Offered a gig at the Wimborne Festival in 1986, Steve Knightley called on his old friends Warwick Downes (double bass) and Martin Bradley (concertina) to join him for that event. They performed as Show of Hands, a name chosen by Knightley who liked its democratic implications. Another of Knightley’s old friends, Phil Beer, was in the audience. Impressed by the quality of Knightley’s self-penned songs and by Exile in particular, Beer suggested they form a duo and offered to try and get them some gigs.