Belly at the Electric Ballroom last night felt like time travel. Thirty years on from King, the coolest Gen Xers London has to offer descended on Camden – and I was very pleased to be among them – to scream, sway, and swoon our way back to 1995.
Crystal (RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Season 1) got us there in style, spinning a DJ set packed with 90s bangers that turned the Ballroom into the school disco you always wished you’d had. Then, as Tanya Donelly and crew took the stage, the nostalgia rush went nuclear.
Set one: King in its entirety, every track blooming into the room as though it had been waiting patiently for three decades to be heard live again. Set two: a thorough Belly retrospective with a generous helping of Star, aka one of the greatest indie albums of all time, and the soundtrack to my teenage bedroom. By this point I was in full bliss mode – dancing, grinning, singing every lyric (they appear to now be hardwired into my brain!).
Nostalgia aside, Belly were sounding absolutely alive in the now. These songs, written by twentysomethings in the 90s, still sting, soothe, and soar in 2025.
Special shout-out to our superstar photographer Keira Anee, who had the prime view from the pit (you can even spot her in the band’s Insta post). The rest of us just had to make do with Camden sweat and nostalgia tears – which, honestly, felt perfect.
Thirty years later, Belly still feel like home.