Words by Spring Wise. Photos by Dan Reddick.
The Pill – Polly Money – Welly
Early on Thursday morning, and this is no word of a lie, I accidentally exposed myself to a man putting up scaffolding at my house.
With some kind of cosmic synchronicity, the first track from delightfully odd Isle of Wight chaos duo, The Pill, that evening was a song about this exact situation.
Having just recently joined the tour, I had not been expecting to see them at this show, cue me exuberantly screaming ‘BIMBO BUTTHOLE TITS’ to the polite bafflement of everyone in my immediate vicinity. I’m guessing they had not heard that song before, but it made sense to them later. Wry and offbeat, with a whimsical agitated energy, they were the perfect opener for a crowd who were already crammed in and willing to frenzy.
The pace changed dramatically when Polly Money took the stage with a sophisticated R&B set that felt a little out of kilter with the energy of the night.
She was all flawless musicianship and 80s tone, with a rhythm section to die for and gorgeous voice, but didn’t quite grab the excitable crowd by the lapels in the way that was needed.
The venue was fizzing with home crowd anticipation by the time Amarillo crashed through the sound system for a proper, drunk-at-a-festival singalong intro.
The five (incredibly young) members of Welly brought an implausible level of electricity for a Thursday night, and it became apparent that the room was 70-80% fans, joyfully roaring the lyrics and giving a raucous level of banter.
Very firmly Sotonian, I start to think maybe this band is our new musical poster child.
High octane Brit-Pop, but self aware enough for a 2020s’ crowd, it feels like this band are already huge. Dressed in various degrees of school uniform, they gave a shout-out to their former geography teacher in the crowd, and I was sure I could see a good few mums, dads, and even grans, amongst the fans; this is a band already beloved by its home city, and Dork Magazine are on the money to rate them as up and comers in 2025.
I hope to see them billed at plenty of festivals this summer.
Frontman Elliott has a bit of a Damon Allbarn swagger that made me feel nostalgic, but most of the time I couldn’t take my eyes off bass player Jacob, who zooms and leaps around like a human Sonic the Hedgehog, seemingly immune to physical exhaustion, as if the concept of amphetamines were a bassist, but in a very sweet way (who would be polite to your mum).
I can’t wait to see them again, hopefully in a bigger venue, as I’m confident they will soon be able to fill out a larger space.
Catch them now while their shows are small and intimate so you can brag about it in the future.
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