Sunflower Bean‘s Julia Cumming has stepped in to play bass for Wolf Alice as they support Olivia Rodrigo on her huge ‘Unraveled Tour’. Check out footage of the shows below.
The support slot comes as Rodrigo recently kicked off her huge 65-date ‘Unraveled’ tour dates in celebration of ‘You Seem Pretty Sad For A Girl So In Love’ – her third record and the highly-anticipated follow-up to her critically acclaimed 2021 debut album ‘Sour’.
Dates started with two back-to-back nights in Connecticut at the end of last month, and has so far seen the ‘Deja Vu’ singer perform in Pennsylvania, Washington DC and North Carolina, with support coming from Wolf Alice.
For the majority of the support slots, Wolf Alice bassist Theo Ellis is not joining his bandmates, and instead taking some time away from the touring schedule as he and his partner are having a baby. Sunflower Bean’s Julia Cumming has stepped in to temporarily take his place.
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She announced that she would be filling in for Ellis last week, sharing a post of her and Wolf Alice frontwoman Ellie Rowsell riding scooters together with a caption saying that she was “so excited” to be joining the band for “the month of October”.
“Theo and his family are going through some big personal life changes and I couldn’t be more honoured to be asked to fill in,” she wrote.
She then went on to share another video on Instagram, saying that ‘White Horses” is one of her favourite songs on Wolf Alice’s latest album ‘The Clearing’ and showing her “getting ready to play bass” on the tour.
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After the first night with the band in Charlotte, North Carolina, Cumming then went on to share a video of her on stage with the band playing ‘Play The Greatest Hits’ and described it in the caption as “quickly becoming one of my favourite moments in the set”. She then tagged Ellis in the post and praised him as “one of the most fun bass players to watch and listen to in rock”, before concluding: “My life is cool”.
Wolf Alice’s support dates with Olivia Rodrigo continue tonight (Monday October 12) in Chicago, before more dates in Boston, Montreal, Toronto and Columbus throughout the remainder of the month. Check out footage from the shows below.
The decision to enlist Cumming follows on from the singer joining forces with the alt-rock veterans on their ‘The Clearing: B Sides’ album – working with them on a cover of The Roches’ ‘Hammond Song’.
The B-sides album also featured the delicate, piano-led ‘Gospel Oak’ and the folksy ‘Hit The Sky’, and came shortly after Ellie Rowsell and co. played a huge homecoming concert at London’s Finsbury Park – which NME was at and awarded five stars.
“As they properly finish things off with the blistering ‘Giant Peach’, it’s hard not to feel thankful that Wolf Alice followed their own advice,” the review read. “They’ve been brilliant since the beginning, but over the years, have developed into one of the very best around.”
‘The Clearing’ marked Wolf Alice’s second Number One album and earned them a record fourth consecutive Mercury Prize nomination, as well as a BRIT Award. Speaking to NME about the record, bassist Theo Ellis told us: “It was a challenge making this record, and it’s quite challenging to play some parts of it live. So to have that element of growth and not feeling like you’re resting on your laurels is really exciting. I feel like we’re pushing ourselves and there’s still stuff to reach when we play these songs.”
As for Julia Cumming, the singer released her first solo album ‘Julia’ back in April, after previewing it with the reflective single ‘My Life’ and the nostalgic ‘Please Let Me Remember This’.