peggy sue & THE pictures

The set begins simply with Rosa Rex on a tiny toy piano, Katy Klaw on drumstick-banging duties and newbie drummer, Ollie Joyce, buried at the back playing a bit of minimal snare. Rosa and Katy’s voices are a match made in Anti-Folk Heaven: Katy sounds delicate and smoky against Rosa’s warm, tear-streaked vocals - though they both share the nakedly beautiful staccato quality of Regina Spektor. The ladies are stunning multi-instrumentalists as well, passing and acoustic guitar between them in addition to a makeshift drum-box, a kick-tambourine, a small glockenspiel…even simply clapping hands to create layers of rhythm. Their songs rage from stark and heartbreakingly discordant ballads to quick-witted and humorous tales, most popularly one of a disenchanted Superman with wardrobe issues. When Left With Pictures join Peggy Sue on stage, their contributions create a more full-bodied, intricately layered brand of music, a similar animal to what the girls have done on their own but tending more towards the sound of epic sea shanties and, as it happens, producing a phenomenal cover of Talking Heads’ ‘Psychokiller’. With the release of the EP and the finish of the tour, the band are now back to plain Peggy Sue, no pirates, no pictures…but having compared themselves to the Harry Potter books, perhaps Peggy Sue and the Goblet of Cider is next.