NEW FOR THIS AUTUMN - IT'S THE MATCHBOX CABARET!!! - It's our brand new Sunday night variety show. (Launching on a Saturday!) 

With very special guests Mike Heron (The Incredible String Band), Georgia Seddon, and Mike Hastings (Trembling Bells)...

Arranged at short notice - don't miss out!

The Wonderful Harry Pearson comes to The Waiting Room - with his brand new book Hound Dog Days from which he will read - adding to his expanding works of fantastic observational-ponderings-of-quaintly-traditional-ways-as-viewed-from-sideways. He will also read from some of those other books, which include The Far Corner, and Racing Pigs and Giant Marrows of course, as well as his weekly Guardian column, and perhaps some anecdotes that he hasn't written down. We don't know. It's up to him. It will be like Jackanory for surreal grown ups. http://www.harrypearson.co.uk

The night will begin with song from the fabulous Suzanne Elizabeth Marron. http://www.myspace.com/suzanneelizabethverbalvitamins

The amazing Thomas Truax returns with - (we can't get enough of him) with more contraptions in scrap metal and song - as inventive as Wallace and as Dogged as Grommit - if you've not yet discovered Thomas Truax - you really ought to, if you have - you'll be booking your place early no doubt about it.

PLUS - Blue John Benjamin http://www.bluejohnbenjamin.com/ An amazingly unique and eccentric musical talent from across the moors.

"[T]he spiritual heir to Jake Thackray and Edward Lear .. "

- Bob, BBC Radio Tees

Duke Special Collaborator Paul Pilot + Non-stop Hypno-pop tour-ists Rue Royale play a double bill to soothe the world weariest of bones.

Named after a road running through the Chicago suburbs, Rue Royale's sense of journey is written all over their beguiling music, influenced by the likes of Fleetwood Mac, John Martyn, and the northern UK soul of Doves and Elbow.

The Anglo-American pair started performing together in 2006 before taking the full-time touring band plunge in 2008, relocating from Brookln's Chicago hometown to England shortly afterwards.

Read more: http://www.myspace.com/rueroyale#ixzz0wo4qUip1

Paul Pilot first graced the Irish Music Scene as singer/guitarist in “the amazing Pilots”. The debut album “Hello My Captor” was critically hailed and the single “The Price of Winter” was play-listed across Irish radio. Following the demise of this band, Paul stepped into a production role for other artists. Triumphs have included none other than Duke Special as well as Gospel/Blues singer Beth Rowley. According to Paul “a strange wind had blown through his world” and the time had come for his first solo release - “I want this to be easy for you”. Sounding somewhere between Merle Travis and Mark Linkous it is at once joyful and heartfelt.

Read more: http://www.myspace.com/paulpilotmusic#ixzz0wo3viohs

EXCLUSIVE SOLO PERFORMANCE!

These days Ben usually runs with a loud twisted crowd - The Trumpets Of Death - who we love in fact, them having played a room splitting set at The Waiting Room 2 years ago now. But on October 3rd this year - Ben is taking a night off from his new homies, before going on a big T O D album-promotion tour - to make a rare appearance in the solo guise that gained him such tremendous recognition as a beautifully talented performer of dark and fragile folk songs.

Michael Rossiter - one of the original and finest Folk Theater Partisans plays the support slot. Delicious licks. http://www.myspace.com/michaelrossiter

VIZ Creator Simon Donald - Live on stage! - performing brilliant character comedy - like VIZ in 3D. Simon Donald has packed VIZ in - and is now an on stage performer... and he is amazingly good, with a bunch of characters every bit as convincing and recognisable as his comic book creations. Would bear comparisson with the likes of Paul Whitehouse for my money.

Includes some proper adult language.

Dave Swarbrick has recently completed what is - incredibly, his first solo album in 40 years. Raison D'etre has taken 8 years to complete and we are thrilled to welcome Swarb back for what will be one of his first gigs since the album's completion.

Swarb is of course legendary as England's foremost folk fiddle player from his early career touring with Peggy Seeger and Ewan MacColl, through his partnership with Martin Carthy in the 60's and later with Fairport Convention. He is bestowed with a host of awards including a lifetime achievement award in the BBC folk awards, a Gold Badge Award from the British Association of composers and Songwriters, and an award for the most influential album of all time with Fairport Convention for Liege and Lief - as voted for by listeners of the BBC2 Folk Awards... it goes on... http://www.folkicons.co.uk/swarbmenu.htm.

We got on like a house on fire when he appeared here 1 year ago, and can't wait for more sparks and fiery fiddle licks this time around.

A bamboozling double bill combining not one but two works of staggering genius touching upon the natural history of planet earth, or home as we earthlings tend to think of it. And where would we be without natural history. Rock opera Dinosaur Planet is the latest work by M.J.Hibbett, and talking of natural history MJ Hibbett - was the first man on the planet to produce an internet song release to be downloaded by over 1,000,000 people. Something like that. Here's MJ Hibbett's actual biography, which is far more accurate and impressive than what we have alluded to here... http://www.mjhibbett.co.uk/aboutus/biog.phpNatural History musical Amoeba to Zebra - is a Being 747 production, written in chapters with an accompanying slide show, this will be like sitting in a lecture by Ross from friends and being in the mosh pit of an Iron Maiden stadium rock flavour all at once.

Peggy Seeger has created 22 solo discs and has taken part in more than 100 recordings with other performers. Her best-known songs are “The Ballad of Springhill” and “I’m Gonna Be An Engineer.”... She also inspired the greatest love song ever written "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" by Ewan MacColl.

Peggy was born into a very notable folk music family: Her mother was the composer and folklorist Ruth Crawford Seeger, her father Charles Louis Seeger, a pioneer of ethnomusicology. Her half-brother is Pete Seeger, and her brother Mike Seeger. Between the ages of 12 & 35, Peggy learned to play piano, guitar, 5-string banjo, autoharp, Appalachian dulcimer and English concertina. In 1959, after a time working as a touring musician, she settled in London with Ewan MacColl. The MacColl/Seeger duo were at the forefront of the British folksong revival for the ensuing three decades. The MacColl-Seeger work was seminal – its high point was the development of the revolutionary Radio Ballad form, a tapestry of field recordings of speech and sound effects melded with new songs in the folk idiom and complementary instrumental accompaniments.

The AWESOME Fugitives are visiting (everything in Vancouver is Awesome (or Amazing)  - but not all of it is this awesome).

This is an incredible troupe of troubadours and performance poets - who are guaranteed to get the back room reverberating awesomely - The Fugitives have evolved for some years with some brilliant past members matched by recent new talent amongst their number - (C.R. Avery and Mark Berube have gone before) - The formidably superb and infectious Barbera Adler and Brendan McLeod are constant and true - and ever changing of course, and are joined now by Adrian Glynn and Steve Charles.

“Accompanying themselves on various combinations of banjo, guitar, melodica and percussion, The Fugitives are capable of achieving dizzying, Arcade Fire-ish crescendos, replete with parallel melodies, complex harmonies and brimming torrents of emotion.” – Uptown Magazine, Winnipeg

Read more: http://www.myspace.com/canadianfugitives#ixzz0woN0tzFf

Throughout his career independence has been balanced by collaboration. The artists he has worked with include Billy Bragg, Andy Gangadeen, Andy Cutting, Jean François Vrod and Hugh Lupton (Wood and Lupton's "One in a Million" won Best Original Song at the BBC 2 Folk Awards in 2006). Recently he has worked alongside Martin and Eliza Carthy and others in The Imagined Village: "Cold Haily Rainy Night", performed by Wood and Eliza Carthy, took the award for Best Traditional Song at the Folk Awards in 2008.
His first solo album, The Lark Descending, was released in 2006 to wide acclaim. “A lyrical, pensive album ... possessed of a timeless quality.”
-- The Observer Music Monthly
In 2009 his album, Trespasser, took on the idea of enclosure: spiritual, intellectual, cultural and physical. Billy Bragg writing in The Independent said “Come Down Jehovah, is a measured statement of atheism that puts Dawkins to shame!” Wood went on to receive "Album of The Year" and “Singer of the Year” from BBC Radio Two.

His most recent album is Handmade Life.

"Chris Wood has developed into an exceptional songwriter …venturing into areas that few artists would dare tackle."
The Guardian ★★★★
"Wood"s tongue is truer than most."
The Times
"It really needs to win an award. The band is a marvel and Wood's unpretentious singing carries real weight."
The Independent
"Chris Wood again defies those who foolishly try to second guess him."
Colin Irwin
"The depth of contempt that Wood summons up is astonishing in its power. This is undoubtedly one of the albums of 2010, regardless of genre."
Americana UK.com ★★★★★
"Highly charged observations on life, love and country"
MOJO ★★★★
"Wood delivers masterpieces… from politics to vegetable patches, he has it covered on this expansive new album."
Songlines – Top Of The World ★★★★
"Understatement and intonation are Wood"s trademarks and his scalpel is so artistically applied you scarcely see the cut. Confirms him as one of English music"s most potent, if complex, talents"
BBC.co.uk

The Local puts on a dependably excellent night of high grade folkadelia on in various Lahndan haunts. So impressed are we by their show after show that we've invited main player Howard Monk to bring The Local to our place. This will be well worth a punt, and a sure fire introduction to some of the best new music currently bobbing around Europe.

Do you remember Wilf Lunn? - The original TV contraptions inventor, star of Vision On and subsequent chlidren's TV vehicles of the 70's - brings his madcap inventions and recollections to The Waiting Room back room. Wilf Lunn is also an incredibly entertaining and charming story teller - armed with his autobiography to age 11, "My Best Cellar" Wilf tells the story of his upbringing below ground level and the development of his fascination for inventing otherworldly devices.

The outrageous Carmen and Dick sleigh-ride ride again - this year with a two night run! (December 19th and 20th)

Carmen and Dick present The Beast with Two Backs - a naked pantomime horse of a show, if you will. Fast becoming a Waiting Room tradition every bit as over-hyped as crackers, but with more bang... and better jokes, Carmen Rola and Dick Van Dongen present their bespoke Waiting Room cabaret show for the 4th year on the bounce - bringing Christmas to life as Jesus never could.

Fun, games, prizes, twiglets - It's a bran tub of laughs! Book early as it always sells out - or at least it did before we went to 2 nights.

Be the thousandth viewer of Dick singing British Birds here... then follow links to Carmen and Dick doing Little Baby Jesus, which may yet be this year's Christmas number 1.

as above