ME & THEE
One Last Meal Together - Live Bootleg from Newhampton Inn, Wolverhampton
(Youtube)
It opens with the end, showcasing pianist Polina Novikova iridescence on the keyboard in her final performance as a member of Me and Thee before undertaking a new career as an Opera singer in Glasgow. Geographically an incompatible suburb of Wolverhampton.
Despite the doom and gloomy circumstance—after all, singer Charlie Greenway has alluded to Me & Thee actually existing for Polina, their performance before a packed-in crowd at the Newhampton Inn in Wolverhampton was an irrepressibly louche and indefatigably strong one. The critically acclaimed single, 'School of Blackbelts', was played right upfront, reassuringly, the audience knew enough of the words to sing right along with guitarist and singer, Charlie.
There’s a touch of an indie-gutter-star spangled hootenanny about the affair, Charlie wrestling his acoustic guitar, stand up drummer, Meg, a ukulele singing star in her own right and Josh on bass keep the songs together; guitarist Jake teases melodies from his telecaster, and the purest of all of their wildcards is Zack on fiddle… Oh wows! I mean it. Charlie of course drives everything, from the centre. He is the molten core. Everything here means so much to him. And you can hear it.
“It was a really weighty and emotional show,” Charlie says, “I think you can hear that in the performance. Everyone who’s heard it has said 'how come I’m screaming all the way through it'. I don’t know, but I do remember it being bittersweet. Polina was finally leaving for Glasgow to follow her dream of singing opera. I really loved her to say the least. It was heartbreaking really, knowing this was it.”
Guitarist Jake too, was in the middle of a hard time and their relationship, Charlie suggests, had drifted as they’d both become a little disillusioned with the band.
The music, the performance, included the song from a classic Cadbury’s Flake commercial, a nice, knowing touch,will stand even if it is possible that Me and Thee the band will not. And while I subsequently saw Charlie and Zack open for Pete Doherty and perform at the LTB showrooms, what's next for these guys, who knows.Charlie says, “None of us knew it’d be the last time that line up would play together. It was even named ‘one last meal together’ before we found that out.”
