Saint Senara
Wed. 19th November 2025 – Temperance Cafe, Leamington
A bitterly cold night couldn’t deter me from burning carbon-based fuel to visit the charming Temperance Café. Don’t let the name put you off; wine, beer, and delightful cakes are available—it just happens to be part of what was once a Temperance hotel.
The setting retains its period charm, with the stage located in the basement, creating an intimate atmosphere. The sound seeps up into the café through the original sawn floorboards, and only tongues are wagging!
Following their dynamic duo’s appearance at Upton Blues, Saint Senara was offered a show, so here I was, chatting with Andrew and Chloe as Adrian set up the sound. I’ll raise a flag here—I had brought along my first attempt at building a box guitar. No cigars here; this was an anniversary ale box. I can’t play the darned thing, but Andrew could, and with Adrian’s encouragement, my guitar made its debut on stage for a song.
Andrew and Chloe had the entire café under their spell, first with fiery blues like ‘What Am I Gonna Do’ and a glorious rendition of ‘Devil and The Preacher’. Chloe’s vocals wowed the packed cellar, and the harmonies with Andrew’s sweetly tuned voice were exceptional. A brilliant version of ‘Backyard Queen’ was served up on his Gretsch. You’ve got to love a Gretsch—handsome and distinctive, yet they have a darker side: brash and swaggering, like a skinhead donning steel-capped boots and looking for a good rumble.
Things got a little unhinged, decidedly gritty, during Andrew’s brush with a sex worker in the song ‘Dolly’. Is it a true story or just an inflated idea in his mind? He unwraps the seedy tale for an enthralled audience—it’s unmissable fun.
One of only two covers of the night was a blues classic, with Chloe performing ‘In The Pines’. Then my box took a bow with a rendition of ‘Borrowed Time’, which sounded rather good for a three-string instrument. After a break, we were promised the first outing of a freshly written song—so fresh it doesn’t even have a title yet.
This new song explores what transpires in the dark hours—no, not that! It’s a dreamscape. Andrew picks up a rather lovely parlour steel resonator for a dalliance with the dark side, where murder and suicide lurk just beneath the surface. ‘Flowers On My Grave’ evokes the image of a spade and shovel digging beneath fallen leaves. Further downstream, there’s more tragedy in the acclaimed poetic verse of ‘Ophelia’, inspired by Shakespeare from just down the road in Stratford (though could it have been Marlowe?). It’s a truly beautiful song for which Chloe and Andrew must be commended.
Hailing from Cornwall, Andrew draws on the folk tales of the land of the pasty. ‘Lost Lisa Maria’ tells of a siren dragging her murderer into the cold depths of the sea—no more surfboarding for him! Now for the grand finale: the award-winning, electrically charged ‘There’s A Storm Coming’. Andrew’s guitar gets particularly mean and gritty as he pounds away on his stomp box—did I mention I’ve made one of those too? The anticipation is palpable; more is demanded. Our intrepid duo turns to their Halloween spooky cover, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’s ‘I Put A Spell On You’ (I prefer Nina Simone’s version for this one). I must say, live and without any added pyrotechnic wizardry, it sounded absolutely brilliant.
It was a fabulous evening at the Temperance Café. Take a bow, Andrew and Chloe—they are Saint Senara, and they are destined for a bright future.
Words & Photgraphy by Graham Munn