Steve Knightley

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Steve Knightley (born 1954) is an English singer, songwriter, and acoustic guitarist.

He has been one of the Hands duo Show of Hands since 1992, as well as Phil Beer.

By BBC Radio 6 Music in 2012, Knightley was named "Songwriter of the Nineties."

Personal life

Knightley was born in Southampton in 1954 of English, Irish, and Scottish descent. Both his grandfathers were soldiers. As he was five years old, his family moved to Exeter. The family migrated to Exmouth, England, at thirteen. He lives in East Devon, where he and his wife Clare, a local medical doctor, and their three children spent spells away in Coventry, Brighton, London, and rural Dorset.

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Career

At Exmouth Grammar School, Knightley began playing acoustic guitar. Paul Downes, a long-time friend and musical collaborator, was present at the festival. After hearing his older step-brother's Joan Baez recordings, Knightley was attracted to folk music. They began performing songs from Penguin Book of English Folk Songs together with Downes. After attending their concert at the Sidmouth Folk Festival, they were also drawn to the repertoire of Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick. They formed the trio 'Gawain' in 1970 and, with fiddler John 'Bat' Evans, were regulars on the burgeoning Devon folk scene for three years or so, meeting Phil Beer along the way. Downes later moved to Brighton, where he formed a lasting friendship with Beer and went on tour for the next seven years.

Knightley had migrated to Coventry, where he both studied Politics and History at the Lanchester Polytechnic School and played in a burgeoning folk band. Downes and Beer were regular visitors to the city and began to perform the songs that Knightley had already written.

He then completed a postgraduate degree in education at Sussex University near Brighton. Knightley met with double bass player Warwick Downes while studying at the university and the pair performed around Brighton for two years.

Knightley lived in London from 1979 to 1985, playing as a supply teacher and appearing regularly on the pub rock circuit with his three bands Short Stories, The Cheats, and Total Strangers. On occasion, Beer would stand in for defunct band members, and Knightley returned the favor by playing bass (under the pseudonym "Gene Vogel") for the Arizona Smoke Revue, when Beer was in possession of Beer at the time.

Knightley left London in 1985 and moved to rural Dorset, where he opened a guest house. He also served as a Beaminster School supply tutor and taught guitar lessons, most notably to PJ Harvey. Knightley was back in the Albion Band with Beer the following year. The two performers performed as a unit and began laying the groundwork for what would be shown of Hands' first recordings when Beer's commitments allowed.

Beer joined the Albion Band in 1991, and the two musicians became known as Show of Hands in pubs, clubs, and bars. Knightley also had a reputation for rudeness at this time. The pair came together in 1992 with a group of exiled Chilean musicians, and they toured and released an album under the name Alianza. Knightley continued working at Beaminster as a part-time instructor of media studies, history, and music until 1994, when he turned to concentrate on his music career.

Knightley, alongside his Show of Hands band members Phil Beer and Miranda Sykes, was given an honorary doctorate of music from the University of Plymouth in 2015 to honor "their" professional lives.

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