FOLK greats Show of Hands are back in their beloved Dorset next month performing at the Behind the Castle music festival in Sherborne.

After a solo appearance last year, the band's singer songwriter Steve Knightley is looking forward to returning to the festival with the full band and spoke to The Guide of his special fondness for Dorset.

Steve said: "I have a great affinity with Dorset.

“My grandfather was in the Dorset Regiment all of his working life and I lived in Bridport and in the Marshwood Vale for a long, long time.”

It’s 25 years since Show of Hands recorded their first album live at the Bull Hotel in Bridport and Steve was teaching media studies, history and music at Beaminster School when he got together with Phil Beer as Show of Hands in the early 1990s.

He also gave guitar lessons, most notably to Polly Harvey, better known as singer-songwriter PJ Harvey.

Steve said: "I love Dorset – my mum was evacuated there in the war – and although I live in Devon at the moment I dream of the day I could possibly return to Dorset.”

A quarter of a century after that first Show of Hands album, Steve says the most important thing he has learned is that band must stay connected to their audience.

“It’s not just about having a bunch of songs,” he says, “it’s about having a connection to a community of people who care about what you do.

"You have to be approachable. You have to be available. It’s taught me that just because there are posters everywhere it doesn’t mean anyone’s coming – or if there’s no posters anywhere that doesn’t mean anyone’s coming either!”

Steve promises that Show of Hands will deliver their usual festival set at the one day festival on June 13.

"What we have planned is the usual festival set.

"You want to start off with your big numbers you need to take it down a bit for the middle and then with a half an hour to go make it rise and rise and rise.

"Obviously you’re trying to get people to sing along and you chuck in something like The Galway Farmer to get everybody clapping and that’s also how I go about planning a set – you want a big opening, a bit of a dip and then a big ending."

Steve is known for getting involved in social commentary and voicing his opinion.

He said: "Obviously there are fantastic people like Billy Bragg that have been doing that for ages and Dylan really began that whole thing with the protest song.

"I don’t shy away from it, but there’s got to be a good song in there.

"So we have Arrogance Ignorance & Greed and Country Life, I suppose are our big social comment songs.

"At the end of the day it has to be a good song and not just a bit of polemic."

Both Steve and Phil have enjoyed hugely successful careers outside of Show of Hands, but there are no songs Steve particularly reserves for his solo performances, he says.

"Most of the songs I do can work for solo or Show of Hands.

"They tend to sort of work their way into the set so it’s not a question of differentiating.

"I play them live a lot and when they really start working Phil will have heard them either at soundchecks or in the dressing room and he sort of plays along.

"We don’t rehearse we just get them together on stage so there’s no songs I particularly reserve for me," he says.

Show of Hands were involved in The Centenary album, for which they teamed up with actors Jim Carter and Imelda Staunton to mark 100 years since the outbreak of the First World War.

The band performed music alongside poems read by the married actors.

Steve said: "The Centenary project came from Universal Records and they wanted to have an album of poetry and music of The Great War.

"I knew Jim Carter and Imelda Staunton already, they’re old friends of mine, so I was able to get them involved in it and they recorded the poems in London, sent it down to Devon and then we put music to them as and when we heard them and occasionally it just locked together so it was a great thing to do.

"We’re doing a few of them live – particularly Lads in Their Hundreds and Requiem.

"On the whole it works very, very well, but it would be great to do a show where Jim and Imelda were actually there reciting and who knows, maybe we one day we’ll be able to do that."

In recent years, the duo Show of Hands has become a trio with double bassist Miranda Sykes performing with them.

Miranda (with Rex Preston) is also on the bill at Behind the Castle and Steve says there are plans to get together on stage.

Steve said: "As it says Show of Hands with Miranda Sykes we certainly do have plans to get together on stage because she’s part of the band!

"It’s not a duo with her happening to be there, it’s Show of Hands with Miranda Sykes."

Being in Show of Hands for nearly 25 years has taught him to stay connected to the audience, Steve says.

Steve says next for Show of Hands is 'a big autumn tour' and a new album.

"After that, we’re doing solo projects next year – I’m doing a series of maritime venues, Phil is off sailing and Miranda’s gigging with Rex," he said.

*Behind the Castle is at Sherborne Castle on Saturday June 13 from 11am to 11pm.

It also features The Waterboys, Seth Lakeman, Show of Hands, Larkin Poe, Nizlopi, Emily Barker and the Moulettes.

See behindthecastle.co.uk