Wet Leg just did the most amazing, fantabulous concert at Green Man a week ago!! Probably their best concert yet with the material from their new album, Moisturizer. Check it out.
And Glory Be, its back to the good old days of Wet Leg 1.0. Rhian smiles, not once, not twice, BUT RIGHT THROUGH THE CONCERT!!!! Even while singing, like in the good old days (all those years ago in 2023). Even Hester smiles and speaks to the audience. No more Scowls and Rock Diva acts. Just the two sweet, funny, good-natured girls whom we all fell in love with in 2023.
Is this a one-off? Maybe because they were in a very small auditorium with a small crowd? It is difficult to pull off the Rock Diva act in front of a small audience. Anyway, let us hope it stays this way...
The Lyon Concert
By contrast, just last month in October, I attended the Wet Leg concert in Lyon. It was Wet Leg 2.0 on steroids. They were on a rampage. It was mind-blowing. The sound and light thundered and roared over the audience like a Tsunami. Rhian was lithe and deadly like a dervish of death. Holmes drummed like a maniac. The bass thudded. The heart thudded in tune. The pulse raced. It took me two days to recover from it, no kidding. I was in the front row, right in the middle, right in front of Rhian. I got the effect full in the face.
Here is the closing song, Mangetout. This video does not capture even 1% of what it was like to be there, but hopefully you will get some idea:
My mind was *literally* blown at the end of it. I had to wait for other people to move away to pick up my scattered neurons off the floor. Yes, it was an awe-inspiring performance. But honestly, given a choice, I would still have preferred to be at the homely, low key Green Man concert. Although we are all slowly getting used to the new angry, hard-rocking avatar of Wet Leg (or Wet Leg 2.0, as I like to call it), I think we all yearn for charming, funny, laid-back Wet Leg of the post-COVID times, that came like sunshine into that bleak period and made all the horrors go away.
Anyway, coming back to the Lyon concert, here are a couple of other videos I made. Most of the time, my phone was firmly in my pocket, as I burned every moment into my retina. All said and done, the new avatar of Wet Leg is just as compelling as the old one, in its own way.
This is where they entered the stage and played Catch Theses Fist, up to the first stanza. After that, I switched off the camera to better enjoy the concert. Sorry, dudes.
This is a souped-up, hard-rock version of Chaise Longue they played somewhere in the middle. Nothing like the old version!
In this video, in the middle of the concert, Rhian chats with the audience and then they play a roughed-up punk version of Supermarket. All of the old songs they played in this gig got the same kick in the fanny!
This is Davina McCall. Very slow and dreamy for a change.
I started off filming this video in Landscape, and halfway through changed my mind and moved to Portrait. SORRY DUDES 😒 Just turn your phones around, OK? Or if watching on the PC, bend your neck sideways. 😂
Here is the set list. This is the one Rhian was using. The guitar symbol marks the songs where Rhian plays the guitar, along with the chord sequence. I guess she is still a bit uncomfortable with the guitar (she is by training a pianist).
Couple of stills:
Here is Hester singing her song (Don't Speak)
Check out my other Wet Leg posts (there are now 7):
At last! I finally got to see Wet Leg LIVE!! After three years of obsessing about them, playing their debut album over and over, and watching them nearly every day on You Tube, I got the full, true Wet Leg Experience.
Last week, they played at the Festival de Beauregard, not far from where we were having our annual beach holiday on the Normandy coast (check out my last post ). Naturally I hopped on the bus and went to see them.
The Festival the Beauregard happens on the outskirt of the city of Caen, on the grounds of Chateau de Beauregard. Here is a shot of the main stage with the château on the side:
Naturally I went in early and made sure I was right on the front row, in the corner between the main stage and the walkway, where the lead singer can prance about. A couple of not-so-bad performances by Servo and King Hannah.
Then there was a performances by Jyeuhair on the second stage, which I decided to skip in order to safeguard my position at the main stage. A lot of people were waiting for the performance by Fontaines DC right after Wet Leg, and leaving my position would have been fatal. Anyway, as far as I could make out, Jyeuhair is some kind of rap act, and that doesn't interest me one bit.
After Jyeuhait there was a performance by a new French group called The Limiñanas on the main stage, which wasn't bad at all...
But they had done just one song, when disaster struck. It had been raining the night before, and the canvas roofing of the stage had turned into a kind of pond. A brisk wind, and the whole thing poured down, drenching the artists, the instruments, and us poor slobs in the front row:
The Limiñanas show was abandoned, and the stage hands got busy mopping up the stage and equipment. The Wet Leg show was brought forward. At Last, I would get to see Rhian and Hester and the gang!! My heart beat faster.
And then, there the were!!!!
It was so painful to see them, after having waited so long, I cried. I swear I cried.
I was torn between wanting to record the performance on my mobile for future recollection, and being in the moment and enjoying it with all my heart and all my mind and all my soul. The heart won. It was impossible to tear my eyes off Rhian to flick the camera app. The best I could manage were these two 15-second shots, the only two times in the entire one hour show that the music slowed down.
Here is the first one, the opening stanza of Too Late Now, which, as you know, start with a slow, sentimental lament, before it booms into hard drive. The moment it boomed, off went the camera!
Here is the second one, where Rhian is singing one of their new songs, which is unusually slow (I believe it is Pillow Talk). Here she is, strutting about on the walkway. As I mentioned above, I was in the corner of the walkway and the stage, getting the best of both!
Luckily for me, a couple of other dudes have posted complete songs from this performance on YouTube. Here they are:
And then it was over....
I can't remember all the songs they played. It went by in a magical blur. But I guess it was the more or less the same set they are playing at all the festivals now:
Catch these fists
Being in Love
Wet Dream
Supermarket
Angelica
Pillow Talk
Oh No
Ur Mum
Chaise Longue
CPR
Was it all I had imagined? It was more. It was WAY, WAY more.
I have been hearing for the past three years that seeing Wet Leg live is an unforgettable experience, and I realized for myself the truth of it. I must have seen over two hundred of their concert performances on YouTube, many of them several times, especially when I was working on my blog post, Wet Leg, The Early Years
But nothing could have prepared me for the physical experience of standing a few feet from them while they made music.
For one, Rhian has a charisma and physical presence that simply cannot be captured on camera. She is magnetic. It is impossible to take your eyes off her. Second, the raw sound they produce live can't be recorded adequately. It makes the pulses pound like any heavy metal act, but at the same time it has this beguiling, sensitive, ever-changing quality that very few modern bands can match, certainly not heavy metal acts. Maybe Led Zep were like that at their peak. I don't know. I was a little kid at the time.
What about Rhian's infamous "new look"? I complained about it in my last Wet Leg post. Rhian and Hester became famous for the dowdy, rustic flowing robes, cheeky grins, clowning about on stage - a stark contrast to the exciting music they played. It made them seem so charming and whimsical, so REAL.
Now all that has changed, as I mentioned in my last post. Rhian has gone full punk rocker: sexy clothes, scowls, aggressive attitude, acrobatic moves on stage. Hester, meanwhile, having an anxiety attack, has retreated into the background, leaving Rhian the sole frontwoman. Wet Leg fans were aghast, me included.
But... here is the thing... IT WORKS! By GOLLY it works! See Wet Leg live, and you realize it is PERFECT! It goes perfectly with their new music. For some reason it looks a bit disconcerting in photos and videos, but seen in person, from the front row of the stage, Rhian's new persona is madly exciting.
And just in case you still miss the old, cutesy Rhian, she's there too. She puts in an appearance between songs, when Rhian smiles and shyly asks the audience if they liked the song. That is actually the most fascinating aspect of the live performance: seeing Rhian transform back and forth between Girl-Next-Door and Rock-Goddess, not once, but several times in the course of the evening.
So you can rest assured, our Rhian hasn't changed, she's still the same good-natured, humorous person we knew. This new attitude is just a carefully constructed persona that she invokes for the duration of the song.
And as for Hester, she seems to be getting her confidence back. When I saw them, Hester faced the audience for most of the concert, and even smiled a couple of times. She did not play with her back turned to the stage, as she did in the first few outings after their big break.
Anyhow, the concert was over as abruptly as it had started, and I staggered off to get a beer and pee, something that I had been holding in the past hours. The toilet and lager seemed more attractive than Fontaines DC, at that point.
I did stick around to watch the performances that followed - after all, it was included in the price of the entry ticket: Amyl and The Sniffers, Fontaines DC, Clara Luciani, Martin Garrix.
But it was all a blur.
I could only think about Rhian and Hester and relive their show again and again in my head.
Here is a pic of the French singer Clara Luciani, whom all the French kids seem to be gaga about. She wasn't so bad.
In an era when not one, but THREE nuclear wars may
break out at any time at three different points on the globe, the climate is
going down the chute, and grumpy old men have taken over this planet, there is
one little piece of info we can all smile about: WET LEG ARE BACK!!!!
You are underwhelmed. Who, or what, is Wet Leg, you ask? If
they are back, it presupposes they went away. Did they?
Let me take your questions one by one:
What is Wet Leg?
Wet Leg is simply the greatest rock band since Nirvana. The
first rock band the 21st Century has thrown up, that can go
chin-to-chin with the iconic bands of the 60s and 70s. Check out my series of posts on Wet Leg
Did they go away?
Yes, sadly. Shortly after their 2023 Grammy for a
pathbreaking first album...
... they did a concert in Rio where they made a mysterious
announcement about it being their last concert for a while... (check out the Rio concert of 2023, where Rhian and Hester shock the audience with tearful goodbyes. Skip to 43:40 in the video, just after Angelica and before the closing song, Chaise Long)
....and they
disappeared from public view. They bobbed up only to collect another Grammy in 2024 ...this time for a remix of Depeche Mode’s Wagging Tongue ...
... and a few odd concerts in UK that were pre-scheduled, but
other than that, they maintained complete radio silence. No Instagram,
Facebook, Twitter, TV interviews – nothing.
We fans were distraught. Have they broken up, we wailed? Has
something happened to them? We posted message after message on their Instagram and Facebook accounts, without a response. This went on almost two years.
And then, glory be! Just as suddenly as they had
disappeared, they were back, with a bang! New songs, new album, new sound, new
look! In short: Wet Leg V2.0!
Here they are, doing two of their new songs on 3VOOR12. The 3VOOR12
sound and camerawork outstanding, as always, as I have mentioned in previous Wet
Leg posts.
Here are the same two songs, Catch These Fists and CPR,
on Jools Holland:
Here is a complete recent concert, in Porto:
This is the artwork for their new album, which will be officially
released on July 11. They have been performing live only a handful of the new
songs until now. So, lots more new songs coming up soon!
Cover Art of Wet Leg’s new Album: Moisturizer – coming out
JULY 11!!!
Here is a recent interview in Crack Magazine, where Rhian
talks about their big break from touring, and the new direction that they have
taken.
It seems the band had taken a beach house in Southwold,
Suffolk, and holed up there for six months, to work on their new album without
the distractions of constant touring. In the meantime, Rhian had found love
again (we fans are so happy for her). So, most of the songs on the album are supposedly
love songs, and not the bad-boyfriend songs that the first album was full of.
Although, if CPR is anything to go by, Rhian has her own unique take on
the love song!
Going by the few new songs that have been released to date,
their new sound is darker, more aggressive. Much of the flippant humor that made
their first album so endearing has gone. The clever wordplay and the zany
outlook on life is still intact, though.
About the new look, I’m not so sure. Rhian and Hester’s infectious smiles, their playful
goofing-about on stage and their adorable, girls-next-door look was such a
large part of the Wet Leg charm. Now Hester has taken to facing the back of the
stage throughout the concert and never appears in person for interview or faces
the camera. She had tried to overcome her social anxieties the first time
around, but has now decided to take a step back. It’s so sad. Maybe she’ll find the strength
to overcome her anxieties again. We’re with you, Hester!
Rhian has been working out and now appears on stage flexing
her muscles and scowling. She has bleached her eyebrows and taken to wearing aggressive
new costumes. I dunno. I guess this is her way of coping with unwanted
attention from the Romeos and Lotharios who no doubt used to badger her in the
past (which the song Catch These Fists seems to suggest), but one can’t
deny it’s somewhat jarring for us old fans. Oh well, I guess we’ll get used to
it, eventually. Actually, if you watch the concert footage carefully, you can
see the old Rhian slipping out from time to time. This new look seems to be
some kind of protective mask. Maybe she’ll go back to being the old Rhian we
used to adore one day.
If you have never
seen Wet Leg V1.0, here is one of their finest moments, at La Route du Rock, Saint-Malo 2022. They never looked prettier, they were never funnier, and their sound was never so exciting, as on this glorious summer day in France:
But I guess they couldn't go on being like that forever. That was a particular point in time, at a very early stage in their fame. A time of innocence. They've moved on, and we fans had better move with them, instead of pining for what was.
Anyway, the good news for us Frenchies: Wet Leg are coming
to France not once, but THRICE this year!!! I’ve got the tickets to their Caen
and Lyon concerts, and I am counting the days….
This is the fourth of my posts about Wet Leg, the rock n roll band that is taking over the world and making it a better place (check out the earlier posts). This post attempts to clear up the confusion surrounding their early days, caused mostly by lazy reporting and the girls’ propensity to kid around during interviews.
The story given out is that Rhian and Hester, these two little girls from the Isle of Wight, wrote a silly song to amuse themselves during the long, tiresome covid lockdown. They put it out there and it became a hit, and before you knew it, they had become the biggest band in the world.
That is a fairytale.
The reality is a little more complicated. Just a little. And the reality is a fairytale too, but a slightly more complex YA grade fairytale, not one rated 5-10 yo.
The truth is that they were in their late twenties when they started the group. Previously, they had struggled individually for several years to make it in the music industry and had moments of heartbreak. When they did get together and start their band, they did not make much of an impact with their first five gigs. Then they went into a hiatus as Rhian had to earn a living doing dead-end jobs, but they kept in touch. Then, over a YEAR later, they wrote the magic Chaise Longue. This was in fact BEFORE the first lockdown, but it is true that they did find an agent and a music publisher DURING the FIRST lockdown, and made the song video. The song was released AFTER the THIRD lockdown, over a year and a half after they wrote it, and it was an immediate hit.
THEN they took over the world.
But they faced a great deal of skepticism and misogyny too.
Oh, and by the way, Rhian had a breakup with her boyfriend during the lockdown, the one who helped her and Hester a bit in setting up the band and was their first drummer in their first five gigs. A heartbreak is never pleasant, but it did give Rhian the inspiration for a whole trove of bad-boyfriend songs, many of which became hits, and forever shut up the early skeptics who were writing them off as a one-hit wonder. But the boyfriend got his own back, sort of, by giving a wishy-washy interview to the Sunday Times.
And no, a year on they still aren’t officially the biggest band in the world, although we Wetleggies like to think so, but they are fast getting there, and well on their way to becoming the first true mega-band since Nirvana.
As I said, still a fairytale, one that would make most bands in the world turn green with envy, but slightly more nuanced than the Twitter and Instagram version.
What follows below is a timeline of the first three years of Wet Leg, from when the band was set up, to the breakthrough. It has been pieced together from various interviews and information easily available in the public domain. I don’t write much about their childhood and youth, as that is not the focus of this article, and not much is known anyway. And I don’t write about after the breakthrough, as that would just be a long, boring list of awards, acclaim, and sellout concerts at the greatest venues on the planet. I’m sure there would be lots of fun anecdotes of their globe-trotting tours, but they don’t talk about it much in public. No doubt some day they will appoint an official biographer to write the full Wet Leg story. @Rhian and Hester: Hey, I’m up for the job.
The Timeline
Without further ado, here is the promised timeline.
NOTE: The stuff in the square brackets [] is the reference of where I got the information from. Check in the “Sources” section at the end. If it is a video or podcast, the time offset is also given.
1993, March 17
Rhian Louise Teasdale is born in Formby, near Liverpool. Her parents are in the merchant navy. Father is an engineer. Mother: (Rhian: “I don’t quite know what mother was doing in the merchant navy” [zoe 9]) “Mom was a Deck Officer” [anita 51:40]
Father: Teasdale, Mother : Jill Kernick
1994, February 1
Hester Chambers is born in England (Hampshire). She has 3 siblings, in order of age they are Emily, Luke, Hester, and Michael. She has older half siblings through her father [This info on Hetser is courtesy one of her childhood friends who wishes to remain anonymous]
Mother: Veronica Chambers Father: Christopher Morphy
1996?
Hester moved to the Isle of Wight “as a baby” ( so between 1994 and 1997). [kure]
2001
Rhian moved to the Isle of Wight “at age 8” [kure]
Hester’s childhood
Family home is in Yarmouth, IoW (taken from the Chaise Longue video)
Hester’s parents run a jewelry store, where she still works occasionally, designing jewelry.
Went to Sandown High School, according to Hester’s Facebook page.
Sandown High School is now called Bay CE School
https://www.bayceschool.org
It is at the other end of IoW from Yarmouth. Perhaps her mother dropped her off on the way to work at Newport.
Rhian’s Childhood
Home: Sandown, Isle Of Wight
At some point Rhian’s mother remarries, and Rhian gets a stepfather named Roger, the same Roger to whom she would sing Happy Birthday in the Wet Leg IoW concert in 2022 on his 70th birthday. Check out this video at 41:53. You can also see Rhian’s mom at 11:42 and 51:40
https://youtu.be/AZoWcUDjV2A?t=2513
Rhian's family portrait 2022. Unfortunately, she hasn't posted earlier photos. But with a bit of imagination, you might be able to visualize what they looked like back then.
Since Rhian’s parents live in Sandown, she too must have gone to Sandown High School like Hester, although they never seem to have met in school.Perhaps because they were in different grades?
Extracted from a Rolling Stone Interview [mart]:
Growing up on the Isle of Wight, Teasdale and Chambers spent their youths attending festivals and hanging out with friends on the beach. “We’re packed into this really small island,” Teasdale says. “Lots of barbecues, lots of camping with your friends, lots of teenage drinking.”
Chambers grew up in a musical household, learning to play the piano at a young age while her mother passed on her taste in music: the Moody Blues, the Velvet Underground, Nick Drake, Aretha Franklin, and plenty of David Bowie.
Teasdale and Chambers have three siblings each, and Teasdale credits hers with her musical knowledge. “I was able to access their iTunes when iTunes was a thing,” she says. “Through stealing my sister’s music, I discovered Björk, Radiohead, Joanna Newsom, and Devendra Banhart.”
2003
Rhian as Sandown Carnival Princess in 2003, aged 10 at Sandown, IoW
2010
Rhian joins her first band at age 17 [mtv 5:00]. What was the name?
Hester starts performing and /or writing music under the stage name "Wilting Disco" at age 15 or 16. She creates a SoundCloud account in this name and publishes a few songs, but that happens only in 2012. It is not clear what she does as Wilting Disco between 2010 and 2012.
Rhian does various dead-end jobs: puppeteer, golf caddy, dressing up in Squawk Bird costume at Robin Hill Theme Park on the IoW [nard 4:30]
A Squawk Bird at the Robin Hill Theme Park, Iow. You can here Rhian speaking of the experience of working as a Squawk Bird in this interview at 4:30 ("disgusting"):
Hester joins her parents’ shop
2012, June
THE LENNON MEETS MCCARTNEY MOMENT:
Rhian and Hester (age 19 &18) meet in college (Isle of Wight Collegehttps://iwcollege.ac.uk/courses). They did not interact with each other much initially. Hester found Rhian intimidating. Rhian thought Hester was with the cool group, not her. [mart 13]
Specifically, they joined the “Commercial Music” faculty, which is called Platform One
https://sites.google.com/view/platformoneiow/home
They joined BTEC National Diploma course at Platform One in 2012 to study for a two-year course which focused on performance, composition, songwriting, sound recording and music theory. The other band members, except for Henry Holmes, were also co-students (Ellis Durand and Josh Omead Mobaraki). They worked together in a study group. [jemm]
Interview with Peter Pontin, co-director of Platform One music college by Jemma Dempsey for BBC. He speaks about how the Wet Leg members were as students.
Early 2012
Rhian joins a band, but then the band breaks up and regroups without her, leaving her feeling “kicked in the teeth” [PSL 1:00]. She then decides to go solo. Since she was solo in June 2012, this must have happened slightly before. What was the name of this infamous band? I bet they're all kicking themselves now.
2012, May 6
Hester seemingly changes her stage name from "Wilting Disco" to "Maybe Tuesday". At least, she creates a Facebook musician's page called "Maybe Tuesday" in 2012. It is also possible that this was a band that she launched, but if so, it is not clear who the other members were. Confusingly she also creates a SoundCloud account in 2012 under the name "Wilting Disco" and publishes a few songs (see below). The Soundcloud account still exists. She continued posting songs on this account (one with Josh Mobraki) as late as 2020. Possibly she used both stage names by turns? To be verified.
Anyhow, this was the cover image she used as Wilting Disco
And this was the cover image she used as Maybe Tuesday
These were the songs she posted on Facebook and SoundCloud as Maybe Tuesday/ Wilting Disco
This was a photo of Rhian at the Ventnor Fringe Festival taken by Hester, and posted on her Maybe Tuesday Facebook page. She titles this photo "Babushka Baba Yaga". Clearly, Rhian must have gone solo around this time, taking the BBY stage name, as this is the earliest reference to her as BBY.
2012, Dec 4
Rhian officially goes solo, taking on the stage name Babushka Baba Yaga. On this date, she creates a Soundcloud account in this name on this date (the account no longer exists).
2013
In 2013, Hester teams up with a band called Red Squirrel, and releases a set of five videos on YouTube and demos on SoundCloud
I have not been able to track down the names of the duo that comprises Red Squirrel, but you can see them in these videos. Someone said one of the members was Josh Mobraki, but it does not look like Josh in these videos.
Here is a screen grab from one of the videos, showing Hester with the Red Squirrel members:
2013, May 17
Rhian completes her first year at the music college, and decides not to do the second year as the fee is too steep at 9000 pounds p.a. and she does not see the value [abc 7:00]. Hester seems to have completed the course, going by her Facebook page. What about Ellis and Joshua?
2013, May 19
Rhian plays at Quay Arts Centre, Newport IoW in the Acoustic Originals concert. Plastic Mermaids is also on the bill. This is possibly where Rhian meets Doug Richards of Plastic Mermaids the first time, and they go on to have a relationship. In any case, according to Doug’s interview with the Sunday Times[glan], the relationship started in 2013, after a Plastic Mermaids concert. Doug later plays with Wet Leg in the initial gig until his breakup with Rhian in 2019, which leads to all the Wet Leg post-breakup songs like Ur Mum and Wet Dream.
2013, July
Rhian records a song called Leila solo at IoW on Choosic TV under the stage name Babushka Baba Yaga.
Rhian plays solo gigs under the stage name Babushka Baba Yaga. Here is a concert poster for the Halloween Party concer on Nov1, where she was one of the artists.
Rhian’s gigs in 2013 as Babushka Baba Yaga
2013, Dec 2
Rhian changes her stage name from Babushka Baba Yaga to RHAIN (note the tiny change in spelling to rhyme with rain), according to a post on her Facebook page
Between 2013 and 2017, she does various solo performances at IoW, Bristol and London as RHAIN, while still based at IoW. Here is a concert poster from 2014, July for a concert at Southampton where she was headlining.
2014
Rhian’s gigs in 2014 as RHAIN
In 2014 Rhian released a song called Tumble Home
Rhian Photographed at the IoW festival 2014 by the Cosmopolitan. Her profession is mentioned as pianist.
Here is the concert poster for IoW 2014, featuring RHAIN on Saturday 14th June in the Kashmir Tent (meant for local musicians)
2015, April
Rhian moves to Bristol (at age 23) on the insistence of Bristol based music promoter Aled Chivers (whom she had first met at age 16, at around the same time as she was in music college – perhaps he was a guest at the college?). She signs up with his promotion company Chevrin, and between 2015 and 2019 releases 8 songs as RHAIN. She does odd jobs in Bristol and London to earn a living? Where? What?
2017: Tall Ships, Pavlova. She also releases an EP named Oscar November Echo
2018: Solid Gold, Time Traveler
2016
During this period, Rhian performs solo as RHAIN, as well as with Plastic Mermaid occasionally. Here is a gig she did at Sofar, London with Plastic Mermaid in 2016
https://youtu.be/pFZ-9K4PonQ
Rhian’s gigs in 2016 as RHAIN
The cover of RHAIN's EP, Released 1st Dec 2016
The Poster for RHAIN's first solo concert in London, Dec 2016
2017
Rhian’s gigs in 2017 as RHAIN
In 2017, Hester releases a couple of songs and videos with Josh, under the name Sleep Well. It is not clear if Sleep Well was the name of the song or their band name, or both. The videos have been removed from YouTube, but you can see snippets from both videos in the video "Wet Leg: Before They were Famous" at around 5:25:
The other song was Day After Day (also no longer available on YouTube).
2018, Apr 5
BBC records Time Traveler, which Rhian wrote about her grandad. Since he was born in the early twenties and had seen a great deal of modern history, she thinks of him as a time traveler.
Rhian received some positive press in the period 2016-2018 as RHAIN. Her voice was compared to that of Kate Bush, Bjork, and Joanna Newsom. In an interview, she said that she had been influenced by Devendra Banhart, Bjork, Joni Mitchell among others.
However, in later years she would look back with regret at this period.
“I think before when I was writing, I would try and overcomplicate stuff, and the singing. I would try and show off the full range of my voice, but that is just unnecessary. It’s like guys on guitar who shred; it’s just musical masturbation.”
However, it is difficult to believe that she would be able to do the amazing things that she does with her voice so effortlessly today, without all the hard work that she had put in, in this period. This should be a reality-check to would-be Rhian copy cats: you can’t carry off that ‘casual’, ‘nonchalent’ style of singing without years of grinding effort.
2018
Rhian’s gigs in 2018 as RHAIN (refer to this list for the next section)
2018, Summer
Despite critical success, Rhian appears not to have enjoyed a great deal of popular success. She says in several interviews that she got fed up doing solos, especially when she played a gig to just “one old man and his Wellies”. She started having anxiety attacks, and considered leaving the music industry. She asked Hester to help her out with her remaining gig commitments. They ended up having a really good summer hanging out and playing festivals [PSL 1:50]
[isq 2:32] “I started crying in second song, first concert at beginning of summer 2018.”
This has to be the Timber Festival on July 7, since summer officially starts on June 21 in UK. (see above gig list).
After that she “plucked up the courage” to ask Hester to join her in the remaining concerts. They practiced playing together. Rhian’s songs at this point were accompanied by herself on piano. The arrangements had to be reworked to include Hester’s guitar. Initially they were both petrified of each other. For Hester, it was the first time playing with just another woman. “It was like there were no boys to tell us what to do.” “It was just a silly thing. It soon passed. Now it is great to have so much autonomy”
All the gigs after the Timber Festival in the above gig list must have been done with Hester supporting Rhian on guitar.
2018, Sep 2
THE PACT ON THE FERRIS WHEEL
Rhian and Hester decide to launch the band on a Ferris wheel at the End of the Road Festival Aug 30, 2018 – Sep 2, 2018, after concert by Idles (on 2 Sep, Sunday). They met the band after the show and tried to get them to join them on the Ferris wheel, but the boys declined, so Rhian and Hester went alone. [Elton 1:00]. It is on the Ferris Wheel they make a pact to start a new band and focus simply on enjoying themselves and having fun, and not worrying about success. In another interview, they mention that this may have partly been as a result of seeing the Idles play as “the boys seem to be having so much fun on the stage”. They had also drunk a lot of beer, according to another interview, so that might have been a factor too.
Location: The Larmer Tree Gardens near Tollard Royal in south Wiltshire, England
Here is a retrospective video of the EOR festival, 2018. The famous Ferris wheel can be seen at 0:55 and 1:08. You can also see a snippet of the Idles concert at 4:00 (unrelated audio)
Here is a screen grab of the famous Ferris Wheel...
There is a video on YouTube that purports to be the Idles 2018 EoR concert, but from the markings on the video it is probably the 2017 Pohoda concert. Anyway, the EoR concert would have been something like this. If you have never seen the Idles in concert, this may give you some idea about what Rhian and Hester might have found so inspiring about it. (Personally, if you want my opinion, I think it was the beer).
2018 Sep – 2019 June
THE SOUND
They work on their sound, as described by Hester in this interview at around 4:04
[isq]They decided they would start a band, and both play guitar, although Rhian had never before played guitars, because they wanted to be a guitar band. “We never really thought it would be a serious band, so that has helped to get the band to an authentic and genuine place.”
FIRST SONG
They write a few songs: The first song they ever wrote together was “I wanna be abducted (by a UFO)” [riley 8:00]. Followed by Oh No, Too Late Now.
Rhian has been at pains to point out in various interviews that “I wanna be abducted” was the first true Wet Leg song. It was directly inspired by something that happened on the Ferris wheel. At one point, Hester had thrown her hands in the air and screamed “I wanna be abducted”. The very same night, they worked this into a song in their music room. [rnz 9:37]
Even though this song gets step-motherly treatment – it was not on the Wet Leg album, and they rarely play it in concerts - this is the quintessential Wet Leg song, much more so than Chaise Longue. Other than the fact that it was the first one, done on the night of the pact and directly inspired by a cry from the heart by Hester at the moment of birth of Wet Leg, it explores the feelings of alienation and wanting to get away that had driven them into launching a new band. It is also a salute to the artist whom they both acknowledge as their premier source of inspiration, David Bowie, and his Ziggy Stardust persona. One reason for its lack of prominence in the Wet Leg corpus could be due to the fact that the girls worry that this song could be perceived as regressive in the #MeToo world. Rhian mentioned this as a reason for adding “(by a UFO)” in the title.
See further down for the very first public performance of I Wanna be Abducted at their second ever gig.
Here is a sweet 2022 performance of the song at Copenhagen:
THE NAME
Rhian and Hester settle on Wet Leg as their band name. Why? They were asked this question hundreds of times in later interviews, and got used to giving pat and/or creative replies, but the answer that is closest to the truth is probably this Matt Wilkinson interview on July 7, 2021, shortly after the release of Chaise Lounge, and probably their first interview as Wet Leg. Hester answers in some detail, and the way they speak sounds more authentic than in later interviews. ( [matt 2:10])
At 2:10 in the interview, Hester says that they had a really long list of fun names (how they got the list is not clarified), but that name kept coming back. She found it funny. Rhian says she liked it because people got upset by it. Hester says that her aunt googled the name, and was worried that it had an unpleasant slang meaning (The term has several insalubrious definitions on Urban Dictionary, including “A person or persons with strangely damp legs. Possibly caused by sexual arousal or incontinence.”). This made them all the more determined to keep the name. Rhian was unsure about the name, but Hester fell in love with it. She even made two necklaces, one with “Wet” and another with “Leg”, and gave one to Rhian and wore one herself. At that point, Rhian gave in, seeing how Hester was sold on it [bri 24:10].
The above account actually ties in with the interview Doug Richards gave to the Sunday Times[glan]. He said he and his brother kept a school notebook where they kept noting down funny word combinations, for possible future use as band names. He had offered this notebook to Rhian and Hester, and they picked Wet Leg from it.
It also ties in with my own theory (which I propounded in my very first Wet Leg blog post), that it refers to what we might delicately call a ‘Tampon Crisis’. It is just the sort of thing which would appeal to the Rhian and Hester’s sense of humor.
THE FIRST HIATUS
Rhian returns to London for work, collaborates with Hester remotely.
[zoe]Teasdale did a season selling ice-cream, then went to London – worked at an ice-rink, did a stint as a wardrobe assistant for adverts.
[corey ] Rhian was working as fashion stylist’s assistant in London before Chaise Lounge got written
[shan] Rhian recently worked as a wardrobe assistant on the music video for Ed Sheeran’s track “Bad Habits”. “I’ve been working for my friend who’s a stylist and costume designer for about three years now (**). We mainly do commercials and boring stuff like that, but sometimes we’ll do a music video. We didn’t dress Ed, though. We worked with his cool vampire squad.” The experience gave Rhian the confidence to come up with the cottagecore-inspired looks for Wet Leg’s own music videos. Without the know-how, they wouldn’t have ordered “an obscene amount of stuff from the internet” to try on and ultimate make part of their image.
[**Interview was in August2022, so she must have started the job in 2019]
June 2019 onwards, they do a few gigs, with a few supporting musicians. Rhian's boyfriend Doug Richards from Plastic Mermaids on drums. Michael Champion from Champs, another IoW band, on bass. Rhian had earlier supported both the bands in her RHAIN period.
2019, June 16
FIRST GIG
The very first wet Leg gig happened at the Isle of Wight Festival 2019, which took place from 13 to 16 June, 2019. They played in the Kashmir Tent, which is a small stage reserved for locals, to a small group of friends
Hester: "We played for about 30 minutes, including cover of a friend's song."
This is the first time that the name Wet Leg appears on a poster:
A video of the gig (first three clips. The following clips are from the Rythmtree festival (third gig)
Set List: ?? To be done
Drums: Doug Richards,
Bass: Michael Champion
Rhian and Hester at IoW 2019, shortly after the gig (posted on their Instagram account)
2019, June 26
SECOND GIG
At Newport, Isle of Wight.
This clip contains just one song, the first public performance of their very first song, I Wanna be Abducted.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2l4nKGP15g
Set List: ?? To be done
Drums: Doug Richards,
Bass: Michael Champion
2019, July 13
THIRD GIG
At the Rhythmtree Festival, IoW. The following video shows just one song, Sharks. But there are two more songs from the Rythmtree festival in the second half of the video posted above, for the IoW gig
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SycvMBxqMo
Set List: Sharks, ... ?? To be done
Drums: Doug Richards,
Bass: Michael Champion
Hester at the Rythmtree festival 2019
2019, July 17
Rhian and Hester practice the "W Leg" dance move in their garden
2019, July 19
FOURTH GIG
BlueDot Festival in Cheshire 18-21 JULY 2019 (they played on Friday 19)
Set List : To be done??
Bass: Josh
Drums: Doug Richards
The full video of this gig is no longer available on YouTube, but there is a clip of it in this larger video made by Joe Gray, called "Wet Leg, before they were famous". The BlueDot clip is at 13:50.
https://youtu.be/H2W4hsyolfU?t=830
Photos of the Blue Dot festival, by @raelperson and @bennys_gigstagram. Was this the first public performance of the "W Leg" dance move?
Set List: Red Eggs, Wolves, Oh No, Sharks, TFOZ (early version of Too Late Now), Ooh (Plastic Mermaids cover)
Drums: Doug Richards,
Bass: Michael Champion
This gig is where their future drummer Harry Holmes sees them for the first time. Holmes was playing at the same gig with another band, the Lunateers. He says in an interview that he was “fucking mind blown by Wet Leg. I thought, ‘I think I’d like to be in that band’, and it kind of all worked out.” [nard 9:38]
This gig is notable, as you can see Rhian and Hester experimenting with various styles, trying to find the right sound. The punk version Oh No is particularly good, and in many ways better than the pop version which was released two years later.
Here is what The Rose in Ventnor used to look like (I understand it is now closed). Ventnor is a town to the south of IoW.
SIXTH GIG (aborted)
They were scheduled to play at a Hallowe'en show in 2019 as well, but pulled out. Thanks to Toby Collard for this info.
Rhian says in an interview that Domino signed them up after “only four gigs” [riley]. But this only happens in Nov 2020. So, no more gigs for one year after these first five initial gigs (Rhian obviously forgets about one of the gigs in the interview).
2019 Aug 17 - Dec 20
THE BIG PAUSE
After these initial gigs in 2019, Rhian returns to London to resume work as assistant to fashion stylist.
2019, Dec 20
CHAISE LONGUE
Rhian stays over with Hester and Joshua in their flat at the IoW for the Christmas holidays [riley 8:30], so sometime before Christmas Day. She sleeps on Hester’s Chaise Longue, which Hester had “inherited”. She had come for just a short sleepover of two days, but stayed on for six weeks [riley].
Here is a picture that Rhian posted on Instagram dated Dec 27 2019. Possibly it shows them working on Chaise Longue. Is that a bit of the famous chaise longue sticking out of the corner of the photo?
2020, Jan
Chaise Longue gets written in week-5 of the sleepover [riley 8:40], so in the third week of 2020. They wrote many silly songs together. Chaise Longue was one of them. It referred to the Chaise Longue on which Rhian was sleeping. The ‘Excuse Me’ in the song refers to the fact that from her Chaise Longue Rhian was shouting out to Hester who was cooking in the kitchen, and Hester kept saying ‘Excuse Me’.
Here is a photo that Rhian posted on Jan 17 2020, around the time that Chaise Lounge demo was first recorded. The photo shows her and what seems to be Henry Holmes. Possibly he had joined the sleepover gang for the drums at this point.
CHAISE LONGUE ARRANGEMENT
In this ABC radio interview done by Andrew Ford [abc 12:30], Josh describes in detail how Chaise Lounge was arranged. Skip to 12:30.
2020, Feb
After eventually leaving Hester and Joshua as “the guest who refuses to leave”, Rhian might have returned to London to resume her job with the fashion stylist. But she was back at the IoW shortly before the first lockdown in March, as the Chaise Lounge video was made in IoW during the first lockdown. Or she might not have left IoW at all – she might have moved from Hester’s flat to her mom’s home or to Doug’s home (see below).
2020, March 26
Start of First COVID lockdown
2020, April
Chaise Lounge Video made in April 2020
The Angelica video was apparently also made at the same time (to be verified), although the single and video don't get officially released until 28th Feb 2022.
A detailed account of how Wet Leg landed their record deal is given in this Billboard interview.
Their bassist for the first four gigs, Michael Champion, who also happened to be A&R executive for management company Hall or Nothing, sent the video to his boss, Martin Hall. Hall loved the video and signed on as their manager. He said: “The fact that you can’t see Hester’s face in the whole video, the humor involved, it’s hard to do humor in music videos, but it’s so dry, the way Rhian sings to camera. It sounded unlike anything else.”
Hall sent the video and other early Wet Leg demos to Domino, Island Record and others. Domino and Island Records sent over representatives to the Isle of Wight to meet the band. “It seemed to me that they were making guitar music for themselves,” says Jordan Whitmore, Domino’s U.K. A&R manager. “They were not trying to be like anyone else or taking themselves too seriously.” Over a pint and some chips at the Spyglass pub, Teasdale and Chambers bonded with the Domino team and signed with the label in November 2020.
Their meetings with Domino executives and executives of other recording companies happen in restaurants, over falafel. So, it would be between the lockdowns, when restaurants are open again. The Domino executives order the better falafel, so they are selected.[abs 2:00] (the falafel story might be one of Rhian's obscure jokes)
2020, 5 Nov
Second Lockdown Start
2020, Nov
Signed up to Domino. Exact Date??
2020, Dec 2
Second Lockdown End
2021, Jan 4
Third Lockdown Start
???
Chaise Lounge is produced somewhere in this period??
???
Doug sends his infamous WhatsApp message to Rhian, and she writes the song Wet Dream in fury “shortly after receiving the message” [riley 12:00]. Presumably, the message was sent several months after the breakup March 2020, to allow time for regret to sink in. He might have heard of her success in signing up with Domino, which might have added to the regret. And the song would have been written several months prior to the release in Sep 2021, to allow for arrangement, production, and marketing. So, he might have sent the message somewhere around here, during the third lockdown when many people sat at home and introspected on life. This is as good a guess as any. Only Rhian and Doug know the exact date.
2021, May 17
Third Lockdown End
2021, June 15
Chaise Lounge is Released by Domino
Chaise Lounge goes viral shortly after release
Lockdown over, Holmes joins the band as replacement for Doug Richards for live gigs, as well as Josh and Ellis as replacement for Michael Champion. They play Latitude and Greenman festivals with the new lineup right after lockdown and Chaise Lounge success.
Wet Leg gigs in 2021, the first “true” Wet Leg gigs.
2021, July 23
First (major) gig post fame: Latitude Henham Park, Suffolk
“Wet Leg's first proper gig was in the new bands tent at Latitude Festival 2021. The buzz about the Isle of Wight band from debut single 'Chaise Longue' was so big, the queue to get in the tent was 100s deep. Here's them playing an early version of 'Being In Love'”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vur1gaNycvQ
Pictures of the Latitude gig by Katie Willoughby and others:
Poster of the Latitude Festival. Wet Leg is outlined in red if you expand the pic:.
2021, Late July, Early August???
Wet Dream is produced somewhere around here, as follow up after success of Chaise Lounge ?? The video is probably also made around this time. It was clearly shot in the summer, it had to have been shot after the Chaise Lounge success, it was released on 28th Sep 2021. So this puts a date of late July - early August 2021. If anyone knows the precise dates, I would be happy to update this.
2021, Aug 19
Second (major) gig post fame: Greenman Festival
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8FELWZcmZw
2021, Sep 19
Third (major) gig post fame: At IoW Festival 2021
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqENo5zJQn8
Other Early Gigs:
They appear to have done some minor gigs in August and September, prior to this, as evidenced by some of these concert posters dated 5 Aug, 28 Aug and 3 Sep:
2021, Sept 28
Second single "Wet Dream" released. Album art.
The video was released on the same day. When was it made ? To be verified.
2021, Oct
Gigs in October 2021
Other gigs in Late October 2021, not mentioned in above poster
OCT 29-30,2021,London Calling, Amsterdam, Netherlands
OCT 26, 2021, Omeara, London, UK
OCT 24, 2021, McChuills, Glasgow, UK
OCT 23, 2021, Night & Day Cafe, Manchester, UK
2021, Oct 30
They appear on Later... with Jools Holland on BBC2
2021, Nov
Gigs in November 2021
NOV 25,2021,O2 Academy Brixton,London, UK
NOV 19,20,2021,Super Bock em Stock, Lisbon, Portugal
NOV 15-22, Pitchfork Paris, Paris, France
NOV 17, 2021,Leadmill, Sheffield, UK
NOV 10, 2021, The Mill, Birmingham, UK
2021, Nov 29
Release the double-single "Too Late Now" / "Oh No" Along with the videos.
2021, Dec
2021, Dec 1
Tiny Desk (Home) Concert, on 1st Dec 2021
Filming for the Too Late Now video somewhere in early Dec 2021. Was the Oh No video shot around the same time, since both songs were released together?
2021, Dec 8
FIRST AMERICAN TOUR
In December 2021, Wet Leg did their first US tour, highlighted by their first appearance on US TV, Late Night With Seth Meyers. The YouTube video seems to have been pulled off, but here is a screenshot:
2021, Dec 7
This was their very first concert in US, Mercury Lounge, NY
These were the dates of the first US tour:
DEC 7,2021, Mercury Lounge, New York, NY
DEC 8,2021, Union Pool, Brooklyn, NY
DEC 9,2021 Baby’s All Right, Brooklyn, NY
DEC 13,2021 Grand Ole Echo Los Angeles, CA
DEC 14,2021 The Moroccan Lounge Los Angeles, CA
DEC 15,2021 Rickshaw Stop San Francisco, CA
DEC 16,2021 Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, San Francisco, CA
DEC 17,18 2021 Hollywood Palladium Los Angeles, CA
2022
UK Tour Dates Jan 2022
2022, 28th Feb Angelica single and video are publicly released, although the video was probably made around the same time as the Chaise Lounge video (to be verified). (see above).
Second American Tour Dates March 2022
2022, 10th March They appear on the Tonight Show while on their first US tour.
UK Tour Dates April 2022
2022, April 8
Debut self-titled album released by Domino.
2022, June 20
Wet Leg play to the home crowd at the Isle of Wight Festival 2022, with friends and family welcoming the conquering heroines. Possibly the best Wet Leg concert ever. Watching it, you feel a part of the Wet Leg family.
First Australian Tour Dates July 2022
Third American Tour Dates, July-Oct 2022
2022, Aug 18
Wet Leg play at Routes du Rock, St Malo 2022
2022, Aug 29
Wet Leg play at Lollapalooza 2022
2022, Oct 11 They appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live while on the second American tour.
European Tour Dates Oct-Nov 2022
2022, Nov 16
Wet Leg are nominated for five Grammys
This is their cute reaction video:
UK Tour Dates Nov 2022:
New Your Gigs Dec 2022
Last US Concert of 2022 at Williamsburg (probably their last concert of 2022):
2022, Dec
Rhian finally feels secure enough about her music career to give up her day job as a fashion stylist’s assistant in London. She has had this job since 2019 (three years).[shan]
(Although, it is hard to believe she had done any work at all at her day job, in the preceding 15 months...)
And the rest, as they say…
Sources / Further Reading
[riley] The primary source that I used was an interview that Rhian and Hester did with Jill Riley in 2021 for the Current. This is probably the best Wet Leg interview from the historian’s perspective, as Jill systematically leads Rhian and Hester through their formative period, without fluff and nonsense, and for once, the girls give straightforward replies without wisecracks and tall tales, and without cracking-up giggling, as they are so often wont to do.
Contrast this with an interview they did on the Isle of Wight in 2022, possibly the worst interview the girls have ever done **. They giggle uncontrollably throughout, and the interviewer is almost tearing his hair towards the end. And they crack inscrutable jokes about their second album, which goes on to cause a great deal of confusion in the Wet Leg world. (** for a historian that is, but pure joy for Wet Leg fans – this is Rhian and Hester undiluted!!!)
I followed up on Jill Riley interview by tracking down precise dates and corroborative data from other sources, and mining nuggets of info from other interviews. The Riley interview is referenced in the timeline as [riley mm:ss] where mm:ss is the time into the video.
[werth] A great source of info for the events leading up to the signing up with Domino Records are this Billboard interview with Christine Werthman...
[glan] Josh Glancy interviews Rhian’s ex-boyfriend Doug Richards for the Sunday Times, where he speaks about his breakup with Rhian, being the first Wet Leg drummer, being the real-life inspiration behind all the Wet Leg bad-boyfriend songs.
[corey ]Corey Seymour interviews Rhian and Hester for Vogue. Rhian was working as fashion stylist’s assistant in London before Chaise Lounge got written
[sirus]Interview with an acoustic concert on Canadian radio station SiriusXMU sessions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKfc4QxrBd8
[nard ] Nardwuar interviews the full Wet Leg team at Neptoon Records in Vancouver, Canada. Mostly useless interview as the interviewer spends more time talking than his guests, but it does contain two nuggets of information: the first time Henry Holmes saw Wet Leg, and Rhian’s part-time jobs prior to success.
2:32 started crying in second song, first concert at beginning of summer 2018. So it has to be the Timber Festival on July 7 (summer officially starts on June 21 in UK). After that she “plucked up the courage” to ask Hester to join her in the remaining concerts. They practiced playing together. Initially they were both petrified of each other. For Hester, it was the first time playing with just another woman. “It was like there were no boys to tell us what to do.” “It was just a silly thing. It soon passed. Now it is great to have so much autonomy”
They decided they would start a band, and both play guitar, although Rhian had never before played guitars, because they wanted to be a guitar band. “We never really thought it would be a serious band, so that has helped to get the band to an authentic and genuine place.” Chaise Longue got sent to an agent by their former bass player, and they were surprised it was going to be their first release, as it was “never meant to be a thing. We were writing different music at the time.” Too Late now was written to fille the set, more chordy
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