Far from the looting crowd

IT DOESN'T come as much of a surprise that Steve Knightley likes the novels of Thomas Hardy. The dark side of country life is where the singer songwriter, one half of acoustic roots duo Show of Hands, prefers to trawl for inspiration.

"I like the shadows in Thomas Hardy," says the man who is one half of the Devon folk phenomenon. "You can read these books and still be engaged and uplifted, there are little murmurs of light among the darkness.

"As a songwriter I feel closer to that, rather than the more jolly Westcountry culture. It is more Hardy than The Wurzels."

Steve's latest songwriting output, showcased on Show of Hands' 20th album Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed, certainly contains plenty of shadows.

The title track is a hard-hitting rant about corporate greed, to mark the first anniversary of the banking crash, while the conciliatory, retrospective The Man I Was, which Steve describes as "a ballad for divorced men".

The album ends with Drift, a song about the no man's land Steve has found himself in, in a tour of hospital waiting rooms imposed by the illnesses of his brother, mother and young son.

But for all that, this is a surprisingly exhilarating collection, one which Steve and partner-in-music, multi-instrumentalist Phil Beer, are currently sharing with their fans with an epic autumn tour, of 37 county towns, ending with two homecoming Westcountry dates.

Other highlights include a couple of traditional folk songs. Keys to Canterbury, a ballad about the true way to a woman's heart, features, alongside gravelly tones from Steve, the pure yet seductive vocals of Jackie Oates, winner of the "best traditional song award" at this year's BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.

And amid it all, there's a punchy bit of fun, with Napoli, about the wholesale looting on the beach at Branscombe in East Devon (real Show of Hands country; the duo live in Topsham) after a cargo ship ran aground. It contains the line "Scratch Joe Public and what's underneath? a looter and a pirate and a thief".

"It is slightly tongue-in-cheek that," says Steve. "It was just such a story in East Devon, it seemed too good to miss."

The sound is informed by guitarist Stu Hanna, of folk band Megson, who, as producer of Show of Hands' latest album, was determined to give a whole new rough-and-ready vibe to the band's music.

"Stu's played with us, and he's seen us do something live that can be punchy and organic," he says. "He wanted that voice very immediate, quite coarse, quite rough, with very little in the way of effects.

"He's got me singing almost touching the microphone; there are so many ways of singing a song, so it is a case of trying out different feels. It was almost like being directed in a play or a film. The voice is always there, very insistent. There's a certain edginess on the whole."

The duo aim to offer a different sound on tour.

"I think it is bigger, with more effects but slightly smoother," says Steve.

He and Phil are joined on tour by Miranda Sykes on double bass and vocals, and a new special guest, French singer Flossie Malavialle, now part of the English folk scene and living in the North East.

This autumn tour is the first big Show of Hands tour after Phil's absence in the summer, sailing to the Baltic to fulfil his long-held dream to take part in the Tall Ships Race.

"He has come back very refreshed and sunburnt," says Steve. "Now he's talking about buying a boat!"

Show of Hands play the Great Hall, Exeter University (01392 263518) on December 3 and Hall for Cornwall, Truro (01872 262466) on December 4.