Westcountry

Popular Devon acoustic roots duo Show of Hands have been invited to join the Westcountry Hall of Fame.

TV and online viewers voted overwhelmingly in favour of the band to enter the Hall of Fame as part of a new ITV Westcountry contest.

Exeter-based singer/songwriter Steve Knightley and multi-instrumental wizard Phil Beer featured in the new series, titled "Westcountry Hall of Fame", on Tuesday 11 December, 2007.

This was the first of four programmes saluting leading lights from the region - from adventurers to inventors and sporting heroes to campaigners.

In the opening programme, devoted to the arts, they were shortlisted in the music category along with Somerset’s Acker Bilk, Dorset-based Billy Bragg, Cornish baritone Benjamin Luxon and the late film score composer Ron Goodwin, who hailed from Devonport.

Having seen background films of the nominees, Devon-based barbershop quartet Voice Male, from the Teign valley, discussed the merits of the diverse Westcountry music makers.

Although one of the four voted for Show of Hands, the overall studio winner was Ron Goodwin, who composed scores for such blockbusters as Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines and Where Eagles Dare.

But the vote was then thrown open to the public via the ITV Westcountry website with Show of Hands leading the way from the start and putting Goodwin into second place.

The result of the viewer voting was announced on ITV’s Westcountry Live on Friday 14 December, 2007.

The Hall of Fame accolade comes almost exactly a year after Steve and Phil famously won the title "Greatest Devonians", when they polled over one third of the vote in a contest staged by Devon County Council, seeing off competition from mainstream music icons Muse, Joss Stone and Coldplay frontman Chris Martin as well as others including Agatha Christie, Peter Cook and Sir Francis Drake.

Show of Hands, who were also voted Best Live Act by the public at the 2004 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, have just released a double album trawling their amazing 15-year back catalogue, entitled Roots-the Best of Show of Hands.

Nominated for both Best Live Act and Best Duo at this year’s BBC Radio 2 Awards, they will tour the UK again next spring, both as a duo and as solo artists.