Centenary: Words & Music of the Great War | ||||
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Studio album by Show of Hands | ||||
Released | 30 June 2014 | |||
Recorded | 2013−14 | |||
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Genre | ||||
Length | 78:06 | |||
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Show of Hands chronology | ||||
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Singles from Centenary | ||||
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Professional ratings | |
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Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AAA Music | |
The Financial Times | |
Folk Radio | favourable |
The Guardian | |
The Living Tradition | favourable |
Press Party | favourable |
Spiral Earth | favourable |
The Daily Telegraph |
Centenary: Words & Music of the Great War is a studio album released in 2014 to commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of World War I. The unique project is a double album by English folk duo Show of Hands; the first disc features war poems recited by Jim Carter and Imelda Staunton set to the duo's music, whilst the second disc features songs inspired by the War, sung instead by Show of Hands' lead singer Steve Knightley.
The album was released on 30 June 2014 on Ian Brown’s label Mighty Village, through Universal Music, becoming Show of Hands' first album since 1995 not to be released on their own label Hands on Music. The album contains the single "Lads in their Hundreds", released as a single 14 July 2014. Although not strictly a compilation, the album reached number 13 in the UK Compilation Chart, and became perhaps the duo's best known album.
The July Crisis had culminated in Austria-Hungary declaring war on the Kingdom of Serbia on 28 July 1914. Over the following days and weeks, this and the invasion of Luxembourg and Belgium by the German Empire, led to a succession of other declarations of war that drew the major European powers into a worldwide conflict, the Great War, later to become known as World War I. In the 2010s, leading up to the centenary of the outbreak in 2014, governments in Europe began preparing for a series of official commemorative events to mark the occasion. Other than official memorials, narrative films and music was being created to mark the event.