Celebrating a remarkable 21 year partnership, singer songwriter Steve Knightley and multi instrumentalist Phil Beer headed out on the 29-date “Hand in Hand” tour last month brandishing a brand new double-bill DVD.
Joined by musical chameleon Miranda Sykes on double bass and vocals, the tour takes in locations from Cambridge to Chesterfield, Worthing to the Wirral, debut performances at Portsmouth’s The Pyramids and Torquay’s Princess Theatre and a capital show at London’s Cadogan Hall (November 13).
Coinciding with the tour will be the release of the DVD – Live at Shrewsbury Folk Festival and Making the Waking – a unique behind-the-scenes look into the recording of Show of Hands’ 14th studio album, Wake the Union.
The Anglo-American themed studio album released last year was acclaimed by many critics as their best yet and they will continue to showcase it on tour.
The first DVD disc, featuring eight live songs, was recorded at the 2012 Shrewsbury Folk Festival by MicroVideo’s Charles and Heather Denscombe when Show of Hands, together with members of the Urban Soul Orchestra, Exeter duo Phillip Henry & Hannah Martin and Matt Clifford (keyboards and string arrangements), memorably reprised their stand out Royal Albert Hall show from earlier in the year.
It includes songs from the band’s penultimate studio album Arrogance Ignorance and Greed including the dramatic The Dive, IED:Science or Nature and Innocents’ Song/Gwithian as well as favourites from the back catalogue including Exile and The Blue Cockade. Their performance of Knightley’s anthemic Santiago is dedicated on the DVD to the late Vladimir Vega, one of the Chilean exiled musicians with whom Steve and Phil formed the unique 90s band Alianza. Vladimir sadly died this summer but as the musician who introduced Steve and Phil to the cuatro, his legacy lives on in Show of Hands performances.
Making the Waking has been filmed by Wake the Union’s producer Mark Tucker and is a fascinating track-by-track insight into the recording of the 2012 album which also includes “appearances” by the likes of Seth Lakeman and Cormac O’Byrne and a sequence filmed on the Channel Island of Sark, with Andy Cutting and Martin Simpson.
Revealing and often humorous, it’s a chance to learn more about the history of all 14 tracks – Haunt You / Company Town / Now You Know / Katrina / Cruel River / Aunt Maria / Coming Home / Reunion Hill / No Man’s Land / Seven Curses / Home to a Million Thoughts / Who Gets to Feel Good / Stop Copying Me and King of the World.
If you would like to order a copy of the DVD then click below to be taken to our associated partner Amazon’s website.
Artist web link – http://www.showofhands.co.uk/
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