BBC award winners Steve Knightley and Phil Beer have announced they will celebrate their 15 year professional partnership as one of the West Country’s best “exports” with a capital performance — a one-off gig at the historic 5,000-seater South London venue on Easter Sunday 2007 (April 8).

Widely acknowledged as the finest acoustic roots duo in England they are more used to playing village halls or town theatres on their frequent UK tours.

They first played the Albert Hall in 1996 when their sell-out gig was an unprecedented feat for a band of that kind. In 2001 their legions of fans from the UK and across the Channel descended on Kensington again, when the show was filmed by Carlton TV and, unusually, the Albert Hall witnessed a raffle!

Knightley, who has been hailed as one of the country’s best singer-songwriters, says: “Hiring somewhere as high profile as the Albert Hall is obviously not something you undertake lightly but it’s a challenge we relish. We are lucky enough to have a fan base of around 17,000 people, not only in the UK but in France, Holland, Germany and beyond and hopefully a lot of them will want to help us celebrate 15 years as Show of Hands.”

Beer, a dazzling multi instrumentalist who has guested with The Rolling Stones, agrees: “We have had two hugely memorable nights at the Albert Hall- not bad for a band that used to play the Albert Inn in Bristol. Both great venues but the SW7 one is somewhat larger! We hope to bring along a lot of special guests and it will be great to see so many of our fans under one roof again.”

Says Knightley: “It’s hard to describe the high you get from playing to a capacity audience in one of the world’s most famous concert halls. Our first appearance there was a dream come true and the second time around there was even more of a buzz. The 2007 gig will be a big thank you to our fans, many of whom have followed us since we began.”

Before the Albert Hall gig, Show of Hands have one of their busiest years on record, playing two 40-date UK tours, summer festivals and touring Germany and Canada. Full details of the tour are at the bottom of the Fly feature on the lads.

Albert Hall tickets are expected to go on sale from mid-May.
Box office: 0207 5890 8212 www.royalalberthall.com

Photograph by Damian Rafferty

Links:
www.showofhands.co.uk
Pictures from their Wychwood gig