism event . Red hot velvet. August 10, 2014. Archived from the original on April 26, 2010. Retrieved on April 9, 2012.
  4. ↑ Charts 2012 (English), accessed on August 10, 2014
  5. ↑ UK chart placements