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.

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.

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.

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,[2] leading to it often being referred to as the band's album.

[5] The duo hired the hall "to the amusement of the media and the cynicism of sceptics" and was considered a huge gamble.

The performance opened, as does the album, with "Columbus (Didn't Find America)", the title track of the band's 1993 extended play, written by Knightley during the duo's time with Alianza.

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".

[10] "A Show of Hands concert at the Albert Hall is always an emotional affair, because the venue has played such a crucial role in their history.

Sixteen years ago, the West Country duo of Steve Knightley and Phil Beer found it difficult to get London bookings, and so bravely hired the hall themselves, and proceeded to fill it with their followers."

Thinking of Phil Beer as a multi-instrumentalist has become a cliché, but just listen to him play fiddle on "The Blind Fiddler" as if his life depended on it, his elegant cuatro on "Santiago" or the subtlety of his slide guitar work on "The Blue Cockade".

[1] Steve Knightley said in a 1997 interview that despite the cost of £200 to record on the night, the album "has been a great calling card to send festival promoters.