“I can’t quite believe it. We’ve been a band for the last 15 years and I never thought this would happen," Ellie Rowsell proclaimed, basically pinching herself, on opening night of their two-night headlining run at the O2 Arena in London on Tuesday (12/2).
"This is just the best day ever," she beamed, which may have been premature because the following day Rolling Stone called her group, Wolf Alice, Britain's Boldest Band in their five-star review.
The joy continued as she turned to “You have no idea how much I love these four people on the stage.”
The proof is in the pudding. Ellie and guitarist Joff Oddie founded the group in 2010. Two years later bassist Theo Ellis and drummer Joel Amey arrived and they've been a tight unit ever since.
Together they have amassed an impressive discography that consists of the albums My Love Is Cool (2015), Visions of a Life (2017), Blue Weekend (2021), and the most recent offering The Clearing (2025), along with the EPs Wolf Alice (2010), Blush (2013), Creature Songs (2014), and the compilations Blue Lullaby (2022) and B-Sides (2023).
So if anyone claims their rise from bars and clubs to sold out arenas happened overnight, feel free to bite their jugular while making angry wolf sounds.
“We want to put on a show,” Ellie told the delightfully named Dork magazine. “We also want to remember to have fun with it.”
Watch her smile and scream and even trip over the pedals (at the 1:14 mark) around during "Formidable Cool" as Oddie raises his guitar in rock star poses and it's easy to see she's not telling tall tales.
Later she'd say, "proper fell over. Felt like I was falling for 10 seconds, pretty impressive really."
On night two she exchanged her deer in the headlights top for a polka dot jumpsuit that sure looked great paired with the flying V in front of the shimmering curtain of vertical metallic strands.
A better look at the backdrop comes from their gig at the AO Arena in Manchester where when they were wrapping up "Play The Greatest Hits," Ellie sang a bit of "Wonderwall" to honor the locals.
Likewise in Birmingham the next night there were two references to Black Sabbath.
Wolf Alice have a few more dates in the UK and Ireland. Next year catch them in Asia, NZ, Australia and Europe.
Tickets available on their website.
The Clearing Tour 2025-2026
12/5 First Direct Arena, Leeds, United Kingdom
12/7 OVO Hydro, Glasgow, United Kingdom
12/8 Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham, United Kingdom
12/10 3Arena, Dublin, Ireland
1/4 Makuhari Messe International Exhibition Hall, Chiba, Japan
1/11 Voice Space, Bangkok, Thailand
1/13 Bengkel Space, Jakarta, Indonesia
1/15 Capitol Theatre, Singapore, Singapore
2/5 Laneway Festival, Auckland, New Zealand
2/7 Laneway Festival, Gold Coast, Australia
2/8 Laneway Festival, Sydney, Australia
2/13 Laneway Festival, Adelaide, Australia
2/13 Laneway Festival, Melbourne, Australia
2/15 Laneway Festival, Perth, Australia
6/13 Best Kept Secret, Hilvarenbeek, Netherlands
6/20 Hurricane Festival, Scheessel, Germany
6/21 Southside Festival, Neuhausen ob Eck, Germany
6/26-6/28 Provinssi, Seinäjoki, Finland
7/8 Mad Cool Festival, Madrid, Spain
7/10 NOS Alive, Lisbon, Portugal
7/15 KüçükÇiftlik Park, Istanbul, Turkey
