Belly – One of the bands who helped put the 90s on the map.
Belly for lunch this Wednesday – recorded for WGBH in Boston at The Fraser Performance Studio on October 2, 2018.
Certainly, one of those bands who put the 90s squarely on the map for me – along with associated family members, The Breeders, Throwing Muses, 50 Foot Wave and The Pixies, they represented the core of what was good about the scene in America at the time. Toss in what was going on in the UK during the same period and you had the ingredients for a pretty close-to-perfect decade in music.
The original members of Belly knew each other from high school on Aquidneck Island, Rhode Island. Chris and Thomas Gorman and Fred Abong came out of the Newport hardcore punk scene (the Gormans having played in Verbal Assault, Abong in Vicious Circle). Donelly had previously co-founded two Boston-based indie rock bands, Throwing Muses and The Breeders, the former with her step-sister Kristin Hersh and the latter with Kim Deal of the Pixies.
The band’s debut EP, Slow Dust (1992), made it to number one on the United Kingdom indie chart. Soon after, their single “Feed the Tree” made the Top 40 in the UK Singles Chart and their first album, Star (1993), hit number two on the UK Albums Chart.
In the United States, the album was RIAA certified gold, largely based on the success of “Feed the Tree” on Modern Rock radio stations and MTV, where the video was featured as part of MTV’s Buzz Bin videos and Alternative Nation video show for much of 1993. Two follow-up singles were released, “Gepetto” and “Slow Dog,” but neither matched the initial success of “Feed the Tree.” Belly was nominated for two Grammys in 1994: Best New Artist and Best Alternative Music Performance for Star. The album went on to sell over 800,000 copies in the US alone. On several early ’93 tour dates in the US and the UK, former Throwing Muses member Leslie Langston lent a hand on bass. In early 1993, they embarked on a ‘joint headliner’ tour with Radiohead. Following a short warm up tour of smaller venues in the UK also in early 1993, they embarked upon a larger tour where they were supported by the Cranberries.
Belly vocalist Tanya Donelly’s voice has been described as having a “fiery spark” with a “sweet rasp in her throat”, with a style described as “down to earth.” Her lyrics are rich with celestial, mythological and fairytale-like imagery. Musically the band finds its foundations in guitar rock, with sometimes quirky, but tightly composed arrangements that put a premium on melody.
Belly broke up in 1996, but reunited in 2016 and in 2018 did their first tour since 1995 and it’s during this period of time they recorded this live performance for WGBH in Boston. Crank it up and eat slowly:
And we’ve got this big favor to ask you:
