Other Reviews

20/04/2010

Show Of Hands

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The Brook, Southampton

The gig the night before was cancelled. And so were the following three. We were lucky. Very lucky. But then again, Steve Knightley was never going to disappoint the punters at one of his favourite venues. Lazarus-like, he rose and delivered - despite a lurgy which must have left him feeling pretty ghastly.

Leave aside the great songs and superb musicianship for a moment. The icing on the Knightley cake is always his terrific ability to connect with his audience.

The massive sympathy vote doubtless helped him on Thursday, but he was still on engaging good form - understandably fewer anecdotes, but still the banter, still the quips.

And it’s that that takes it to the next level - the difference between a great CD and the sheer magic of the very best kind of gig.
The music isn’t bad either.

Show Of Hands hit the ground running with a rougher-than-usual Country Life and then raised the bar with Are We Alright, a strong contender for the most beautiful song Knightley has ever written. Plus there’s the sheer thought-provoking intelligence of songs such as Arrogance, Ignorance And Greed and Roots, songs which pack their punch in their lyrics.

A happy upshot of an under-the-weather Steve was that multi-instrumentalist Phil Beer was maybe a little bit more in the spotlight than usual.
He’s quite simply a dazzling performer - and on Thursday it was more obvious than usual that he is also an extremely gifted vocalist.
But maybe the night’s biggest surprise was a singing solo from double bassist Miranda Sykes. For some time now she’s been an important added ingredient to the Show Of Hands mix, her vocals contrasting effectively with those of the chaps and her playing adding depth. Her solo spot underlined the fact that she’s genuinely something special.

You’ll get better Show Of Hands gigs than this, but in all the circumstances, it was a triumph of West County will-power that we got anything at all.

Thanks, Steve, for the supreme effort. Southampton loved it - even if it contributed to Swindon, Bristol and Yeovil missing out on the nights that followed.

Phil Hewitt