Robyn and Emma's house
Details
- Date
- September 16, 2020
- Venue
- Robyn and Emma's house London, England
- Billed As
- Robyn Hitchcock & Emma Swift
- Gig Type
- Online
Set List
- Electrolite R.E.M. Robyn solo
- Accident Waiting To Happen Billy Bragg
- Range Life Pavement Emma vocals
- Devil's Haircut Beck Robyn solo
- Stuck in the Middle With You Stealers Wheel
- The President (2020 version)
- It's A Shame About Ray The Lemonheads
- Mrs. Robinson Simon & Garfunkel partial
- High And Dry Radiohead Emma vocals
- Common People Pulp Emma vocals
- Champagne Supernova Oasis
- You've Got A Sweet Mouth On You Baby
Reviews
Review by Steve McGowan from Zub Records
The show opened from Studio C, Robyn said “turn on your rose colored mind.” He started with R.E.M.’s ‘Electrolite,’ in a very folkie, MTV-Unplugged style. Emma appeared with “Prince Tubbenstein,” and then Perry the stuffed lobster. Emma described Billy Bragg as “the Jane Fonda of folk-rock, and the duo sang Bragg’s ‘Heaven Help Us All’ (actually it is called 'Accident Waiting To Happen') with its lyric about being a “dedicated swallower of Fascism.” Every week the protest songs are getting just a bit more pointed. When they spoke about Billy Bragg, Emma mentioned going to five Billy shows in a row in Australia.
Next was Pavement(!) and a pretty version of ‘Range Life,’ Emma singing lead. They caught me by surprise on this one. It was quite charming. After, Tubby caused a ruckus moving the blinds behind them. Tubby continued as Robyn played Beck and ‘Devil’s Haircut.’ Complete chaos and lots of fun. Emma came in at the very end, and they segued into ‘Stuck In The Middle With You’ by Stealers Wheel. It fit perfectly with Beck. Robyn offered a “shameless plug for my new single,” and he and Em did the new version of ‘The President.’ It’s a terrifically sad and poignant song, and continued their protest song theme. They encouraged the audience to vote.
Emma talked about her 90’s crush on Evan Dando, and the duo did a stellar version of The Lemonheads ‘It’s A Shame About Ray.’ Emma asked if Reg could play ‘Mrs. Robinson,’ and he launched into it. They stopped as they hadn’t rehearsed it. Next up was Radiohead and ‘High And Dry,’ a smashing version sung solo by Emma. Her voice is always the best. Emma talked about Jarvis Cocker and her crush on him in the 90’s, then they did ‘Common People,’ Emma again singing lead. This is such a wry tune about the British class system:
You will never understand
How it feels to live your life
With no meaning or control
And with nowhere left to go
You are amazed that they exist
And they burn so bright
Whilst you can only wonder why
Rent a flat above a shop
Cut your hair and get a job
Smoke some fags and play some pool
Pretend you never went to school
But still you'll never get it right
'Cause when you're laid in bed at night
Watching roaches climb the wall
If you called your Dad he could stop it all, yeah
This was an amazing take. Emma said they had to do a song “from their favorite Twitter boys, Liam and Noel,” and they did Oasis and ‘Champagne Supernova,’ which I must admit was very good. The last song was Robyn’s ‘You’ve Got A Sweet Mouth On You, Baby,’ from Jewels For Sophia, this is Reg in full-on Dylan mode, and it was lovely. They had time to show off Tubby and talk about next week. A loose, fun, great show with a lot of laughter and some great cover pics.
The show opened from Studio C, Robyn said “turn on your rose colored mind.” He started with R.E.M.’s ‘Electrolite,’ in a very folkie, MTV-Unplugged style. Emma appeared with “Prince Tubbenstein,” and then Perry the stuffed lobster. Emma described Billy Bragg as “the Jane Fonda of folk-rock, and the duo sang Bragg’s ‘Heaven Help Us All’ (actually it is called 'Accident Waiting To Happen') with its lyric about being a “dedicated swallower of Fascism.” Every week the protest songs are getting just a bit more pointed. When they spoke about Billy Bragg, Emma mentioned going to five Billy shows in a row in Australia.
Next was Pavement(!) and a pretty version of ‘Range Life,’ Emma singing lead. They caught me by surprise on this one. It was quite charming. After, Tubby caused a ruckus moving the blinds behind them. Tubby continued as Robyn played Beck and ‘Devil’s Haircut.’ Complete chaos and lots of fun. Emma came in at the very end, and they segued into ‘Stuck In The Middle With You’ by Stealers Wheel. It fit perfectly with Beck. Robyn offered a “shameless plug for my new single,” and he and Em did the new version of ‘The President.’ It’s a terrifically sad and poignant song, and continued their protest song theme. They encouraged the audience to vote.
Emma talked about her 90’s crush on Evan Dando, and the duo did a stellar version of The Lemonheads ‘It’s A Shame About Ray.’ Emma asked if Reg could play ‘Mrs. Robinson,’ and he launched into it. They stopped as they hadn’t rehearsed it. Next up was Radiohead and ‘High And Dry,’ a smashing version sung solo by Emma. Her voice is always the best. Emma talked about Jarvis Cocker and her crush on him in the 90’s, then they did ‘Common People,’ Emma again singing lead. This is such a wry tune about the British class system:
You will never understand
How it feels to live your life
With no meaning or control
And with nowhere left to go
You are amazed that they exist
And they burn so bright
Whilst you can only wonder why
Rent a flat above a shop
Cut your hair and get a job
Smoke some fags and play some pool
Pretend you never went to school
But still you'll never get it right
'Cause when you're laid in bed at night
Watching roaches climb the wall
If you called your Dad he could stop it all, yeah
This was an amazing take. Emma said they had to do a song “from their favorite Twitter boys, Liam and Noel,” and they did Oasis and ‘Champagne Supernova,’ which I must admit was very good. The last song was Robyn’s ‘You’ve Got A Sweet Mouth On You, Baby,’ from Jewels For Sophia, this is Reg in full-on Dylan mode, and it was lovely. They had time to show off Tubby and talk about next week. A loose, fun, great show with a lot of laughter and some great cover pics.