Robyn and Emma's house
Details
- Date
- March 10, 2021
- Venue
- Robyn and Emma's house London, England
- Billed As
- Robyn Hitchcock & Emma Swift
- Gig Type
- Online
Set List
- Keep Finding Me Robyn solo
- Idonia Robyn solo
- Heliotrope Robyn solo
- Glass Robyn solo
- Rain The Beatles
- The Man Who Loved The Rain
- I Saw Nick Drake Robyn solo
- Time Coast
- Shelter from the Storm Bob Dylan
- Tell Me About Your Drugs
Reviews
Review by Adrienne Meddock from Zub Records
I enter with Robyn playing ‘Idonia’ from Luxor, playing his lovely Gibson with the dark neck with the mother of pearl lozenge inlays. Both sound great. He informs us that he has utilized “guest tuning,” having made up an alternate to the tuning that he now can’t work out, but he has selected a “Roger McGuinn vocal setting.” Hee. Next is moss elixor’s ‘Heliotrope’ and I am put in a spring state of mind, the daffodils are out and I imagine flowers turning their faces to follow the sun as it traverses the sky. I remember the fields of sunflowers in Kansas, watching the sun’s arc in unison, and the lovely song ends. RH informs us that he can’t say no to a rage and bowl of rose leaves. Such blends make stellar songwriting for sure.
He plays ‘Glass’ by request, a personal favorite, and he’s in great voice this evening. Emma joins and the interstitial banter turns to contentious divorces, which dissolves into an achy rendition of The Beatles’ ‘Rain.’
Appropriately, we next get an RH original, “inspired by a Raymond Chandler story he never wrote,” ‘The Man Who Loves the Rain.’ He and Em provide a nice version and RH discourses on leaving cups of tea on Raymond Chandler's 2 graves, or so my notes appear to claim. Em leaves RH to perform ‘I Saw Nick Drake’ and a becaped Em returns with Ringo, the cape donned in honor of “Stevie Wonder’s cape at the 1984 Grammys.” RH called David Crosby Emma’s “spirit father.” Emma, puzzled, asked why. RH, to us, “Stone me, if she had a moustache and 200 pounds, she’d look like David Crosby.” So that explains it.
Next up is ‘Time Coast’ from the Robyn Hitchcock album, and they kid, mid-song, that it includes “an intended Stephen Stills track, left in by mistake.” Next up is a request by “our favorite Libran, if he was a Libran…:
Dylan’s ‘Shelter from the Storm,’ their voices making the song their own and it’s a lovely version.
At the break, RH is absolutely smitten with Em’s cape. She notes the last time she wore it was at the Stevie Nicks’ show, where it was required. They noted the mark of one year of the Sweet Home Quarantine Shows. They recognize that pandemic memories have faded as events and lyrics have been forgotten. I think we all feel this weird effect on our brains and understanding of time. But avoiding the maudlin, RH breaks into a beatbox hastily rendered ‘Escape (The Pina Colada Song),’ Emma joining in, vocalizing. SHQ has brought us the rarest and most unusual and (unlooked-for) gifts.
Next up is ‘Tell Me About Your Drugs’ from Element of Light. And my notes have gone off on a trip so I’ll draw to a whimper of a close rather than a bang on this No-theme Theme show.
--Adrienne Known-to-don-a-cape Meddock
I enter with Robyn playing ‘Idonia’ from Luxor, playing his lovely Gibson with the dark neck with the mother of pearl lozenge inlays. Both sound great. He informs us that he has utilized “guest tuning,” having made up an alternate to the tuning that he now can’t work out, but he has selected a “Roger McGuinn vocal setting.” Hee. Next is moss elixor’s ‘Heliotrope’ and I am put in a spring state of mind, the daffodils are out and I imagine flowers turning their faces to follow the sun as it traverses the sky. I remember the fields of sunflowers in Kansas, watching the sun’s arc in unison, and the lovely song ends. RH informs us that he can’t say no to a rage and bowl of rose leaves. Such blends make stellar songwriting for sure.
He plays ‘Glass’ by request, a personal favorite, and he’s in great voice this evening. Emma joins and the interstitial banter turns to contentious divorces, which dissolves into an achy rendition of The Beatles’ ‘Rain.’
Appropriately, we next get an RH original, “inspired by a Raymond Chandler story he never wrote,” ‘The Man Who Loves the Rain.’ He and Em provide a nice version and RH discourses on leaving cups of tea on Raymond Chandler's 2 graves, or so my notes appear to claim. Em leaves RH to perform ‘I Saw Nick Drake’ and a becaped Em returns with Ringo, the cape donned in honor of “Stevie Wonder’s cape at the 1984 Grammys.” RH called David Crosby Emma’s “spirit father.” Emma, puzzled, asked why. RH, to us, “Stone me, if she had a moustache and 200 pounds, she’d look like David Crosby.” So that explains it.
Next up is ‘Time Coast’ from the Robyn Hitchcock album, and they kid, mid-song, that it includes “an intended Stephen Stills track, left in by mistake.” Next up is a request by “our favorite Libran, if he was a Libran…:
Dylan’s ‘Shelter from the Storm,’ their voices making the song their own and it’s a lovely version.
At the break, RH is absolutely smitten with Em’s cape. She notes the last time she wore it was at the Stevie Nicks’ show, where it was required. They noted the mark of one year of the Sweet Home Quarantine Shows. They recognize that pandemic memories have faded as events and lyrics have been forgotten. I think we all feel this weird effect on our brains and understanding of time. But avoiding the maudlin, RH breaks into a beatbox hastily rendered ‘Escape (The Pina Colada Song),’ Emma joining in, vocalizing. SHQ has brought us the rarest and most unusual and (unlooked-for) gifts.
Next up is ‘Tell Me About Your Drugs’ from Element of Light. And my notes have gone off on a trip so I’ll draw to a whimper of a close rather than a bang on this No-theme Theme show.
--Adrienne Known-to-don-a-cape Meddock