Welly
Words by Willow Shields, Photograph by our own dearest darling Rosie Carne
On the eve of Welly’s debut album release, I was outside a pub in Brighton talking about the record’s release to my companion there. Then, a man of maybe sixty-five or seventy wearing an orange scarf approached us and asked, “what band is this?” I enthusiastically replied, “Welly.” He said in a drunken, jolly but simple way, “I saw them at Presuming Ed’s, they’re good, sung a song about council tax, I liked them alot.” I feel like that encapsulates the magic of Welly at this point in their career; those who know them love them and those who don't know them yet, soon will.
Welly are a Brighton-based Southampton-bred group of school miscreants who have somehow found each other and now make irresistible, danceable rock-adjacent music. The band’s namesake stolen from group leader’s childhood nickname, they are Hanna Whitkamp (keys, percussion), Matt Gleeson (guitar), Joe Holden-Brown (also guitar) and Jacob Whitear (bass) and they are your new favourite band. Having released their first single from their debut album ‘Big in The Suburbs’ last year entitled ‘Shopping’, the band have toured extensively cutting their teeth and gaining quite the cult following across the isle from Aberdeen to Plymouth. The following releases pre-’BITS’ included ‘Soak Up The Culture’, a jump-up-and-down track steeped in playful irony and jestful jabs at those university students fresh off a gap year, then there was ‘Deere John’, a heartbreaking tale of a family man who ends up under his own lawnmower, three others in ‘Cul-de-Sac’, title track ‘Big in The Suburbs’ and finally ‘Roundabout Racecourse’ followed, but more on that later.
The world that Welly build on ‘Big in The Suburbs’ is full of copy-and-paste houses lining winding grey roads leading nowhere but everywhere, and that’s just how they like it. The record opens on the title track, evoking picturesque views of vast estates in meticulously placed references and lyrics with poise and expertise akin to Taylor Swift’s self referential library. ‘Big in The Suburbs’ perfectly sets the tone for this record, as its name indicates. It gets you dancing and doesn't let you stop, it's a perfect earworm. Next is ‘Home For The Weekend’, and suddenly you’re dancing again. A less polished side of Welly is seen in this track, more reminiscent of their live sound, it feels more stylistically honest next to others on this record. It keeps you on your toes until it's suddenly over and you're falling into a party with the band in ‘Knock and Run’. Which immerses you into a college party with all the boys who spent school in detention, the peppered voices and voicemails transports you to the imagined reality. On the other side of the stylistic coin though, ‘Knock and Run’ is what I can only desicribe as the lovechild between Adam Ant (circa Ant Rap) and Robbie Williams’ Rock DJ, and this writer can see it sounding at home in an arena.
In ‘Cul-De-Sac’ we hear a heavier side to the school rock band, after the triple header of ‘Deere John’, ‘Soak Up The Culture’ and ‘Shopping’. It fits snugly, introducing the second half of the record. There’s still silliness woven throughout this edgier side of the band, in lyrics “we’re all cruisin’ for a bruisin’” and the makeup of the band’s identity. Welly will always be slightly silly on this record, you can hear in every word, and in every pick of guitar string that they had a properly good time making these songs. In ‘Pampas Grass’ we see what makes Welly so special, their incredible ability to tell a hefty, universally important story. Within this narritave of a couple's adventure into swinging, the band’s influences in Pulp and Blur come to the forefront, it feels like Welly are holding up a big flashing sign reading “Britpop is back!” ‘Roundabout Racecourse’ gets you back to dancing around the room, and if you’ve ever seen Welly live, you’ll know this track from where the band all start to gallop across the stage. A comma in the latter half of the record lies in ‘Under Milk Wood’, a rendition of the Dylan Thomas radio play of the same name. Finding a quiet moment to reflect within this track, I think of the band taking seats on stage, in their set that is of course a living room (in my mind), all re-tuning their instruments in a modern piece of performance art.
‘Family Photos’ is a personal highlight from Welly’s debut record, it’s a solid display of their star potential. It feels like a more mature showcase of skills, and is reminiscent of one of the band’s many influences, Sports Team. And it made me a fan of guitar solos. In this lower key, ‘Family Photos’ feels like The Song from the record. It evokes images of the band in a huge venue with the girls, that I was once one of, crying on the front row. This track seems like the most authentic expression on this record and I found it genuinely moving, especially the last minute. In ‘Country Cousins’ we once again, like in so many tracks on this record, hear Welly’s ability to story write. It pulls you out of the thoughtful dwelling state that ‘Family Photos’ put you in and gets you up and dancing once again. ‘It’s Not Like This In France’ is one of the first songs I ever heard from Welly, on YouTube of all places. The call and response is reminiscent of a school play in the most complimentary way possible. It’s unequivocally Bri’ish, a bit of a parody of itself and super, duper fun. The final track of ‘Big In The Suburbs’ is ‘Life is a Motorway’, which I believe was recorded live and in one take, from my various secret sources, and it is perfect. This is the song that will make you cry. It sounds like you’re sitting in a room with the band, in a genuine and slightly vulnerable moment of making art. ‘Big in The Suburbs’ is everything a debut album should be, it tells everyone “we’re here, this is what we're about.” While also leaving so much room for growth and shows so much potential. At GROUPIE, we don't do stars, but this record gets a 5.