By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: *****

WHEN?: Sunday 23 March, tour runs through August 2025 Tickets

Setlist: Big In The Suburbs; Knock And Run; Soak Up The Culture; Shopping; Country Cousins; Life Is A Motorway; It’s Not Like This In France; Me And Your Mates

Debut album Big In The Suburbs has been in the world for less than 72 hours and we hear 3 songs from it tonight that we’ve not heard Welly play live before.

• Read on for reasons including how things are just beginning for this band

We arrive after the doors have opened for a record signing gig in an east London store we’ve not visited before and spot several band members outside the bar opposite as if keeping an eye on those arriving.

Rough Trade East has a bar and sells cans of lager to visitors which helps this gig ahead of a record signing go with a swing.

Not that alcohol was needed as we join the audience near the front where the young and boisterous female contingent are and they are singing along to the 2 final tunes before Welly’s appearance – always a great sign that band and fans are in synch – Blur‘s majestic Girls And Boys and Chappell Roan‘s fantastic Hot To Go!

The band appears joining in with the choreographed dancing to Hot To Go! that the audience is doing and lead singer Welly hopes that the response to their set will be as enthusiastic.

Welly have come a long way since we 1st saw them live in The Scoop at London Bridge in 2023 and bassist Jacob leans into the crowd during their opening song to encourage them to join in and the reception is warm.

The 1st new song we hear tonight is Knock And Run which sounds a little like an indie Macarena with lyrics about school counterparts: ‘Here come the boys from the bottom set with the girls that can say it with their chests.’

Lead singer Welly’s got a cold and speculates people at the signing later might come away with something a little more than they expected afterwards.

He asks whether anyone’s done a gap year and if so where and ‘Leicester’ is the slightly awkward audience response but the patter is so relaxed that live really does feel now like Welly’s natural habitat.

Welly straps on a guitar for song 2 of our new listens and it’s the slightly more Oasis-ish Country Cousins which examines the urban/rural divide from an unexpected standpoint and concludes: ‘I found humility in a place enough to change my mind when you’re the epitome of ‘it ain’t pretty but it’s mine’.’

Final new song Life Is A Motorway signifies for us that things are just beginning for this band, the tank is full and the journey’s going to be long and eventful. We can’t wait to experience it from the passenger seat.

The set finishes with Me And Your Mates which is always a live highlight, the 1st song we heard from this band and reminds just how far they’ve come already.

And, as if to prove it, there’s a new single and video from the album (see above). Welly says: ‘Me and the mighty Harv spent 24 hours in Paris. The last of the album millions has gone. This is my favourite tune in the album.’

• 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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