By Carron Stacey, A Humdrum Mum

WHEN? Tuesday 14 October, tour runs through 1 November 2025

I can’t count how many times we’ve seen Welly, kings of observation-ridden indie pop for the thinking fan.

• Read on for reasons including how this young Damon Albarn is inspired by Charli XCX’s brat

From stumbling upon them at Victorious in the World Stage area, up to the debut album release in-store acoustic gigs, with numerous tour dates in between, we are super fans! 

They’ve gone from wanting to emulate Blur‘s Parklife (Big in the Suburbs, released March 2025) to now wanting to do a “Charli XCX’s brat album”. Going by her definition, they certainly are authentic, spontaneous and they unapologetically self-express.

Let’s not ignore Welly’s clever lyrics, akin to the path led by The Kinks, The Jam, Blur, Pulp. Listen to the words of the song Big in the Suburbs: “It’s property and proper tea and trains running late …  A beautiful new estate named after farmland it’s replaced”. That last line, sort of a middle eight, is sung quietly with no music and is so powerful. Yes they like to have an on-stage party, yes they are confident beyond belief but let’s not forget they know their roots and they sing about them so well. 

It appears this gig is a turning point for us – new tracks (Act Your Age, Calvin Klein, Skinny Boy and Flower of London, check out 2 of those at the link below) all had an industrial techno edge for us. Admittedly we’re off to Berlin on holiday soon and are hoping to find music loved by Thilo (the techno loving squatter in the Netflix drama Kleo, set in the era of the fall of the Berlin Wall) so we may have been unconsciously biased. We are also wondering what the online teaser about London Fields is about, having listened to Flower of London. 

Welly himself again has a throat infection; this is the second time we’ve seen a gig after he’s spent the afternoon in Southampton General Hospital. He apologises if it’s “a bit shit”. Of course it isn’t. There is though a different feel to the gig. Discarded are the PE kits (their USP in the old days). 

I later tell Welly that I’m happy with that, shows they’re moving on. He agrees. Another change: guitarist Matt Gleeson joins Hanna on keyboards, for some new tracks. Perhaps due to his illness, Welly isn’t the main provocateur on stage tonight – it’s bassist Jacob. He’s the one geeing up the crowd for louder cheers. He’s the one not exactly crowd surfing, more standing in the middle of the mosh pit playing his bass. In fact, for their encore of Me and Your Mates (please don’t ever stop playing that one), Welly plays Jacob’s bass and Jacob sings in the audience. I like it. We all like it. 

Later on, Welly himself tells me that they’ve been doing this recently (they used to do it in the old days) and he likes it because it’s easier than singing. About his band mates, he tells us “these guys have got it so easy. I need to start paying myself. I’m putting in so much more work!” The nicest thing is that Welly invited their support bands, Lemonsuckr and Slag (who actually met at a Welly gig), to join them on-stage for their encore.

Post-gig, Welly is as generous with his time as ever and after talking with fans and sweet older family members, we have our monstagigz chat. I ask what’s new, what’s different. “It’s actually eerily similar,” he admits. “Still working at a veg market, still living in Brighton in the same house with Joe and Jacob,  still trying to get a proper record deal. We are playing bigger and bigger rooms though, so it’s really paying off. We’re seeing the rewards. We’re big enough now that we can bring a band we like on tour with us because usually you don’t get a choice.”

“I feel like we’re growing up a bit,” he continues, “but I don’t actually want us to grow up.” On the new attire, we both agree we’re over the PE kits. This is where I think I see the young Damon Albarn coming out.

He himself was 23 when There’s No Other Way came out and 26 when Parklife came out. Is Me and Your Mates their There’s No Other Way? “The first album was kinda like Parklife and now I’m trying to write Charli XCX’s brat. I’m trying to steal the energy of it and the simplicity. If you look at Motown, all they were doing was getting to the chorus in 10 seconds, (using) as few words, as few chords as possible.” I ask him if he focuses on the structure of his songs. “Oh my word, yes too much. A lot of the demos are quite sterile. I take it to the band to give it a bit of space again. Songwriting is my favourite part of all of it. The structure thing was born out of playing Europe. We did a lot of shows in Europe over the summer. Where they don’t know the words, they don’t know where the chorus is coming. You have to make it structurally build up and then have a very obvious chorus. We played (the new ones) in Europe and I think they’re really hitting live. I like tinkering with (them).” 

In a recent email, Welly tells us he’s been talking into a mic in London Fields. When we ask him about this, he claims he doesn’t know what he was saying and asks us what we think it means. We have no idea! “I’ve been recording. Things are being recorded.” Welly is very clear that things are being recorded and he can’t tell us any more, other than he doesn’t know how long it will take. It is odd to hear him utter so few words. It must surely be the recording of the second album? 

“We’re very excited to see what’s going to happen. As you can see, we’ve got a lot of energy. It ain’t over yet.”

• Main pictures via Facebook courtesy Welly Tickets
• Read more from Carron at her blog A Humdrum Mum
• 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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