Wet Leg are a British

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

band from the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Isle of ...

, founded in 2019 by Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers. They debuted with the single "

Chaise Longue A chaise longue (; , "long chair") is an upholstered sofa in the shape of a chair that is long enough to support the legs of the sitter. In modern French the term ''chaise longue'' can refer to any long reclining chair such as a deckchair. A ...

" in 2021. Their self-titled debut album debuted in 2022 at number one on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

, Australia's

ARIA Albums Chart The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

, and the

Irish Albums Chart The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA). The charts were previously compiled on behalf of IRMA by Chart-Track, and have been compiled by the ...

. The album was shortlisted for the 2022

Mercury Prize The Mercury Prize, formerly called the Mercury Music Prize, is an annual music prize awarded for the best album released in the United Kingdom by a British or Irish act. It was created by Jon Webster and Robert Chandler in association with the B ...

. At the

65th Annual Grammy Awards The 65th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony will be held at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on February 5, 2023. It will recognize the best recordings, compositions, and artists of the eligibility year, running from October 1, 2021, to September 30 ...

, Wet Leg won

Best Alternative Music Album The Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album is an award presented to recording artists for quality albums in the alternative genre at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. Ho ...

for their debut and

Best Alternative Music Performance The Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album is an award presented to recording artists for quality albums in the alternative genre at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. Ho ...

for "Chaise Longue", and were nominated for

Best New Artist The Grammy Award for Best New Artist has been awarded since 1959. Years reflect the year in which the Grammy Awards were handed out, for records released in the previous year. The award was not presented in 1967. The official guidelines are as ...

History

Early lives

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan county, metropolitan and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England, 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Merse ...

-born Teasdale moved from

Formby Formby is a town and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England, which had a population of 22,419 at the 2011 Census. Historically in Lancashire, three manors are recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 under "For ...

to the Isle of Wight when she was eight. She performed for many years on the Isle of Wight as a local musician and pianist, and prior to forming Wet Leg, was known as RHAIN and was linked to the music scene in Bristol. As RHAIN, Teasdale performed her song "Humdrum Drivel" in 2013. In 2014 she was photographed by ''Cosmopolitan'' magazine while attending the Isle of Wight music festival.

2021–present: Band beginnings and first studio album

Teasdale and Chambers first met at Platform One College of Music on the Isle of Wight while studying. After ten years of friendship, they became a musical duo in 2019 under the name Wet Leg, signed with

Domino Recording Company Domino Recording Company or simply Domino is a British independent record label based in London. There is also a wing of the label based in Brooklyn, New York that handles releases in the United States, as well as a German division called Dom ...

. According to a December 2021 interview, they chose the name by playing a game—picking different

emoji An emoji ( ; plural emoji or emojis) is a pictogram, logogram, ideogram or smiley embedded in text and used in electronic messages and web pages. The primary function of emoji is to fill in emotional cues otherwise missing from typed conversat ...

combinations; on getting to Wet Leg, it stuck. In an interview with Diffus posted on YouTube in April 2022, the band stated that their name came from an Isle of Wight

epithet An epithet (, ), also byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) known for accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, di ...

to describe non-locals on the island. Those who had crossed the

Solent The Solent ( ) is a strait between the Isle of Wight and Great Britain. It is about long and varies in width between , although the Hurst Spit which projects into the Solent narrows the sea crossing between Hurst Castle and Colwell Bay to ...

to reach the isle were said to have a wet leg from getting off the boat. Wet_Leg_(52031506992)

Their debut single, "

", was released on 15 June 2021, and gained media notice for earning millions of streams and video views. Their second single, "

Wet Dream A nocturnal emission, informally known as a wet dream, sex dream, nightfall or sleep orgasm, is a spontaneous orgasm during sleep that includes ejaculation for a male, or vaginal wetness or an orgasm (or both) for a female. Nocturnal emissions ...

", was released on 28 September 2021. ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' noted, "It's rare that a new group releases two songs and they're both great". They appeared on '' Later... with Jools Holland'' on BBC2, on 30 October 2021. On 29 November 2021, they announced their debut self-titled album, released on 8 April 2022 via Domino. The same day, Wet Leg released the double-single "

Too Late Now "Too Late Now" is a song by English indie rock duo Wet Leg. It was written by both members of the band, Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers, with bassist Michael Champion. As for most of their debut album, the track was produced by Dan Carey. It ...

" / "Oh No". In 2022, they toured the UK playing songs from their first album. It was announced that they would tour Australia and New Zealand as the support band for a tour by

Harry Styles Harry Edward Styles (born 1 February 1994) is an English singer, songwriter, and actor. His musical career began in 2010 as a solo contestant on the British music competition series ''The X Factor (UK TV series), The X Factor''. Following hi ...

in 2023. Wet Leg appeared on ''Later... with Jools Holland'' in November 2021 and returned for the first part of his next series in May 2022. In an interview with Andrew Ford of ABC in Australia in July 2022, Wet Leg clarified that a comment about a completed second album in a previous interview was "a big joke". "We haven't got a second album; we haven't had any time to write". Wet Leg received three nominations at the

, including

("Chaise Longue") and

. On 5 February 2023, at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, Wet Leg won two Grammys, for Best Alternative Music Performance and Best Alternative Music Album. Wet Leg won Best New Artist and Group of the Year at the

Brit Awards 2023 Brit Awards 2023, the 43rd edition of the ceremony, presented by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), was held on 11 February 2023 to recognise the best in British and international music. The ceremony took place at The O2 Arena in London, and ...

where they performed "Chaise Longue" with the prog Morris dance troup, Boss Morris, and their Morris beasts.

Members

* Rhian Teasdale – lead vocals, rhythm guitar * Hester Chambers – lead guitar, backing vocals

Touring members

* Henry Holmes – drums, percussion * Ellis Durand – bass, backing vocals * Josh Mobaraki – additional guitars, synthesizer, backing vocals

Discography

Studio albums

Extended plays

Singles

Music videos

Accolades

References

External links

* *
RHAIN Bandcamp
{{Authority control 2019 establishments in England Brit Award winners Britpop groups Domino Recording Company artists English indie rock groups Female musical duos Grammy Award winners Musical groups established in 2019 Musical groups from the Isle of Wight Rock music duos