Show of Hands features songwriter Steve Knightley paired with multi-instrumentalist Phil Beer. Their collaboration began in teenage years when both performed around their native Exeter, Great Britain. They appeared together at pubs and clubs across Europe, where outcomes often proved chaotic, before parting at the close of high school. Knightley enrolled in college while Beer entered the music business without delay. The pair stayed apart during the 1980s yet reconnected later and chose to resume working together. Realizing their longstanding duo chemistry remained intact, they adopted the Show of Hands name for performances beginning in 1991.
Early output consisted of self-produced cassette recordings that later appeared on CD as Backlog, granting entry to the folk festival circuit. They also assembled the short-lived Alianza with three exiled Chilean musicians, an experience that introduced world-music influences and prompted acquisition of various exotic instruments for many subsequent songs. Independent CD releases followed, with Gerard O'Farrell first serving as sound engineer before becoming manager and producing the 1996 album Lie of the Land that drew British press attention. The resulting profile and tour culminated in Live at the Royal Albert Hall, issued later that year.
The duo maintained steady output through the late 1990s, issuing the 1998 album Dark Fields that strengthened their position within the British roots scene. Covers appeared in 2000 and presented versions of material they had performed together over time, including songs associated with Jethro Tull and Bob Dylan. In the early 2000s Gerard O’Farrell returned to Australia, after which Mick Dolan assumed production and management duties. The period proved active, marked by a sold-out 2001 return to the Royal Albert Hall for a tenth-anniversary concert broadcast throughout the U.K. Cold Frontier, Dolan’s first production for the group, also arrived that year. Two albums followed in 2003: the instrumental The Path, depicting a journey along the West Coast of England where they grew up, and Country Life, praised by both reviewers and audiences. The BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for Best Live Act arrived in 2004.
A best-of collection titled Roots appeared in 2007 and drew material from their first ten albums. Arrogance Ignorance and Greed became their first U.K.-charting release in 2009, with its title track named song of the year at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. A second volume of covers arrived in 2010 and featured an eclectic selection that included Stereophonics' “Dakota” alongside Bob Marley's “No Woman, No Cry.” Later albums comprised Wake the Union in 2012 and The Long Way Home in 2016.
