Belly at the Electric Ballroom

Belly

Electric Ballroom, 1 October 2025

I got to see the always magical Belly return to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their album King, and it was definitely a lovely celebration, full of smiles and good feeling and a great end to their short UK tour!

Looking back, it's crazy to discover that it's almost 10 years now when I last saw Belly live, on their reunion tour back in 2016. It was a night full of nostalgia although I do remember they were a little shaky at times, probably due to the fact it was the first tour they had undertaken together since the 1990s! Still it was wonderful to see them back together and experience all those beautiful Belly songs once again. 

Since then they released their first new album in 23 years back in 2018, Dove, and although they did tour for it, for some reason I didn't go see them play at Shepherd's Bush Empire that year. I wasn't going to make that mistake again, especially when they announced they were playing the fantastic Electric Ballroom (my fourth time here this year!).

As it was the last night of the tour, they announced the day before that the show would start with a DJ set helmed by the drag queen Crystal, made famous after appearing on the first series of RuPaul's Drag Race UK (she's also famous it seems for suing the awful Laurence Fox and winning so she had already won me over by that act alone). I must admit, I've never watched the show, so I had no idea what to expect. Photos of Crystal looked suitably outrageous, with huge wigs, leather gear and stripper heals and of course lots of makeup, but, although Belly's official Instagram posted that Crystal was a longtime fan of the band after being introduced to the album Star by her sister as a youngster, I did have it in my head that it was going to be all club and house music, so imagine my pleasant surprise when I walked in and Crystal was loudly spinning Stevie Nicks' Stand Back and it sounded absolutely fantastic. What an absolute joy to hear it!

The rest of her set was also lots of bangers from female artists, all from the alternative scene: think Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Hole, Veruca Salt, Elastica, The Breeders, Gossip, Garbage and Le Tigre. The audience was mainly of an older vintage (myself included) so hearing so many cool tunes from the 1990s, not surprisingly, went down a storm with everyone there (including members of the band, who were dancing by the side of the stage during much of her set). Unfortunately, as I misjudged the time, when I arrived at the venue there was already a big queue so I didn't get the best spot at the front of the stage (as you can see from the photos), although I was by the barrier, meaning that I couldn't get any good photos of Crystal during her DJ set but she did make an appearance with the band at the end of the show so I managed to get a good snap of that at least!

Happily, after the DJ set, the show then started promptly and early (as I'm old now and love getting home at a sensible time, you know), with big cheers as the classic line up of Belly appeared on stage, all looking great. Guitarist Tom Gorman once again looked so much like James Taylor in the 70s, in his cloth cap and glasses, but I couldn't get a look at his brother Chris Gorman until the end when they took their bows, as his drumkit was at the side of the stage and slightly hidden from me, but when he did emerge he looked a bit older and greyer, as we all do, but still in good form.

It was even more exciting to see the girls though. Gail Greenwood, on bass, was as energetic as ever and the pure epitome of rocker girl chic. She looks amazing. Tanya Donelly barely looked like she had aged a day. She's blonde now and wears glasses but looked so youthful and radiant, with that wonderful smile on display, she is still a beauty that's for sure.

"Welcome to our birthday party," Donelly told us as she strapped on her guitar and the band broke into the opening riff of Puberty, the first track from King, which still sounded as fresh and lovely as when I first heard it 30 years ago (which absolutely blows my mind that it was so long ago). They then just played the entire album through from start to finish. It was a joy to hear Donelly's voice soaring over the jangly guitars once again and to see Greenwood trashing her long blonde hair around and see and feel the chemistry between the two ladies in the band.

They dedicated the song Red to Crystal (they obviously really enjoyed her DJ set!) and Super-Connected with its incredible guitar riff and high energy had everyone jumping and singing along (there was a time the video for this song was always on MTV!). I had forgotten just how good the driving beat of King sounded and Now You'll Sleep still feels like a lot classic.

At the end of hearing this album in its entirely again, it's hard to understand why it wasn't a huge hit in its day, I mean it felt huge in my world but apparently this didn't translate to sales and it's part of the reason why the band called it quits at the end of the 1990s. Greenwood at one point said "It's not lost on us that we're the four original members who made the record King and we're still here today. Thanks for being along for the ride!" There certainly was a lot of love and appreciation in the room for the band and that record, so even if it didn't do as well as hoped back when originally released, it must at least now make them feel good to know how it endures 30 years on.

The band then took a short break but returned about 15 minutes later to play some other songs from their career (or "the best of the rest" as Greenwood called it) which to be honest I was even more excited about because I adore their first album Star and this part was filled from songs from that era including Low Red Moon (so sexy, sinister and spooky!), Gepetto (absolutely joyful and magical!), Slow Dog (completely fun and frenzied), Dusted (punky and cool) and Feed The Tree (not surprisingly another highlight that had all the crowd singing along!).

Like last time they also played the B-side Spaceman, which to be fair, is such a good song it's crazy it didn't make it onto an album, but they are definitely it its due these days and it always sounds great. And there was a couple of tunes from the comeback album too, namely Human Child (I kinda hate the name of this song but it did fit in well) and Shiny One, which smoothly turned into a cover of Jimi Hendrix's Are You Experienced? before returning to Shiny One at the end again. 

It was during this that Crystal turned up in a new outfit (a green spandex mini dress) and danced at the side of the stage, complete with huge curly blonde wig and making all the band break out in huge grins and giggles, it was definitely a fun moment. (Donelly later said of her appearance:  "I said to Crystal before, it's going to be like a beautiful redwood standing among the grubby pines of the Pacific Northwest," Greenwood chiming in "we being the grubby pines!")

The crowd called out for more and the band obliged by coming back out for a couple more songs: Full Moon, Empty Heart (which Donelly said was a singalong, and she was certainly right) and then finally the non-album track Lilith, which turned into a full-on guitar jam, perfect for ending the show on a beautifully noisy note: I loved it and it was definitely the rockiest moment of the night!

The band then all came to the front of the stage and took a photo with the crowd cheering behind them, which they've been doing on every date on this tour, obviously wanting to remember every show and how special they have been.

It was definitely an enjoyable show filled with a lot of love and nostalgia: you could tell there were a lot of people here who were re-living their youth. It was also nice to see so many women there, many sporting their old Belly t-shirts, although the front of the stage was mainly grey-haired dudes obviously still crushing on Ms Donelly (I think I was one of the few women who was actually front row for this one). I do admit I was slightly grumpy I was so far to the side, it is a completely different experience when you are nearer the centre (as I found with the MJ Lenderman, Wet Leg and Throwing Muses shows earlier this year), but that was completely my fault, I should have arrived earlier! Still it was nice to catch up with Belly, as there is still something completely magical about them and this show.