Salut! Live

Andrew Curry writes: We were chatting in Chateau Salut after Colin published his piece about Barbara Dickson’s final tour, and realised that we hadn’t mentioned that Show of Hands seem to be on their last tour as well.

Steve Knightley and Phil Beer are touring over the next four months, starting last weekend. They start out in some of the small folk clubs they began in—almost all sold out already—and progress through larger venues until a final show close to home, in Exeter Cathedral, in May.

(Although that’s not quite the end, since they have also signed up the Abbotsbury Summer Festival, and Seth Lakeman’s river cruise in France, both in July and both also sold out.)

In an announcement on their site, they reckoned that they had done 4,500 gigs over the past 30 years. As Steve Knightley said, ‘The endless touring has got to stop.’

Officially, they haven’t used the words “final tour”, instead talking about “an indefinite break.” But the name of the tour, ‘Full Circle’, seems to be a clue. Steve Knightley expects to keep playing solo gigs; Phil Beer plans to complete some unfinished recording projects, and probably do some sailing.

(On the road for one more time. Photo: Show of Hands)

Over the years Show of Hands have been regular visitors to the pages of Salut! Live.

Colin went to see them play in Hayes, in 2014, where he spent much of the evening educating a couple who didn’t know much about the band:

Steve aimed some early between-songs remarks at anyone in the audience who might have been dragged along with the promise that "they're not too folkie". I tried a little of that with the couple whose table we shared. And I assured them that they would absolutely love Cousin Jack, the ultimate Show of Hands crowd-pleaser. Except that I didn't put it quite like that; I said that if they didn't like that, they'd probably like nothing.

And Cousin Jack has also featured as a Song of the Day:

Song of the Day: Show of Hands Cousin Jack

In the meantime, they have released Roots Two, a sequel to their previous Roots One compilation that Colin wrote about when it came out:

Hands together please

Roots Two covers their best work over the past 12 years, much of it with the bass player Miranda Sykes, who has collaborated with Show of Hands over the last two decades. 

The band’s certainly paid their dues down the years. We wish them the best for their solo projects—and the sailing. 

Join the Salut! Live Facebook group. Visit this link now. 

Read more:

Music of the West Country: (2) Show of Hands, Kitty MacFarlane, Jenna Witts, Cyril Tawney and Brenda Wootton