Show of Hands Live

Show of Hands Live
Live album by
Released1992
Recorded8 June 1992
VenueThe Bull Hotel, Bridport
Genre
Length76:01
LabelThe Road Goes to Forever (1994), Hands on Music (1999)
ProducerMike Trim
Show of Hands chronology
Alianza
(1992)
Show of Hands Live
(1992)
Beat about the Bush
(1994)

Live (also known as Live '92 and Show of Hands Live) is the first live album by English acoustic roots duo Show of Hands. After the duo had recorded three studio albums on cassette from 1987–1991, the last of these being Out for the Count, the duo set on recording a live album for their first Compact Disc release. They enlisted Mark Trim to engineer and produce a live album of the duo's performance at The Bull Hotel, Bridport, in the duo's native Devon. The album features all sixteen songs from the performance which featured numerous guest musicians, including the band's long-time collaborator Matt Clifford and Beer's sporadic collaborator Paul Downes.

The album was released in 1992 by independent record label The Road Goes on Forever, before falling out of print and being re-released in 1999 by the duo's own record label Hands on Music. It received very favourable reviews from critics, and broke the band into the festival circuit in 1993. The duo also hired Trim to produce their subsequent studio album Beat about the Bush (1994) due to his engineering work on the album. Today, Show of Hands Live is often seen as the duo's first albums, with their three cassette albums being dropped from the duo's "canon". A 2007 poll on the duo's internet forum established "The Blind Fliddler" as fans' favourite track from the album, and it was subsequently included on the duo's best of album Roots: The Best of Show of Hands (2007) as a result.