Cold Frontier

After releasing Dark Fields (1997), Show of Hands experimented with recording albums of material written by people beside the duo. Folk Music (1998) was a limited edition album feature the band's performances of traditional folk songs, while Covers (2000) featured the band's cover versions that reflect the duo's contemporary musical influences. Released between the two albums was Steve Knightley's first solo album, Track of Words (1999), whilst Beer worked on several projects, including the concept album Ridgeriders (1999) and a collaborative album centred around the fiddle, The Fiddle Collection (1999). In 2001, they performed their second concert at the Royal Albert Hall which was filmed for their VHS concert film The Big Gig – Show of Hands @ The Royal Albert Hall (2001). The film was filmed by ITV franchise holder Carlton Productions, who broadcast it on ITV Carlton as two dedicated half-hour programmes. ==Recording and music==

in Countess Wear. The album was recorded in early 2001 by the River Exe in Countess Wear, Devon. The album was co-produced between Mick Dolan, engineer for Steve Winwood, and the duo. The title track and opening song, "Cold Frontier", is about "the memory of a Roman soldier on the fringes of the Empire with integration in today's European Union, whilst "The Flood" is about the flooding in Southern England. whilst "Come By" is about the "challenges facing farmers." In 2013, Steve Knightley described "The Flood": "One of the elements that fed into that was the death of people in the process of coming here to find work and while they’re working here, in Morecambe Bay and people who were trapped in the back of trucks. I wrote a song about the floods of people and how we should have an open door policy, wherever possible, if the work is there, and as soon as we started singing it, all these horrible stories from the Mediterranean started, people perishing coming, trying to find their way to us. So you write a song that seems topical, you think it’s got a shelf life that’s limited and then current affairs come round and reinvigorate it again." ==Reception==

The album was released on 3 September 2001 by the duo's own record label Hands on Music with the catalogue number HMCD13. Four songs from the album appear on the band's best-of retrospective compilation album Roots: The Best of Show of Hands (2007), namely a new re-recording of "Are We Alright", "Widecombe Fair", "Cold Frontier" and "You're Mine". The first three tracks appear on the first disc, subtitled Short Stories, whilst "You're Mine" appears on the second disc, subtitled Longdogs, whose songs were decided after fans of the band were asked to choose their favourite songs from each of their albums on individual polls on the band's former internet forum Longdogs, with the winners of each poll appearing on the disc. ==Track listing==

All songs written by Steve Knightley, except where noted. • "Cold Frontier" – 4:15 • "Are We Alright" – 3:10 • "Come By" – 4:58 • "Northwest Passage" (Stan Rogers) – 3:54 • "Widecombe Fair" – 3:27 • "Things I Learnt This Year" – 3:49 • "You're Mine" – 3:59 • "Windchanges" – 3:23 • "Don't Look Now" – 2:43 • "Sally Free and Easy" (Cyril Tawney) – 5:13 • "Yeovil Town" – 3:57 • "Cold Heart of England" – 3:24 • "The Streets of Forbes" (traditional, arranged by Knightley/Phil Beer) – 3:37 • "The Flood" – 5:55 ==Personnel==

• Steve Knightley – vocals, cuatro, guitar, mandocello, concertina • Phil Beer – vocals, cuatro, fiddle, guitar, mandocello, mandolin, viola • Paul Downes – mandocello, backing vocals (track 6) • John Redmond – bodhran, backing vocals (track 6) • Paul Wilson – melodeon, backing vocals (track 6) ==References==