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Hurrah! After a long hard summer listening to poncey and prattish emmets whine, the mighty Show
of Hands finally rolled into the 'burg with their new album (Arrogance,
Ignorance & Greed) hot off the presses and a fearsome array of musical
implements with which to entertain us.
'Tis Wednesday the 23rd September, the Guild Hall is sold out, the bar is
open, the sun has gone down ....
It's the long-awaited beery,
Beer and Knightley night!
| Phil Beer turns a Blind Fiddler's eye as an ecstatic
Steve Knightley greets the arrival of the SSI Reporting Team! |
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Copyright St
Ives Times & Echo
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This being Cornwall, the first order of the day was to get wrecking and they
launched the gig with a rousing rendition of Tall Ships, shortly to be followed
by Steve Knightley's take on modern day wreckers in The Napoli. Master
mariner, Phil Beer, recently returned from the Tall Ships Race, entertained us
with some lively sea shanties as we looted and pillaged to our hearts' content.
The gig was an excellent mix of the old and the new. Rather than just blast
their way through the new numbers the set encompassed their whole canon of works
from early numbers such as Santiago and The Blue Cockade, through SoH classics
such as Country Life, Roots and Are We Alright to the new numbers like
Tales Of Yankee Power, IED and Drift. They also included their latest new
old song, Keys Of Canterbury, a pleasantly refreshing song about love not
involving interminable whining about your own inadequacies.
As ever Miranda Sykes gave the whole performance an extra dimension with her
singing, which she managed to bring off effortlessly despite being forced to
play a bloody enormous violin at the same time. Phil Beer's playing of various
stringed implements has to be seen to be believed. This time he managed to
improvise Cajun slide-guitar blues on a mandolin! Steve Knightley was equally
accomplished on his 8 string acoustic banjo ... or classic '57 Fender Stratolute
.... or whatever that thingy is called.
The evening was finished off in rousing style with the unofficial Cornish
national anthem, Cousin Jack, followed by encores of the aforementioned AIG and
then a blistering rendition of Falmouth Packet/Haul Away Joe, which left
everyone utterly shagged out and in desperate need of a post-show drink.
I even managed to get Messrs B & K to sign my Alianza CD. Result!
Go out and see them. Get some real music down your neck if you're fed up with
hearing an endless stream of moaning, droning James Blunt-a-likes!
| The Reporting Team with the loot ...
... not to be confused with Steve Knightley, who is the bloke with THE
lute! |
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