Part of the music world for over four decades, Steve Knightley has led an interesting and exciting life, even by folk standards!
He has released an album with Chilean musicians, sold out the Royal Albert Hall with Show of Hands, and served as the artistic director of the Shrouds of the Somme installation at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
Back in 2026 with his inspirational show Sanctuary: Songs in Sacred Spaces, we caught up with Steve to talk about the tour, life on the road, and what’s on the cards for the rest of the year.
You’re currently on tour with your brand-new show, Sanctuary: Songs in Sacred Spaces, a series of calm, contemplative performances created specifically for venues like churches and chapels. What inspired you to do this tour?
Over the years, I’ve always loved playing in old churches and chapels. The buildings themselves seem to invite a different kind of listening. The sound hangs in the air a little longer, and the audience instinctively becomes quieter and more attentive.
The idea behind Sanctuary was simply to lean into that atmosphere rather than fight it. The show is very simple: voice, guitar, and the beautiful sound of Daniel Salvatore’s handpan.
Together, these elements create this shimmering, almost otherworldly sound that works wonderfully in old buildings. It allows the songs and stories to breathe in spaces where people have been gathering and reflecting for hundreds of years.
You launched a Patreon at the start of the year, where you share the creative process behind the songs you write, as well as exclusive material.
The aim of this is to raise money to invest in new projects, whilst not being beholden to the record companies. Do you see many other acoustic, folk, and grassroots musicians following suit in creating Patreon accounts for fans?
I think a lot of musicians are now looking for ways to reconnect directly with their audience. The traditional record company model has changed so much that artists are having to invent new ways of sustaining the creative side of what they do.
Patreon is interesting because it allows supporters to step a little closer to the musical process – early song ideas, archive recordings, stories from the road, and the occasional guitar lesson. It feels less like marketing and more like a small community of people who are curious about how the songs come into being.
For independent artists that kind of support can make a real difference because it allows new projects to happen without waiting for someone else’s permission.
As well as the Sanctuary tour and Patreon, you’ve also got a new book out! Apparently Not – Twenty Tales in Transit shares your favourite anecdotes of life on the road.
Of course we don’t want you to give the whole book away, but can you share a little teaser of your most memorable tale?
The book is really a collection of those strange moments that seem to happen when you spend forty years travelling the country with a guitar.
One that still makes me smile happened a few months after playing the Royal Albert Hall. I found myself in a medical clinic having a routine injection when the nurse administering it suddenly leaned over and said, “I saw you at the Albert Hall… That was a wonderful concert.”
There I was, trousers round my ankles, wondering if this was really the glamorous life of a touring musician.
It sounds like you have a very busy couple of months ahead! Is there anything else you’ve got planned this year?
It’s shaping up to be quite a full year. The Sanctuary tour will run through the spring, and later in the year I’ll be back on the road with the Winter Yards Band, which brings a rather different energy altogether.
I’m also really looking forward to playing Live to your Living Room. It’s a wonderful way for people in parts of the country I’m not able to reach on this tour – and even further afield in Scotland and Ireland – to experience the Sanctuary show.
With quite a few of the concerts already sold out, it’s a lovely chance for people to join the evening from wherever they happen to be.
Steve Knightley will take to the Live to your Living Room stage with his beautiful new show, Sanctuary: Songs in Sacred Spaces on Sunday 22 March at 8pm.
Find out more about Steve’s Patreon and purchase his new book, Apparently Not – Twenty Tales in Transit.