Miranda Sykes is an English folk singer, double-bassist and guitarist who performs with Steve Knightley and Phil Beer in the acoustic roots/folk group Show of Hands. As of 2019 she is undertaking solo performances while on maternity leave from the group. She has recorded with Show of Hands and has also performed and recorded as a duo with mandolin player Rex Preston.
Early life and education
Sykes was born in Spalding to John and Penny Sykes and was brought up in Pinchbeck, Lincolnshire. Hers was a musical family and she started playing double bass at the age of eight. She was educated at schools in Pinchbeck and Spalding and continued living in Lincolnshire until moving to Devon in 2007. She studied for a BTEC in pop music and completed it remotely while touring with a band.
In 1999, aged 21, she joined the folk-rock band Pressgang as a bass guitarist and toured with them internationally. She performed with Robb Johnson on his 1999 albumThe Big Wheel, and toured with him and with fiddle and viola playerSaskia Tomkins as a trio, releasing three albums together. Subsequently she joined the band Firebrand, releasing the albumLost Lady Foundin 2001. She toured with Bill Jones' band in 2001, and performed on the band's live album. She then toured with Jones in a trio with Sarah Wright and subsequently in a duo, featuring on Jones' 2003 CD Two Year Winter. Sykes toured with The Phil Beer Band from 2003 to 2013 and joined Show of Hands for their performances at summer festivals in 2004. The live album As You Were was recorded during the tour and released in 2005. Encouraged by melodeon player Gareth Turner, she formed her own band, which included Imogen O’Rourke, Martin Fitzgibbon and Maartin Allcock, releasing an album in 2005. Sykes worked with John "Rabbit" Bundrick, Sarah Allen and Roy Dodds whilst recording Reg Meuross’s album Short Stories in 2004. After touring with Meuross, a second album, Still, was released in 2006. Sykes toured with Martyn Joseph as a duo in 2007. Joseph's 2007 album, Vegas, featured songs from the tour, on which she played bass. After performing with Bath band The Scoville Units in 2009, Sykes met mandolin player Rex Preston. They toured as a duo for eight years and released three albums together. She has toured solo shows to promote her solo albums Borrowed Places and Behind the Wall.
Other work
In 2001 she joined The Live Music Now! scheme, which enabled her to get involved in music therapy; she is now a trainer and mentor on the scheme.
Personal life
She and her husband Dan, who married in 2015, have a son Wilfrid, born in 2018.
