Live at the Royal Albert Hall is the second live album by English acoustic roots duo Show of Hands. Following the success of their stripped-down fifth studio album Lie of the Land, the duo experienced attention from major publications, who praised the album, and the duo's fan base had built. Nonetheless, the duo were unable to commerce any performances in London. Their duo and their manager and producer Gerard O'Farrell took the gamble of hosting the city's historic Royal Albert Hall for a concert on 24 March 1996. The concert would be an attempt to gather all of the duo's fans and to raise the duo's profile. The duo were ridiculed for booking the hall, with many saying the performance would not sell out. Nonetheless, not only did the performance sell out, but it did so with advance orders, and it raised the duo's profile.
Producer and manager Gerard O'Farrell recorded the event for a live album on the cost of £200, and the duo released it on their own label Hands on Music in August 1996. It was released to positive reviews, with one review stating that it "stands alone as a showcase for the best of the band's repertoire over the last couple of years." The album became the duo's best-selling album to date, a title it would hold for many years, and had sold 4,000-5,000 copies by mid-1997. The duo have since performed at the Royal Albert Hall on three other occasions.
Background and concert
Show of Hands became a collaboration for Devonian folk musicians Steve Knightley and Phil Beer in 1987, although the two had walked together several times before. The duo recorded the cassette-only albums Show of Hands (1987) and Tall Ships (1990) whilst Beer was still a member of The Albion Band, but Beer left The Albion Band in late 1990, allowing Show of Hands to become a full-time partnership. They recorded their last cassette-only album, Out for the Count, in 1991, and formed Anglo-Chilean band Alianza with Dave Townsend with three Chilean musicians, exploring world music. Alianza released a self-titled album in 1992, becoming Knightley and Beer's first CD release. Knightley and Beer soon continued performing as a duo and, with engineer Mike Trim, recorded a performance of Show of Hands from 8 June 1992 at Bridport's Bull Hotel, and released it on The Road Goes on Forever in 1992 as Show of Hands Live, the duo's first CD, but by the time of its release, the band's previous three albums were out of print, leading to it often being referred to as the band's album.
The band liked how the live album sounded and hired Mike Trim to produce their first CD studio album, Beat about the Bush, released on TWAH! Records in February 1994, an album that helped build on the band's success, although "despite Mike Trim's best efforts", the album did not receive the radio attention it intended, and the duo simplified their sound for their subsequent album, Lie of the Land, released in 1995 on Isis Records. Prior to the release of Lie of the Land, the band hired Gerard O'Farrell for live performances supporting Beat about the Bush, but he soon became the band's manager, and produced Lie of the Land.
Whilst the duo had gradually built success, Lie of the Land was seen as a major turning point, having been given attention by major publications such as Mojo and Q, the latter naming it "folk album of the year". The duo hired the hall "to the amusement of the media and the cynicism of sceptics" and was considered a huge gamble. Nonetheless, the performance sold out in advance. Selling out the hall was "unprecedented for a folk act." One biography said that the success "proved that for this enigmatic, indy duo anything was possible." The duo then performed "Day Has Come", a song from Beat about the Bush, but the music had been re-arranged, although the lyrics stayed the same. This was followed by Lie of the Land song "The Preacher", non-album track "Cutthroats, Crooks and Conmen", and two traditional tracks, "The Blue Cockade", which had featured on Beat about the Bush, and "The Soldiers Joy", at which point hints the band will play the "one about the horses" later, referring to "The Galway Farmer".
The band's long-standing live staple "Exile" plays next, which had recently been revisited following its re-recording on Lie of the Land, followed by "The Man in Green", Jacques Brel's "The Dove", "The Well", Lie of the Land opening track "The Hunter", which briefly, near its conclusion, incorporates an excerpt of "In the Jungle". This is followed by "Captains", the traditional track "The Blind Fiddler", and "Santiago", another track that dates from the Alianza days, and features on their only album. The main set closed with "The Galway Farmer", which features a fast fiddle solo from Beer. The song is about is about an Irishman betting on a horse at a race at Cheltenham Racecourse and winning, despite being ridiculed beforehand. After a minute following the performance of the song after the band had left the stage, they returned to the stage to perform an encore of the Cyndi Lauper song "Time After Time", featuring a squeezebox.
Sally Barker sings backing vocals on "Columbus (Didn't Find America)" and "Captains". Vladimir Vega performs pan pipes on "Columbus (Didn't Find America)", including prominently in the intro of the song, as well as on "The Hunter" and "Santiago", also performing backing vocals on the latter with Matt Clifford, who also performed backing vocals on "Columbus (Didn't Find America)" which he also played keyboards on, as well as on "Exile".
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The performance was success, and the album entered post-production in spring and summer 1996. It was released in August 1996 as the first release of the band's own label, Hands on Music, with the catalogue number HMCD01. The duo subsequent album, 1997's Dark Fields, continuing Lie of the Land's stripped down approach, featured a single in "Crazy Boy", an attempt to further the profile of the duo achieved by the Royal Albert performance.