13th August 2026
Considering the number of palaces within London’s limits it should be no surprise that we frequently attract musical royalty, and on this summer evening The Union Chapel welcomed a returning Queen of Soul, Gospel and Blues all the way from Chicago, Ms. Mavis Staples.
First with The Staple Singers and later through a solo career that continues today, Staples has spent more than seven decades performing songs about freedom, love, equality and hope. She marched alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., performed at John F. Kennedy’s inauguration and sang at Barack Obama’s White House. Tonight, she is still out there doing it and thankfully shows no signs of slowing down.
On this particular evening she returns somewhere that clearly means a lot to her: London’s Union Chapel. The Grade I listed Victorian Gothic chapel is not only one of London’s most distinctive music venues, but it is also the very same venue in which she recorded her 2018 Live in London release.
Walking on to the stage, Staples hadn’t sung a note before the entire room rose to its feet in applause.
Opening with City in the Sky, followed by I’m Just Another Soldier and Handwriting on the Wall, that familiar voice soon filled the Chapel. Time has inevitably added something to it but certainly hasn’t taken away its authenticity. It remains powerful, raspy and instantly recognisable.
Staples was chatty, funny and clearly delighted to be back. “I am home,” she told the audience, speaking warmly about returning to Union Chapel year after year. She called the show her “love train”, explaining that she wants people to leave feeling better than they did when they arrived. Looking around the faces around the Chapel it was clear that it was working!
There was plenty of new music too. Chicago and Beautiful Strangers both come from 2025’s Sad and Beautiful World, proof that Staples isn’t touring simply to revisit her past. You Are Not Alone followed before the evening reached one of its most significant moments.
Freedom Highway was written by her father, Roebuck Staples in reaction to Bloody Sunday at Edmund Pettus Bridge in March 1965. The Staples family had come away from meeting Dr. King Jr. in 1963 believing that if King could preach the message, the Staples could sing it. This iconic track still holds its weight more than sixty years later being sung inside a London church.
The mood rarely stayed serious for too long between songs. When a gentleman shouted something from the audience, Staples immediately shot back bashfully, “Uh-oh, I still got it,” before asking whether he was married. Also packed into the pews was Paul Weller, himself seemingly quite happy to spend the evening simply as another Mavis Staples fan.
Later, guitarist and bandleader Rick Holmstrom suggested that she take a seat. Staples joked that everybody must be tired of her. When Respect Yourself arrived, Holmstrom takes the lead vocal with Staples joining him for the chorus, giving this Staple Singers classic a slightly different shape.
The final stretch moved through Far Celestial Shore and Talking Heads’ Slippery People before Everybody Needs Love was an appropriate choice to bring the evening to its close.
For all the history attached to Mavis Staples, this never felt like an evening spent looking backwards. The stories matter as much today as they did yesterday, while her more recent music proves that she is still going strong and putting all of her heart into it. “I’ve been working on this building since the sixties”, she declared proudly to the audience.
Setlist
City in the Sky
I’m Just Another Soldier
Handwriting on the Wall
Chicago
Beautiful Strangers
You Are Not Alone
Freedom Highway
Work To Do
Respect Yourself
Far Celestial Shore
Slippery People
Everybody Needs Love
Images and words by chris@riffphotos.com
