Thursday 26th February 2009 @ The Fleece, Bristol
With Support From: Young Husband

No sooner had I sat down in the backroom of The Fleece to have a chat with Emma Lee-Moss of Emmy The Great ahead of her performance, than I was presented with the naked, broad butt-cheeks of Joe from support band Young Husband. Two wholesome slabs of ham that were red-raw from a brutal spanking the night before…

SY: Owww – what had you done to deserve it?
Ric (violin/bass): He didn’t sell enough merch!

SY: Erm…eventful tour then?
Emma: I have become too comfortable with Joe’s genitalia and nether regions. This is the longest tour I’ve ever done - we’ve been going for 4 weeks and we’ve done 25 dates. This is our penultimate gig!

SY: Was the spanking yesterday a peak?
Joe: I’d say it was a low point…
Tom (keyboard) and Ric: Peak! Peak!

Emma: Alright! I’ll shout out an event from the tour and you’ve got to say whether it was a peak or a trough, OK?
All: Haha! OK!

Emma: Joe taking a piss in the middle of my photoshoot? (I got my photo taken in Hull and they wanted to do it in the toilets. Joe got his dick out to draw as much attention as possible and started pissing into the urinal from as far as he could…)
Joe: That was a peak. Definite peak.

Emma: Breaking up with your girlfriend?
Joe: Oh, trough.
Emma: But meeting another girl?!
Ric: Wayhey!
Joe: Definite peak!

SY: There’ve been a lot of peaks then?
Emma: Newcastle was a great gig – ooo – and a great meal.
Tom: Yeah, but it did give me food poisoning.
Ric: Oooo – trough.
Tom: Yeah, eating it was a peak, then I went to the toilet and it was a definite trough.

Emma: Euan’s guitar breaking?
Tom: Ah, definite trough.
Ric: Trough of hell.
Emma: Utter trough.
Euan (guitar/bass): I was fucking pissed off.

Emma: I got a Frisbee thrown at my head in Leeds when we were packing up…
Voice in the distance: Do you guys wanna come and just check on the stage setup cos there’s a problem?
All: *huff*….trough. Definite trough coming up.

And so the merry band of indie/folksters scurried off to prepare for their gig, leaving me to contemplate their tour of nudity and physical assault, and looking forward to what peaks we could expect that evening.

Onstage around ten o’clock the gig did, however, start with an unwelcome trough. The first three songs, including the perky single We Almost Had A Baby, were frustratingly hampered by a mic that kept on cutting out, sound levels that fluctuated more than Joe from Young Husband’s trousers and the occasional screech of feedback. Things were sorted out quickly though just in time for what was the peak of my evening; a gentle acoustic number called The Hypnotist’s Son which Emma played solo with some subtle backing vocals. It was just a truly beautiful song; lovely, desperately fragile and sad whilst also being genuinely and honestly funny; “Can’t tell if this is love or a stomach disorder” - causing ripples of laughter through the warm smiles that flowed over a crowd whom watched respectfully, gently swaying and softly mouthing the words themselves.

The end of the song was answered with such a positive roar from the entire audience that it perked and loosened us all up. The rest of the gig was all the better for it too because after hearing the stunning, pure beauty of Emma’s voice stripped down like that, we were able to really appreciate the compliments of the full band.

www.emmythegreat.com

Matt Whittle

Photos: Alex