WELLY is an extraordinary character with a remarkable knack for writing whip-smart, playful, funny and terrifyingly refreshing indie pop whose first collection of said songs have now been released as his debut album, Big In The Suburbs. Following on from the epic precursor singles Shopping, Soak Up The Culture, Deere John, Cul-De-Sac, Big In The Suburbs and The Roundabout Racehorse, the album lands with another burst of brilliance with focus single It’s Not Like This In France.
On It’s Not Like This In France, Welly explains: “It could be worse, right? Neither a flag-shagger’s anthem nor a sarcastic taunt of British life, this song is, if anything, a retaliation to the one-dimensional slagging of Britain that we hear in so many dull punk songs at the moment. Yeah, things are bad, but I listen to music for a different reason.
“It’s an agnostic ‘It Could Be Worse’ singalong. It ain’t pretty, but it’s ours. It’s Not Like This In France, but it’s not like this anywhere, really. It’s not better; it’s not worse. What’s good is that it’s ours. We know the neighbour, the bloke in the corner shop, our work colleagues, our grandparents. This is what’s important. This is what the whole album is about. Look up your own street first before down your nose, or through a telescope or telephone screen. Written on the M6 Northbound, near Stafford. As it should have been.”
The Big In The Suburbs album centres on the monochrome mundanity but also the unsung beauty of the suburbs; a collection of picture-perfect, alt-pop vignettes in which regular lives are often quietly on the brink of going berserk. For his debut album – all written and self-produced by Welly himself – this rich tableau of British life is celebrated for all its triumphs and tragedies. Here are songs about wanting more than you have, about a world in flux, about doomed romance and figuring out how to be happy where everybody knows your name (and your Mum’s).
MARCH
Fri 21 Brighton Resident Records (instore)
Sun 23 London Rough Trade East (instore)
Mon 24 Gosport Slice of Vinyl (instore)
Tue 25 Southampton Vinilo Records (instore)
APRIL
Tue 08 Falmouth Cornish Bank
Wed 09 Plymouth Junction
Thu 10 Weston Super Mare Loves Cafe
Tue 15 Swansea Bunkhouse
Wed 16 Isle Of Wight Strings Bar and Venue
Thu 17 Bournemouth Bear Cave
Fri 18 Worthing Charles Dickens
Tue 22 Blackpool Bootleg Social
Wed 23 Dundee Beat Generator
Thu 24 North Shields Three Tanners Bank
Fri 25 Hartlepool Studio
Sat 26 Hull The Welly
MAY
Thu 01 Ramsgate Music Hall
Fri 16 Brighton The Great Escape (The Pier)
Tickets: https://welly.os.fan/
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