Miranda helping ‘Hands’to continue to succeed

MIRANDA Sykes will once again be lining up with acoustic roots duo Show Of Hands as they head back to West Sussex for a date at Chequer Mead, East Grinstead on Thursday, September 16 at 8pm.

Miranda right) has been playing with Steve Knightley and Phil Beer since 2004, augmenting their sound with her powerful double bass and rich harmonies.

“In 2003 I was playing with The Phil Beer Band”, she recalls. From there, she ended up standing in with Show Of Hands who were touring a band line-up.

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“Steve invited me to do the rest of the season with them. I did the rest of the summer 2004 and then they invited me as a special guest for the autumn tour, and I have been with them ever since.

“They are a great couple to play with. It’s all very organic. We don’t rehearse like mad. A lot of it happens very organically like when Steve might be working on new songs. I think that the balance is right on stage.”

Miranda still pursues her own work, as half of a duo with Rex Preston: “We have got a few dates in December. We do like collected contemporary folk songs. There is a Kate Rusby song, a Madeleine Peyroux song. It’s a bit different to Show Of Hands.”

Meanwhile, the Show Of Hands star continues to rise. They’ve had a great couple of years, particularly thanks to the recent album Arrogance Ignorance and Greed, the title track of which took a pop at the bankers.

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“It just feels like we are gradually climbing every year. It is going to be a fantastic year next year. We are going to Canada in the summer. We did Canada a couple of years ago, and we are going back to do one or two more festivals.”

Meanwhile, they are continuing to do well in Germany: “I am not sure that we can take it another step higher there, but the audiences do get bigger. The words translate well, and Phil and Steve are such fantastic frontmen.”

Tickets on 01342 302000.

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