By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****1/2

WHEN?: Wednesday 4 December 2024, tour runs through 15 Febuary 2025

Setlist: It’s Not Like This In France; Deere John; Soak Up The Culture; Shopping; Cul De Sac; Home For The Weekend; Jockey; Big In The Suburbs; Me And Your Mates

Q: What do Welly have in common with Pet Shop Boys, Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine, Cocteau Twins, The Jesus and Mary Chain and The Marine Girls?

• Read on for reasons including how everyone needs to give their life a bit of Welly in 2025

A: They don’t have a drummer.

That could be a quiz question in the ‘same pub with the same old pints’ that Welly reminisce about as they miss their suburban life in track Home For The Weekend which features here and on their 8-track Live In A Village Hall mini album of 2023.

They open with It’s Not Like This In France, with the country currently leading the UK news with its PM threatening to resign as the government collapses, and it pulls the neat lyrical trick of allowing the listener to contemplate their current location through the comparison with another.

It’s a concept that drives their debut album proper Big In The Suburbs – out 21 March 2025 – which boasts a title track about wanting your name in streetlights in a landscape that will ‘never ever change’ while simultaneously ‘running out of time’.

The music bands play by other artists before and after their sets often give you a sense of where their aspirations lie and notable tracks enveloping this fine set like a warm hug include those by Girls Aloud, Duran Duran and, we think, Whigfield.

The choice of venue for Welly’s biggest London gig so far also seems very them as the MOTH in MOTH Club stands for Memorable Order of Tin Hats, an ex-service organisation, and this is the National Service Tour.

It’s also under threat of closure and so when Welly contemplates the closure of our high streets during recent fine single Shopping it’s a sentiment enhanced by its location.

We love Welly because they’ve had a fantastic run of catchy singles with brilliant lyrics and they are energetically performed to an enthusiastic crowd joining in with the best call-and-response elements of the lyrics here.

Welly even finds time after the gig to record a quick message for A Humdrum Mum who discovered the band at Victorious Festival and said of their Southampton gig on their National Service Part 1 Tour in September: ‘Still continuing in the style of The Kinks, The Jam and Blur with their playful, suburban observations, the newer songs seem more meaty and less frivolous.’

We would’ve liked to have heard more of that debut album at this gig but there is plenty of time to do that next year and February tour dates have already been announced (ticket link below).

We’re asked whether we think 2025 could be Welly’s year and we think it could well be. It’s a great sign that Welly and band member Matt Gleeson engineered the album because that shows real ownership of the music.

We’d also love to hear them more on the radio because they might not have a drummer but everyone needs to give their life a bit of Welly in 2025.

• Main pictures via Facebook courtesy Welly Tickets
• Have you seen a Welly show before and what did you think of this 1? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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