SHOW OF HANDS, Corn Exchange, Dorchester

WEST country acoustic music duo Phil Beer and Steve Knightley have built up a large and loyal following over the years, so it came as no surprise to find a packed house for this Dorchester Festival concert.

It seems almost insulting to call them folk singers, which makes them sound like a couple of hippies strumming out retro music with a country flavour. Their highly polished yet wonderfully informal gigs full of mostly self-penned songs are light years away from that.

Passion and anger flow through many of Steve's lyrics as he takes a swing at the hypocrisy of city people who plunder the countryside with their second homes as they express false sentimentality at a rural way of life they are inexorably destroying.

Favourites like Santiago, Red Diesel and Country Life along with newer material get a welcome airing in a concert that gives full throttle to this multi-talented pair. They arrive on stage with an impressive range of stringed instruments, all of which Phil Beer plays with enormous skill while singer-songwriter Steve allows his inspiration to flow from his home territory of rural Devon and Dorset.

The second half is augmented with singer and bass player Miranda Sykes, who adds an extra dimension to an evening that is full of wry wit as well as good music in a sell-out concert that got the town festival off to a rattling good start.