''As You Were'' is the fourth

live album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by English acoustic roots duo Show of Hands. Following the release of their acclaimed tenth studio album '' Country Life'' in 2003, which itself was promoted by a tour, the duo were named the "Best Live Act" at the 2004 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. The live interest in the duo ultimately lead to a greater interest when the band announced their Autumn Tour 2004. The tour itself ran from November–December and included

Miranda Sykes Miranda Sykes (born 1978 in Spalding, Lincolnshire) is an English folk singer, double-bassist and guitarist who performs with Steve Knightley and Phil Beer in the acoustic roots/folk group Show of Hands. As of 2019 she is undertaking solo pe ...

as a collaborator, her first collaboration with the duo. With the band's producer and engineer of the era Mick Dolan, the entire tour was recorded onto

MiniDisc MiniDisc (MD) is an erasable magneto-optical disc-based data storage format offering a capacity of 60, 74, and later, 80 minutes of digitized audio. Sony announced the MiniDisc in September 1992 and released it in November of that year fo ...

, with the duo subsequently ploughing through each concert recording the following day to identify the best performances and then collating and working through the "A list again" to find the best tracks to create the live album. The album was released in 2005 on the duo's own record label

Hands on Music A hand is a prehensile, multi-fingered appendage located at the end of the forearm or forelimb of primates such as humans, chimpanzees, monkeys, and lemurs. A few other vertebrates such as the koala (which has two opposable thumbs on each "hand ...

. Although it was originally only sold at the duo's live performances and on their online shop, the critical success it became lead the duo to re-release it conventionally. The album was released to critical acclaim, with David Kidman of ''NetRhythms'' declaring it a "great set".

Background and contents

In 2003, Show of Hands released two albums, the instrumental release '' The Path'', released to commemorate the silver jubilee of the

South West Coast Path The South West Coast Path is England's longest waymarked long-distance footpath and a National Trail. It stretches for , running from Minehead in Somerset, along the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, to Poole Harbour in Dorset. Because it rises a ...

, and the acclaimed '' Country Life''. The latter was showcased the duo work on harder-edged songs that were more politically, socially and environmentally concerned, including songs based on rural issues. The title track, a "stirring" and "finely honed rant about the desecration of British country life" and "an acerbic indictment of modern values", brought the band renewed attention. The album itself, described by one journalist as the duo's "most ambitious" and "exciting" release up to that point, was voted the 22nd all-time favourite album by Devonians in a BBC Radio Devon poll in April 2004. Also in 2004, the duo won the BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for "Best Live Act". Although the duo had toured in promotion of ''Country Life'' in both 2003 and 2004, they decided to separate their touring in Autumn 2004 as a separate tour. Following on from their "Best Live Act" accolade, the duo decided to record their fourth

on the tour. Of the duo's first three live albums, only the last of them, ''

Cold Cuts Lunch meats—also known as cold cuts, luncheon meats, cooked meats, sliced meats, cold meats, sandwich meats, and deli meats—are precooked or cured meats that are sliced and served cold or hot. They are typically served in sandwiches or on ...

'' (2002), was not based around a single concert, instead being a compilation of performances throughout the tour. The duo decided to follow this template for the new album. Despite the

Autumn Autumn, also known as fall in American English and Canadian English, is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September ( Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Sou ...

namesake of the tour, it in fact ran from November–December.Liner notes. The tour ran through

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

for ten concerts between 3 November–5 December, all of which are represented on the album. On the tour, the duo were joined by

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

player and vocalist

, who would later become the duo's unofficial "third member".''Roots: The Best of Show of Hands'' liner notes. The tour was considered by David Kidman of ''NetRhythms'' to be a "landmark tour even by the lads' own exacting standards."

Content

The duo recorded the album with the helm of their sporadic producer Dolan on their 2004 winter tour, with Dolan credited as the album's producer. Intended as a "permanent memento" of the tour, Dolan and the duo recorded the entirety of each of their concerts from the tour onto

, and then ploughed through each of the concerts the following day to identify the duo's best performances, and then collated and worked through the "A list" of the chosen highlights to find the very best of those performances and then feature those as the album. Sound Performance are credited as "making" the album, whilst Dave Pick mastered the album. The album contains twenty-two tracks and was the duo's first collaboration with their long time unofficial "third member" Miranda Sykes, who plays

and sings. Jenna, who Knightley had recorded the album '' Western Approaches'' with earlier in the year, features on vocals and keyboard on "Smile She Said" and "Crooked Man". Knightley's composition "The Train", which had originally featured on '' Dark Fields'' (1997), was presented in its fourth version as a medley with "Santiago" and "The Soldier's Joy." One review noted that "even the sometimes-jaded and latterly more-than-slightly-predictable theatricality of Galway Farmer captivates on this occasion." The album's final song, "Don't Be a Stranger", finishes at 5:05 but in fact runs to 16:28. This is due to the inclusion of a

hidden track In the field of recorded music, a hidden track (sometimes called a ghost track, secret track or unlisted track) is a song or a piece of audio that has been placed on a CD, audio cassette, LP record, or other recorded medium, in such a way as t ...

appearing after three and a half minutes of silence. The hidden track itself is not a single song but snippets of the duo talking between songs, in what is described as "between song banter", combined with short songs. It consists firstly of notes about "Beach Towns", then notes about "The Eclipse", followed by a reprise of "The Galway Farmer", a joke performance of "

Paranoid Paranoia is an instinct or thought process that is believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of delusion and irrationality. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concer ...

", a reprise of "Be Lucky" and notes about losing things. This was the duo's third hidden track, following the two hidden on '' Dark Fields'' (1997) and ''

Folk Music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

'' (1998).

Release

The album was released in 2005 on the duo's own record label

with the catalogue number HMCD22.liner notes. It was originally only sold at the duo's live performances and on their website, being intended as a "souvenir recording" solely for the fans attending the concerts. Nonetheless, that the album was well received meant that the duo re-released it for a conventional commercial release, and has since "become an important part of the Show of Hands catalogue." The album was very well received. Calling it a "handsome release", David Kidman of ''NetRhythms'' was very favourable, saying that "Steve and Phil sure have put this release together with care, respectful of their fans and the pleasure it will give them; they've painstakingly listened to recordings made on the tour, and chosen what they consider to be the very best of the performances for inclusion on this set, which is intended as a permanent memento of a landmark tour even by the lads' own exacting standards. Certainly it's the way I'd want to remember them if suddenly and inexplicably all other SoH records were mysteriously erased!". He concluded that "firstly to any SoH devotee this set is self-recommending, whereas secondly to those (are there any?) who haven't yet succumbed it ought to be, so to this latter category of punters I'll just say get yourself along to a SoH gig pronto and snap up a copy of this great set, for after the gig you will definitely want a lasting memento of "as you were" feeling at the time." The conventional version of the album came to be due to the album's glowing reception. One song from the album, "The Setting / Mary from Dungloe", featured on the duo's retrospective compilation album '' Roots: The Best of Show of Hands'' (2007). The song is included on the second disc of the compilation, subtitled ''Longdogs'', whose songs were the winners of individual polls on the duo's former

internet forum An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are often longer than one line of text, and are at least temporar ...

Longdogs to find the best track on each of the duo's albums.

Track listing

On the back cover, the songs are numbered consecutively from 1 to 22. Disc one lasts 51:10, disc two lasts 75:51. All songs written by

Steve Knightley 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 ...

, except where noted.

Disc one

#"Longdog" – 3:25 #"You're Mine" – 4:38 #"Willin'" (

Lowell George Lowell Thomas George (April 13, 1945 – June 29, 1979) was an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer, who was the primary guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and founder/leader for the rock band Little Feat. Earl ...

) – 4:06 #"Mary From Dungloe" (Trad arr. Knightley/ Phil Beer) / "The Setting" (

Ralph McTell Ralph McTell (born Ralph May, 3 December 1944) is an English singer-songwriter and acoustic guitar player who has been an influential figure on the UK folk music scene since the 1960s. McTell is best known for his song " Streets of London" (19 ...

) – 4:02 #"The Oak" – 4:18 #"The Blue Cockade" (Trad arr. Knightley/Beer) – 6:05 #"Crazy Boy" – 5:43 #"Crow On The Cradle" ( Sydney Carter) – 4:37 #"I Promise You" – 4:39 #"Maybe" – 4:11 #"Be Lucky" – 5:26

Disc two

#"The Blind Fiddler" (Trad arr. Knightley/Beer) / "Galway Farmer" (Knightley/Beer) – 8:27 #"Captains" – 4:33 #"Corrina, Corrina" (

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

) – 3:38 #"Smile She Said" – 4:39 #"Crooked Man" – 4:05 #"Are We Alright" – 3:31 #"Cousin Jack" – 6:09 #"The Train" / "Santiago" / "The Soldier's Joy" (Trad arr. Knightley/Beer) – 11:46 #"Widecombe Fair" – 4:19 #"Country Life" – 8:25 #"Don't Be A Stranger" – 16:18^* ^* Track 11 is made up of 5:03 of "Don't Be A Stranger", 3:33 of silence and then 7:42 of live between-song banter.

Hidden track

The mentioned "between song banter" hidden track was made up of... #Notes about "beach towns" #Notes about "the eclipse" #"The Galway Farmer" (Reprise) #"

" #"Be Lucky" (Reprise)/Notes about "losing things"

Personnel

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

, mandocello, cuatro * Phil Beer - vocals, guitar,

slide guitar Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos tha ...

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

, cuatro * Miranda Sykes - vocals,

* Jenna Witts - vocals and keyboards on tracks 15 & 16

References

{{Show of Hands Show of Hands albums 2005 live albums