Blog

Oct 8 2025

Sam Carter 2025

Plus support Basset (CAN)

Review by Mike Latham, photos by Richard Leach

Two shows into the new season and they both confirm how lucky we are to access a venue like The Live Room.

Not only do we get wonderful artists like Andy Fairweather-Low and artists of the calibre of Sam Carter but we are constantly introduced to new, younger artists who, through their talents, will keep us entertained and impressed for years to come.

Last night’s opening set by Bassett may have been short but they showed their great range of interpretations of older songs as well as their own immaculate compositions. And that’s even before we were mesmerised by their combined voices and the wonderful guitar playing, both acoustic and electric of Sam Clark. There was mention of a return visit in the new year. That is already a concert to look forward to.

We also enjoyed the return of Sam Carter after a gap of four years. Another great voice and excellent guitar player. Solo on this occasion but he held the attention of the audience both with his playing and also his excellent songwriting, which he played alongside some more traditional songs. His writing shows an understanding of humanity and the struggles that we face. A wonderful contrast to the divisions that currently exist outside.

Oct 8 2025

Andy Fairweather Low & The Low Riders

Thursday 2nd October 2025

Review & photos by Ron Pengelly

Andy Fairweather Low and the Low Riders were back in The Live Room at Saltaire on Thursday evening on the first night of their UK tour. Another band singing its praises as a one of their favourite venues to play.

They’d opened for Eric Clapton on his European tour earlier in the year, and Andy played with Amen Corner in the late 60’s, had a solo career in the 70s (Wide Eyed and Legless anyone, a top 10 hit 50 years ago which made a great encore). And a true guitar legend with a remarkable list of people he’s played and collaborated with – including Clapton for many years, The Who, Roy Wood, Leo Sayer, Roger Waters, George Harrison, Emmylou Harris and countless others.

Andy and Low Riders Nick Pentelow, Pete Cook, Ian Jennings, Paul Beavis and Richard Milner filled the room with their wonderful sound. A hugely entertaining evening.

Oct 8 2025

Melissa Carper

plus support Bonnie Montgomery

Thursday 4th September 2025

Review, photos and videos by Keith Belcher

Thursday 4th September 2025, The Live Room, Caroline Street Social Club, Saltaire. The Melissa Carper Band (USA). Melissa on guitar and main vocals, Greg Harkins on guitar and vocals and Bonnie Montgomery on guitar and vocals. Bonnie opened the show. Melissa and Greg coming on stage to join Bonnie’s set for a couple of songs.

In similar fashion Bonnie was on stage with Melissa and Greg for most of their set. There was some great singing, great playing and lots of fun all around. Ron and Hilary had wanted this gig for quite a while since seeing Melissa in Nashville a couple of years back. It more than lived up to their expectations. From the comments and reception I heard during and after the show the TLR crowd were pretty pleased with it too.

Aug 7 2025

Le Vent du Nord (CAN)

Thursday 24th July

Photos & video by Keith Belcher, review by Pete Lambert

Impeccable! Incroyable! Extraordinaire! Le pied, quoi!

This has to be up there with one of the best ever gigs at TLR … and that is saying something!

The atmosphere was electric, the overall musicianship was awesome, the individual mastery of instruments off the planet, vocals and harmonies exquisite… 

Perhaps the most abiding characteristic of this band was its joyous enthusiasm for playing performance

For a musician, there can be nothing more rewarding than playing well to a most appreciative audience … and they absolutely revelled in it and each one was so grateful for the response.

I absolutely loved the rock ‘n’ roll vielle à roue (hurdy gurdy) and what the accordion was able to do was staggering 

Comme je le dis, le pied!!!

video by keith belcher

Par Dessus Le Pont

Aug 7 2025

Eve Selis: Dark Sky Blue

Plus support Florence Sommerville

Sunday 20th July 2025

Photos and videos by Keith Belcher, review by Mike Latham

Well, that certainly felt like an event that should come with a warning; though, to be fair to Eve, she did set out what she was going to do throughout her set.

Eve took us through her darkest times explicitly. Her art was to try and make sense of what was happening, events far beyond her control and make something out of it to provide a counter to the wide range of emotions that she faced during those times and beyond. That she was able to find that support and resilience to bring her out of those depths was great but then she used her skills as an artist and collaborator to offer those opportunities and solutions to others in her words and music.

The straw poll that Eve carried out at the start showed that nearly the whole room had been affected in similar ways. Her songs supported everyone through those early stages and took them through ways of finding solutions and resilience of their own to emerge with hope and positivity for the future. An emotional rollercoaster certainly but to relive that through each performance as she sings those songs shows the strength of her art. As you say, Eric, powerful.

Special mention must also go to the guitar work of Sam Hunt and the cello of David Hornberger. Both musicians brought a different dimension to the performance than we experienced from Eve before, mirroring the discord of those earlier songs, ‘Monster’ in particular and taking us through to the calm of ‘Grace’ and the positivity of ‘I choose Love’.

All in all, a totally unexpected but emotional and, ultimately, positive experience. We’ve had plenty of great shows this year but Eve’s performance was outstanding.

Thanks to Ron and Hilary, as always.

The evening started off with a beautiful set from Essex singer songwriter, Florence Sommerville, a young artist with a big future ahead of her. Having just launched her debut album, Endless Horizon, she is busy esrablsihing herself on the touring circuit and is also beginning to make waves over at the home of Americana music in Nashville. She’s a gifted songwriter and singer with great stage presence. Look out for her!

videos by keith belcher

Broken Pieces by Florence Sommerville

Cut And Run by Florence Sommerville

Dark Sky Blue by Eve Selis

Monster

Jul 8 2025

Breabach

Sunday 22nd June 2025

Photos, videos & review by Keith Belcher

Sunday 22nd June 2025. The long ago sold out debut appearance (in the flesh) of Breabach. The band did make a virtual appearance during you know what, but this was the long overdue live visit.

The band are all multi instrumentalists and comprise Megan Henderson (fiddle, vocals, step dance), James Lindsay (double bass, vocals), Calum MacCrimmon (bagpipes, whistle, bouzouki, vocals, step dance), Conal McDonagh (bagpipes, whistle, vocals), and Ewan Robertson (guitar, cajon, vocals).

I might be wrong but I think Sunday was the first time we’ve had double bagpipes and double dancers on the stage in the same show. To say they went down well would be a gross understatement. A truly great night . They received a well deserved standing ovation. Some shots of the night.

videos by keith belcher

Knees Up

Les Pieds Joyeux

Muriwai

Jul 8 2025

Demi Marriner Band

Sunday 8th June 2025

Photos, videos & review by Keith Belcher

Sunday 8th June 2025. The Live Room Saltaire. Demi Marriner & Band.

Opening for the Demi Marriner band were The Steady Habits fronted by Connecticut born Sean C Duggan. The Steady Habits can be a duo, trio or quartet, (occasionally a quintet). Tonight they were a duo of Sean C Duggan, main vocal, guitar and harmonica and Cathy Ife on vocals and guitar. Joe Coombs who was playing guitar tonight for Demi Marriner is also a member of Steady Habits along with Jamie Dawson. Both Joe and Jamie are very familiar to TLR regulars.

Sean has a truly excellent voice, very reminiscent of Jason Isbell when playing solo. Excellent harmonica. Great songs and music. On the performance tonight, I, for one, would like to see the entire band at TLR in the future. Ron and Hilary have plans afoot, watch this space.

Demi Marriner Band is Demi, main vocals and guitar, Joe Coombs, vocals and guitars, Garry Kroll , drums and percussion and Scott Warman vocals and bass.

Wow!! immediately sprang to mind. I have been to a lot of great TLR shows since the venue opened in 2012 but I was staggered by the sheer energy of this performance. Demi and the band were on fire and it really showed. All the stops were pulled out. They were really enjoying playing, the audience were enjoying hearing and seeing, and the energy cycled between the stage and the floor and it just kept feeding on itself.

There are a couple of shots I’ve used just because of what I thought at the time. It was very difficult to pick a selection of shots to use, there were so many great ones.

On one shot Scott (bass) is laughing and for some reason when I saw that I started hearing the tune to ‘Start Me Up’ by The Stones but was hearing ‘You make a bass player Smile’ instead of the usual lines about grown men crying .

I’ve photographed Joe quite a few times and have never caught outright laughter when he is playing , the shot is out of focus but to me it just captured the mood. Likewise the final shot of Demi is heavily cropped but seemed to capture Demi’s feelings at the end of the show.

What a great night, you needed to be there! I really hope to see this band again.

videos by keith belcher

Steady Habits:Deviate

Good Guy Act

Forgiveness

Think Of Me

Jul 8 2025

Kroke (POL)

Sunday 25th May 2025

Photos, video and review by Keith Belcher

Kroke is a Polish instrumental ensemble of world music. The band’s name refers to the Yiddish language name for Kraków. The band were formed in 1992. They have collaborated with the likes of Steven Spielberg, David Lynch, Peter Gabriel and Nigel Kennedy (to name but a few).

Originally a klezmer band their range covers a mix of modern Polish, klezmer, contemporary jazz, and classical chamber music. The band members are Tomasz Lato (double bass), Tomasz Kukurba (viola and whistle) and Jerzy Bawof (accordion) .

An “interesting” show to photograph and film. You have men in shadows, all wearing hats and glasses with music stands with very brightly lit iPads reflecting in their glasses. The music was absolutely amazing though and the sound was as pristine as usual which is what matters. I really was stuck for choice on what to pick, everything they played was so good. A truly amazing show.

(For the videos) I settled on the 10 minutes plus opener Light In The Darkness, a solo 90 second opening on small whistle from Tomasz Kukurba before Jerzy Bawof starts playing an accordion that produces sounds ranging from full church organs to harmonicas, Tomasz switches to plucked viola and is soon ccompanied by Tomasz Lato on electric double bass. This is not the longest tune of the set. The set 1 closer Magic Day was over 18 minutes of astonishing music. Jerzy opened the delicate Love (Lullaby For Kamila). The third video is the well deserved standing ovation encore Ajde Jano (translates as Come Jane. A traditional Serbian wedding song urging the dancing to start). This really was a great night.

videos by keith belcher

Light in the Darkness

Love (Lullaby For Kamila)

Adje Jano

Jul 7 2025

Jocelyn Pettit & Ellen Gira (CAN/USA)

Friday 16th May 2025

Photos, video by Keith Belcher, review by Keith Belcher & Mike Latham

Friday 16th May 2025, The Live Room, Caroline Street Social Club, Saltaire. The return visit of Jocelyn Pettit and Ellen Gira accompanied by Miguel Girão on guitar. A multi national band who all met in Glasgow. Jocelyn from the West Coast of Canada playing fiddle, step dancing and vocals. From the East coast of the USA, now based in Glasgow, Ellen on cello and vocal. From the Portuguese Midlands Miguel on guitar and vocals, also resident in Glasgow.


A warm welcome back from Hilary and quite simply, we all had a wonderful night. On the TLR WhatsApp group Michael Latham wrote the following and I’ll just quote him as he sums the show up very well indeed.


Michael Latham wrote…
“And it happens again, another great evening show from the finest small folk and roots club.
I thought that Jocelyn and Ellen had grown in confidence since their last visit. It was wonderful, not only to witness their commitment and understanding of traditional tunes but to be amazed by the way in which they use their contacts with other musicians from around the globe and develop their own fabulous creations. I have to say that , although I cannot remember the title of it*, the tune that Ellen created in memory of her grandmother was one of the most beautiful pieces of music that I have heard.
The sound they created was magical and a special mention too, to Ron for his sound also.
Once again , we are so lucky to have this venue so close. Many thanks Ron and Hilary.”

videos by keith belcher

Across The Western Ocean

St. Catherine's Waltz & Atholl Brose Set

Jul 7 2025

Catrin Finch & Aoife Ní Bhriain

Sundy 11thMay 2025

Photos and review by Nigel Plant

Catrin Finch and Aoife Ní Bhriain treated The Live Room at Saltaire to a fantastic evening of entrancing musical mastery yesterday. Weaving classical and traditional themes from Ireland and Wales to create a magical soundscape.