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Steve Knightley (born 1954) is an English singer, songwriter and acoustic musician. Since 1992 he has been one half of folk/roots duo Show of Hands along with Phil Beer. Knightley was named "Songwriter of the Nineties" by BBC Radio 6 Music in 2012.
By now, Knightley had moved to Coventry, where he both studied Politics and History at the Lanchester Polytechnic and started and played at a thriving folk club. Downes and Beer were constant visitors to the City and began playing the songs that by now Knightley was beginning to pen.
He 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 1979–85, 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 opened a guest house. He also worked as a supply teacher at Beaminster School, and gave guitar lessons, most notably to 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 Chilean 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.
In 2015, Knightley (alongside his fellow Show of Hands band members Phil Beer and Miranda Sykes), was awarded an Honorary degree of music from the University of Plymouth, to commemorate "great distinction in their professional lives".
Other
Knightley is Patron of Shrewsbury Folk Festival, Sidmouth Folk Week, St Ives Festival, and the Village Pump folk festival.Shrewsbury Folk Festival official website, accessed 27 August 2013 In 2012, he was named "Songwriter of the Nineties" by Tom Robinson for BBC Radio 6 Music.
Discography
Alianza
Show of Hands
External links
Categories: 1954 Births, Living People, Musicians From Southampton, English Male Singer-songwriters, English Singer-songwriters, English Folk Guitarists, English Male Guitarists, English Fiddlers, English Male Violinists, Alumni Of The University Of Sussex, 21st-century English Violinists, 21st-century English Male Musicians
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