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REVIEW: Show Of Hands, Chichester Festival Theatre.
You just had to be there. Show Of Hands delivered that tingling magic which comes with live performance of the very highest order.
Steve Knightley's superb lyrics and Phil Beer's astonishing musicianship are at the heart of a duo with genuine stage presence – great communicators both who make the whole show come joyously alive with rambling tales, quick wit and songs brilliantly performed.
Joining them on this current tour is Miranda Sykes on double bass, adding an important extra dimension to the sound, not least through her vocals, beautifully offsetting the chaps. Maybe a few more vocals from Phil Beer would have completed the pleasure, and perhaps a few more uptempo numbers.
But this was folk with class, showing exactly why Messrs Knightley and Beer are considered the finest acoustic roots duo in England.
It was a show which mixed present songs with past, with Country Life (maybe Knightley's best lyrics?) and the beautiful Are We Alright standing out among the latter.
But it was the new songs which made the night.
Tales Of Yankee Power, Drift and IED eclipsed the slightly-curious Napoli, a strange piece of finger-wagging at the Devon looters on the beach at Sidmouth after a container ship ran aground a few years ago. Shouldn't folk music be celebrating the little man as he sticks two fingers up at authority/big business rather than telling him off?
Highlight of the night, though, was undoubtedly the brilliant title track from the excellent new album. No one's going to quibble with anyone having a go at a banker, and Arrogance, Ignorance And Greed saw Knightley doing so with superbly-sharp lyrics – a song which does exactly what Tom Robinson's Living In A Boom Time did a decade ago, and does so just as brilliantly – which is praise indeed.
After all the summer's plays, Show Of Hands were the perfect band to remind us that the CFT is also a cracking place to see live music – though you'll be lucky if you ever see better than this.
Phil Hewitt
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Weather for Chichester
Saturday 04 February 2012
Today
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Temperature: 3 C to 4 C
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