Welly, the up and coming British band, are returning to their lead singer’s roots, with a homecoming gig at The Joiners next month, coming off the back of their performance at Victorious Festival at the weekend.
Playing with notions of artifice and aspiration, style and self, the group’s titular frontman, songwriter and producer was born in Southampton and listened to just six songs on a loop as a child. A love of Hanif Kureshi and Alan Bennett unlocked an obsession for pop music in 2014 when Welly’s Dad showed him the video to Common People and it became clear to him that you could apply such a lens to what’s in the charts as well.
Currently satisfying his people-watching itch by working as a greengrocer, Welly are blazing a trail through the great, grassroots British tradition, ambitious to reconnect it with the mainstream band. Shopping was a riotous love letter to the UK high street, as fascinated by modern consumerism as the left-field bangers of, say, Girls Aloud; Soak Up The Culture sends up yet pays loving tribute to the anthems of lads-on-tour, with its cast of characters each in pursuit of a brief moment in the sun; while Deere John crashes together the best bits of punk, indie-disco and DIY electronics over curtain-twitching suburban storytelling and recounts the unlikely tableaux of a husband, a wife and a lawnmower.
Welly are rallying an audience in search of something different and something fun. The band’s hilarious Instagram reels have quickly gone viral, taking nothing too seriously but remaining deeply sincere. Here are songs about wanting more than you have, about general tensions, and about figuring out how to be happy under the nose of your neighbour. Welly’s tales from the suburbs are just beginning.
SEPTEMBER
Wed 11 GLOUCESTER Guildhall
Thu 12 NEWPORT Le Pub
Fri 13 EXETER Cavern
Sun 15 SOUTHAMPTON Joiners
Mon 16 BRIGHTON Concorde 2 (Freshers Event)
Tue 17 ST ALBANS The Horn
Wed 18 READING Purple Turtle
Thu 19 NORWICH Waterfront
Sat 21 CAMBRIDGE Blue Moon
Sun 22 GUILDFORD Boiler Room
Tue 24 TUNBRIDGE WELLS Forum
Wed 25 MARGATE Where Else?
Thu 26 LEWES Con Club
Fri 27 NORTHAMPTON Garibaldi
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Read our interview with Welly:
Interview: Southampton singer/songwriter Welly on single Shopping and more