Top English acoustic roots duo Show of Hands - who have achieved a triple Royal Albert Hall sell out - will make their debut at "the quintessential world music festival" this summer (Sunday, July 27).
Inspired singer songwriter Steve Knightley and multi instrumental wizard Phil Beer (left in picture) will star at WOMAD, in its second year in the new setting of Charlton Park in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, accompanied by rising star Miranda Sykes on double bass and much lauded vocals.
The Devon duo - voted Best Live Act in BBC Radio 2's 2004 Folk Awards - are in demand at festivals both in the UK and Europe and across the Atlantic with music once described as "World Music from the West Country". They have sold out the Royal Albert Hall three times, most recently in Easter 2007 and have a massive following for their unique genre-hopping music, most of it written by Knightley who has twice been nominated in the Best Original Song category at the Folk Awards with his rousing anthems Country Life and Roots - the first an angry rant about the desecration of English rural life ("no trains, no jobs, no shops, no pubs") ; the latter a no-nonsense retort to former Culture Minister Kim Howells's comment that his idea of hell was "three Somerset folk singers in the pub".
Last October Show of Hands were invited to perform at the prestigious BMI Music Awards ceremony in London as ex Genesis star and WOMAD and Real World founder Peter Gabriel received a lofty "Icon" award. They performed two of the rock star's hits - Don't Give Up and Secret World at the event hosted by U.S. performing rights organisation, BMI.
Last year they also supported Gabriel and his band at a special gig at Cornwall's Eden Project and appeared at Glastonbury and Cambridge Festivals.
The band recently embarked on a UK summer festival season that will take in no less than 30 festivals, also including Trowbridge, Sidmouth, Towersey and Stokes Bay and their own signature festival at Abbotsbury Sub Tropical Gardens on the Dorset coast (July 5) where guests include Martin Simpson, Martha Tilston, Tim Edey Band and Ruarri Joseph.
To see a video of Show of Hands performing their popular single Roots - which includes live footage from the Trowbridge Festival in Wiltshire - go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5h4PFBuzvw
www.showofhands.co.uk www.womad.org
For print press and radio interviews with Steve Knightley and Phil Beer, high-resolution images, gig review tickets and copies of the latest Roots - The Best of Show of Hands double album for review or airplay please contact Publicity Manager Jane Brace (01243) 789554, j.brace@virgin.net or SoH Manager Vaughan Pearce on 01392 873513 vaughan@showofhands.co.uk
