Steve Knightley
Encyclopedia
Steve Knightley is a singer-songwriter
, musician
and one half of British
acoustic
roots
duo Show of Hands
.
, but by the time he was five years old his family had moved to East Devon
, where he attended school in Exeter
and Exmouth
.
Knightley was first attracted to acoustic music listening to early Joan Baez
and Bob Dylan
records
, and he started playing the guitar
and mandolin
at the age of 14. While still at school, he performed in folk clubs and bars
in and around East Devon, where he came to know Phil Beer
, a multi-instrumentalist
. After leaving school, Knightley studied politics
and history
in Coventry
, and then completed a postgraduate certificate in education
at Sussex University near Brighton
. While attending the university
, Knightley teamed up with double bass
player Warwick Downes, and for two years the duo performed around the Brighton area.
From 1979 until 1985, Knightley lived in London
, working as a supply teacher and performing regularly on the pub rock
circuit with his three bands Short Stories, The Cheats and Total Strangers. On occasions Beer would stand in for absent band members, and Knightley returned the favour by playing bass
(under the pseudonym
"Gene Vogel") for the Arizona Smoke Revue, the group Beer was in at the time.
Knightley left London in 1985 and moved to rural Dorset
, where he and his first wife opened a guest house. He also worked as a supply teacher
at Beaminster secondary school, and gave guitar lessons, most notably to Polly (PJ) Harvey
. The following year Knightley met up again with Beer, who was then a member of the Albion Band. When Beer's commitments would allow, the two performed as a duo and began laying the groundwork for what would become the Show of Hands' first recordings.
Beer left the Albion Band in 1991, and from then on the two appeared regularly as Show of Hands in pubs, clubs and bars. In 1992, the duo got together with a group of exile
d Chile
an musicians, and toured and released an album under the name Alianza
. Knightley continued working at Beaminster as a part-time teacher of media studies, history and music until 1994, when he left to concentrate on his music career.
Knightley regularly intersperse his Show of Hands live work with his own tours, usually accompanied by young Devon singer-songwriter, Jenna Witts. However their early 2010 tour, their fourth together, is likely to be their last for the foreseeable future as Witts will be touring extensively on her own. It remains to be seen if Knightley will find a new musical partner or continue touring as a solo performer.
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
, musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
and one half of British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
acoustic
Acoustic music
Acoustic music comprises music that solely or primarily uses instruments which produce sound through entirely acoustic means, as opposed to electric or electronic means...
roots
Roots revival
A roots revival is a trend which includes young performers popularizing the traditional musical styles of their ancestors. Often, roots revivals include an addition of newly-composed songs with socially and politically aware lyrics, as well as a general modernization of the folk sound.After an...
duo Show of Hands
Show of Hands
Show of Hands is an English acoustic roots and folk duo comprising singer-songwriter Steve Knightley and multi-instrumentalist Phil Beer. In recent years they have been accompanied on tour and in the studio by jazz double-bassist Miranda Sykes.-Origins:...
.
Career
Knightley was born in Southampton, HampshireHampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
, but by the time he was five years old his family had moved to East Devon
East Devon
East Devon is a local government district in Devon, England. Its council is based in Sidmouth, and the largest town is Exmouth.The district was formed on 1 April 1974 by the merger of the borough of Honiton with the urban districts of Budleigh Salterton, Exmouth, Ottery St. Mary, Seaton, Sidmouth...
, where he attended school in Exeter
Exeter
Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...
and Exmouth
Exmouth, Devon
Exmouth is a port town, civil parish and seaside resort in East Devon, England, sited on the east bank of the mouth of the River Exe. In 2001, it had a population of 32,972.-History:...
.
Knightley was first attracted to acoustic music listening to early Joan Baez
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
and Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
records
Records (album)
Records is a compilation album by American rock band Foreigner, released in 1982 to span the band's first four albums through 1981. Some notable hits are omitted, namely Blue Morning Blue Day.-Track listing:...
, and he started playing the guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
and mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
at the age of 14. While still at school, he performed in folk clubs and bars
Bar (establishment)
A bar is a business establishment that serves alcoholic drinks — beer, wine, liquor, and cocktails — for consumption on the premises.Bars provide stools or chairs that are placed at tables or counters for their patrons. Some bars have entertainment on a stage, such as a live band, comedians, go-go...
in and around East Devon, where he came to know Phil Beer
Phil Beer
Phil Beer is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, and one half of English acoustic roots duo Show of Hands.-Biography:...
, a multi-instrumentalist
Multi-instrumentalist
A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays a number of different instruments.The Bachelor of Music degree usually requires a second instrument to be learned , but people who double on another instrument are not usually seen as multi-instrumentalists.-Classical music:Music written for Symphony...
. After leaving school, Knightley studied politics
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
and history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
in Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
, and then completed a postgraduate certificate in education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
at Sussex University near Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
. While attending the university
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
, Knightley teamed up with double bass
Double bass
The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
player Warwick Downes, and for two years the duo performed around the Brighton area.
From 1979 until 1985, Knightley lived in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, working as a supply teacher and performing regularly on the pub rock
Pub rock (UK)
Pub rock was a rock music genre that developed in the mid 1970s in the United Kingdom. A back-to-basics movement, pub rock was a reaction against progressive and glam rock. Although short-lived, pub rock was notable for rejecting stadium venues and for returning live rock to the small pubs and...
circuit with his three bands Short Stories, The Cheats and Total Strangers. On occasions Beer would stand in for absent band members, and Knightley returned the favour by playing bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
(under the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
"Gene Vogel") for the Arizona Smoke Revue, the group Beer was in at the time.
Knightley left London in 1985 and moved to rural Dorset
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...
, where he and his first wife opened a guest house. He also worked as a supply teacher
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...
at Beaminster secondary school, and gave guitar lessons, most notably to Polly (PJ) Harvey
PJ Harvey
Polly Jean Harvey is an English musician, singer-songwriter, composer and occasional artist. Primarily known as a vocalist and guitarist, she is also proficient with a wide range of instruments including piano, organ, bass, saxophone, and most recently, the autoharp.Harvey began her career in...
. The following year Knightley met up again with Beer, who was then a member of the Albion Band. When Beer's commitments would allow, the two performed as a duo and began laying the groundwork for what would become the Show of Hands' first recordings.
Beer left the Albion Band in 1991, and from then on the two appeared regularly as Show of Hands in pubs, clubs and bars. In 1992, the duo got together with a group of exile
Exile
Exile means to be away from one's home , while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened with imprisonment or death upon return...
d Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
an musicians, and toured and released an album under the name Alianza
Alianza (band)
Alianza were a unique Anglo-Chilean collaboration between three British musicians, Steve Knightley, Phil Beer, and Dave Townsend, and three exiled Chilean musicians, Sergio Avila, Mauricio Venegas and Vladimir Vega...
. Knightley continued working at Beaminster as a part-time teacher of media studies, history and music until 1994, when he left to concentrate on his music career.
Knightley regularly intersperse his Show of Hands live work with his own tours, usually accompanied by young Devon singer-songwriter, Jenna Witts. However their early 2010 tour, their fourth together, is likely to be their last for the foreseeable future as Witts will be touring extensively on her own. It remains to be seen if Knightley will find a new musical partner or continue touring as a solo performer.
Discography
- Track of WordsTrack of Words (album)Track of Words is a 1999 solo album by singer-songwriter Steve Knightley.A lost album of sorts, it was re-recorded in it's fully by Knightley and released as Track of Words-Retraced in 2009.-Track listing:...
(1999) - Faith, Folk and Anarchy (with Martyn Joseph and Tom RobinsonTom RobinsonTom Robinson is an English singer-songwriter, bassist and radio presenter, better known for the hits "Glad to Be Gay", "2-4-6-8 Motorway", and "Don't Take No for an Answer", with his Tom Robinson Band...
) (2002) - Western ApproachesWestern Approaches (album)Western Approaches is an album by Steve Knightley, Seth Lakeman, and Jenna Witts.-Track listing:#"Jigsaw" – 2:03#"Surfers' Storm" – 3:28#"The Crooked Man" – 4:52#"Captain's Court" – 3:29...
(with Seth LakemanSeth LakemanSeth Bernard Lakeman is an English folk singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, who is most often associated with the fiddle and tenor guitar, but has also mastered the viola and banjo...
and Jenna Witts) (2004) - Bridgerow Sessions (with Martyn JosephMartyn JosephMartyn Joseph is a Welsh singer-songwriter whose music exhibits primarily a brand of Celtic and folk, while his songwriting is often focused on social lament or protest...
) (2005) - Cruel River (2007)
- Track Of Words - Retraced (2009)
- Live in Somerset (2011)