In March 2025, Southampton quintet Welly released their debut album in the form of Big in the Suburbs, a fun-filled masterclass in post-punk instrumentation and piercing social commentary. The album quickly received critical acclaim, and led Welly to embark on various tours across the country.
This time, a stop at YES saw Welly joined by local talents vincent’s last summer and Your Mate’s Ex, making for a packed bill in which all three acts combined impressive music with comedic humour — never taking themselves too seriously, yet consistently proving themselves to rank amongst the country’s best.
Manchester’s own Your Mate’s Ex opened the night, pausing after the first song to introduce themselves by saying “Hello party people of Manchester, thank you for coming to see our dance music, and fair play for going out on a Monday night”. Their set was fun-filled, musically straddling a line between The Dare’s electroclash and upcoming star Rose Gray’s pop perfection. The duo shared vocal duties throughout the performance, with a set-up drawing comparisons to Fcukers and Confidence Man.
Though Your Mate’s Ex were accompanied onstage by just two synths, they managed to put on a stimulating, energetic set, providing a perfect start to the night and capturing the audience’s attention through the use of a bubble gun. As the set came to a close, frontwoman Joey stated “This is our last song, and it’s definitely not about drugs”, before the pulsating beat of ‘All Now, All Night’ kicked in.
After previously supporting Welly on their Dork Hype List Tour earlier this year, vincent’s last summer were chosen to appear at several of the October dates too, and for good reason. The band are entertaining without becoming gimmicky, much like the two acts between which they were sandwiched.
Entering the stage, frontman James Highland-Partington announced “We’re vincent’s last summer, we’re from Bury and Bolton and that’s not our only problem”, earning laughs from the Manchester crowd. Continuing, he introduced the concept of vincent’s last summer: “We hit our heads, and ever since we’ve been stuck in 2008”.
Highland-Partington also took the opportunity to introduce a red telephone placed prominently in the centre of the stage, which rang throughout the band’s performance “To bring us news from the outside”. This included Manchester United winning the Premier League and Pete Doherty being arrested, but it was when guitarist Tommy Melbourne exclaimed “Alexandra Burke’s just won The X Factor!” that their news received the most cheers. Keeping up their 2008 schtick, Highland-Partington informed the crowd “We’ve been stuck in 2008 for so long that we’ve ran out of ideas of things to do”, to which Melbourne responded “I’m going to take out a massive loan”. Mid-song, the red telephone that had been introduced earlier rang with news of the Wall Street Crash, leading to mock despair that proved Melbourne to be not only a great guitarist, but a brilliant actor too.
If Your Mate’s Ex were the musical mirror of The Dare, vincent’s last summer’s Highland-Partington reflected his mannerisms, energy, and persona, initially appearing nonchalant but bounding around the stage by the set’s end. Melbourne provided an apt counterpoint, consistently making overt eye contact with audience members who were eagerly reciting the band’s songs.
‘Soapbox’, the band’s punchy recent single and first release of the year, proved to be a highlight within the set, featuring lines such as “can we please get offline for the afternoon?” which displayed the same humorous but biting cynicism that can be found within Welly’s lyricism.
As the sounds of ‘Doing It For The Country’ came to an end and vincent’s last summer departed the stage, Highland-Partington proclaimed “Welly are on the way, the best in the world”, and the show that followed verified his claim.
Sustaining the fun that had characterised the previous two sets, the band’s five members led a macarena before launching into their own tracks. Paying homage to the city he was in, frontman Elliot Hall comically altered the opening of their album’s title track, ‘Big in the Suburbs’, by singing “Slip inside the eye of your mind”.
‘Soak up the Culture’ followed, which Hall introduced by asking “How many of you have been on a gap year recently?”. The song is filled with tongue-twisters and takes aim at upper-class young Brits abroad, exhibiting the cynicism that Welly direct towards anyone and everyone throughout their discography and their performances. As the song reached its closing refrain, Hall insisted “This bit is so easy even Man United fans can sing it”, before seemingly apologising by recognising that “People in Manchester are well fitter than in London, I’ll tell you that”.
The only setback Welly grappled with throughout the duration of their set was a strangely disappearing microphone stand, which led Hall to demand that “Hannah play some music while I find my mic stand, it’s genuinely fucked”, addressing the band’s keyboardist. While he waited for a replacement, Hall reverted to onstage banter to fill the gaps, informing the crowd that “We got refused entry to a pub earlier”. Surprisingly, the pub in question turned out to be The Garratt, famed among Manchester students for its two-for-a-fiver house doubles, but also its weirdly strict dress code, to which Hall’s Adidas jogging bottoms did not adhere.
Bassist Jacob Whitear joined the crowd for a mosh-pit inducing, unreleased fourth song which focuses on “Skinny boys” and appeared twice within Welly’s setlist, making use of Hannah Witkamp’s synthesiser capabilities. Hall paused in the middle of its second performance to ask “How many freshers we got in here tonight?”, and introduced ‘The Roundabout Racehorse’ by saying “We do nothing for our reputation as soft southerners, because this song is about horses, and our guitarist Joe here has been very excited to show the people of Manchester how to gallop”. Encouraging the already-enthusiastic audience, Hall continued, “If anyone also wants to be horses and have other people ride them, there’s no security so you can do what you want. Spank each other if you feel like it”.
As the song came to an end, Hall insisted “Liam’s back there, sorry, first name basis, Liam Gallagher, he’s a bit shy but if you really dance in the next two songs he might come out. He’s sat in his blue parka”. Another unreleased song followed, which proclaims “I don’t wanna move to London”, before Hall asked his band and crowd “Shall we do that new one that nobody seems to like? We’ve not done that so far since it’s got an A-minor chord”. The answer was a resounding yes, and the track saw Welly take a more electronic direction that has been absent within their previous material.
Departing the stage, Hall reciprocated the admiration given to Welly at the end of vincent’s last summer’s set: “It’s been an absolute pleasure to share these dates with vincent’s last summer, who we know you’re all here for, and Your Mate’s Ex who have kindly lent us their bubble gun. This has genuinely been the pleasure of our lifetimes, in six years we could be bald and working in the civil service, and this is what we’ll look back on. Joking, I’ve got a yacht. We’ve got a record deal, even if it doesn’t sound like it”.
Once Welly had returned, they invited vincent’s last summer back to the stage for an encore of ‘Me and Your Mates’, with Highland-Partington keeping control of the microphone while Hall played bass for Whitear, who joined the carnage in the crowd. Your Mate’s Ex had previously noted on social media that the experience of seeing Welly is like seeing live music for the first time again, and this claim was validated by the sheer fun they brought to the stage. All three of these acts are ones to watch, and not to be missed when the chance comes around.
