Gig Review: Show of Hands - Spires & Beams Tour, Oxford 12/11/2010

Steve Knightley and Phil Beer have amassed quite a catalogue of signature songs among their considerable canon after almost twenty years together as Show of Hands. Greeting the audience for the penultimate gig of their second 'Spires & Beams' tour around English churches and cathedrals, Knightley explained that lightweight numbers had been edited from the set list in favour of the more thoughtful. Ably assisted by Miranda Sykes, the duo duly delivered slower, contemplative pieces such as Sydney Carter song The Crow on the Cradle and the moving Santiago, interspersed with genial patter and the occasional singalong. In fact, there was some conservatism in the selections - ducking Evolution was understandable but a lost opportunity for a little harmless subversiveness. During the acerbic Arrogance Ignorance and Greed, Knightley altered a lyric: 'Dear God I hope you choke', presumably deemed an unbecoming wish in His house, became 'So friend...'. Atmospherically, however, the ecclesiastical setting seemed something of a red herring. St Aldates has a very modern feel (it was remodeled in the 1990s) and is not much bigger than your average school hall; the acoustics were excellent but not remarkable and it was quite possible to forget where you were.

One-time Wintersetter and now BBC Folk Award-winning solo artist Jackie Oates opened proceedings with an eclectic assortment of material including a tune composed at Wigan Parish Church a week before. Billed as a special guest, she seemed to enjoy the freedom to experiment afforded by a solo support slot, playing kantele and shruti and shunning some of the songs with which she is most associated. Oates plays and sings with a delicacy that offsets a fascination with blackness and bleakness exemplified by Past Caring, introduced as 'the most miserable song in the world', where the desolation was most human and raw. Mournfulness morphed to menace elsewhere and the set twisted to a sinister finish in the obsessional form of reworked nursery rhyme Lavenders Blue. It was a subtly clever but slightly underwhelming end to a splendid set that showcased Oates' obvious eminence on fiddle and vocals, most enjoyably on an accomplished rendition of Fourpence a Day.

After an interval Steve Knightley heralded the main event with The Preacher, performed from the floor and embellished by the distant echoing of a tolling bell, a masterful touch in an instantly captivating rendition. Phil Beer followed with the equally powerful and lonesome The Blind Fiddler, both adept adverts for respective solo tours scheduled for February. The duo have been accompanied by Sykes on bass and backing vocals since 2004 and the familiarity showed as they broke straight into the main set with accomplished ease and expertise.

Show of Hands are holistic showmen and made great use of the space in marrying grandness with intimacy. Simple lighting added to their stagecraft, with darkness drowning whispered outro to The Dive and the platform flushing red for the bass and bale of Innocents' Song. Beer's foreboding depiction of Herod 'walking out of the Christmas flame' followed a duet between Knightley and a returning Jackie Oates, on The Keys of Canterbury. Her vocals adorn the album version, sung as a straighter duet but here it was an ethereal call-and-response courtship, Knightley singing unaccompanied at the front with Oates, fiddle in hand, treading the aisle towards him, all silhouetted before a deep blue uplit arch. If this was the finest moment of the evening (and it certainly achieved the largest applause, save for a prolonged and slightly awkward semi-standing ovation before the encore) - it would be unfair on the faultless Beer and Sykes - but nothing else was quite as hypnotic.

Importantly, the evening was split between the spiritual and temporal, Knightley musing on the Chilean miners' rescue adding new poignancy to Santiago and The Dive and adding a line about the coming cuts and redundancies to AIG. Their unlikely cover of Don Henley's Boys of Summer, suiting an out-of-season autumnal malaise, was also special and highlighted their effortless musicianship. Given only two tracks were taken from the last album, it was a shame that staple favourites Roots and Country Life were both omitted (even from the encore) but that back catalogue offers such fine pickings it was terrific to hear something different.

Set Lists

Jackie Oates
Brigg Fair
Smugglers Bay
Goodbye To Beesands and To Magic / Wigan Parish Church / Tansys Golowan
Fourpence a Day
[Icelandic Sea Hymn]
Past Caring
Lavenders Blue

Show of Hands with Miranda Sykes
The Preacher [Steve Knightley]
The Blind Fiddler [Phil Beer]
The Train / Blackwaterside
The Crow on the Cradle
Cousin Jack
Arrogance Ignorance and Greed
The Dive
The Blue Cockade
Keys of Canterbury [Steve Knightley and Jackie Oates]
Innocents' Song [Phil Beer and Miranda Sykes]
Boys of Summer
Now You Know
Santiago
Encore: Pleasant and Delightful (The larks they sang melodious)