Welly are a band that make you smile. They are the five fun kids in your G.C.S.E. Biology class that the teacher wants to tell off for being disruptive but secretly finds refreshing. I know this because I was one of those kids, and one of those teachers too!
We love Welly and were over the moon when their über-handsome PR Manager dangled a pair of tickets in front of our salivating chops to see them in Exeter on their National Service Part 1 Tour.
Waiting in the main room at Exeter Cavern, it's obvious that this is a band for the students of the city. There is only myself, my chaperone/photographer and one other person (hoping he's press, not predator) over 30 in the place. Initially we are treated to a one song set post soundcheck - a rousing lip synced rendition of Whigfield’s ‘Saturday Night’ - after which the band bowed and wished us farewell, much to the delight of a crowd that had danced and sung along themselves, and clearly got the joke.
When the purposefully faltering start of ‘Shopping’ was played, the crowd were in full interaction mode and this carried through the night. Welly are a band that connects with their audience like they know them personally, the distance from Southampton to Exeter is over a hundred miles but this could have been a band playing a local venue to gathered mates.
The (not yet) hits came thick and fast and although they don't have the quantity of songs to drop the ones that don't work they didn't have to, as they are all of a standard to get - and keep - the crowd bouncing.
And bounce we did. Welly himself is part Jarvis Cocker / Steve Coogan. Flamboyant and confident, he is an ideal frontman. They are clearly tinged with the influences of Britpop and err on the more social commentary/humourous side like Blur and Pulp rather than the dour Mancunian Beatles tribute band.
Highlights for me were ‘Saturday Night’ (lip sync version) ‘Soak Up The Culture’, some ginger guy being asked to do vocals as he'd been singing along but then not knowing the next line (cue disappointed Welly), discovering what a ‘gogo bell’ was, and the absolutely bouncetastic ‘Me and Your Mates’ during which somehow the stage survived five synchronised pogo artists. All in all a great gig from five young, fun talented musicians. They would fit nicely on a Sultans of Ping or The Lovely Eggs tour to get them to a wider audience and maybe then they won't have to worry about how badly their mock A levels went.
Words by Dickie Dunn - Pics by Andy Gerry (the bloke we talk about on the radio show)
