Rock
Wolf Alice treat fans to unreleased songs and more during emotional Teenage Cancer Trust gig
Wolf Alice played a couple of unreleased tracks and some rarities as they brought the Teenage Cancer Trust 2026 concerts to a close.
Wolf Alice played two unreleased songs and a heap of rarities for their Teenage Cancer Trust show.
The band, made up of Ellie Rowsell, Joff Oddie, Joel Amey, and Theo Ellis, hit the stage at London's Royal Albert Hall for a special, emotional night concluding a run of gigs curated by The Cure's Robert Smith.
The week started with Elbow, with other acts on the line-up including Mogwai, My Bloody Valentine, Manic Street Preachers, Garbage and Placebo.
On Sunday (29.03.26) it was Wolf Alice's turn, with frontwoman Ellie telling the crowd at towards the end: "Thank you so much for buying a ticket.
"It means so much to us that we got to play this show, to play this venue, to raise money for Teenage Cancer Trust.
"Thank you to Robert Smith and thank you for allowing us to play some songs we haven’t played in a long time and some we haven’t played ever.”
The band finished their set with a powerful rendition of Don't Delete The Kisses, but the rest of the night was just as powerful.
Robert Smith
Like all shows that week, the gig was raising money for young people who have been diagnosed with cancer, while last year's events set a record of £2.05 million raised.
Wolf Alice's headline set got off to a special start as they played Heavenward for the first time since 2020, while they were joined by violinist James Gavin for Midnight Song, which marked their first full band rendition of the track since releasing The Clearing last year.
Ellie explained: "We wanted to try something a bit different tonight, so I hope you will be patient with us.”
As well as performing an Irish trad song with other folk musicians, the band also treated fans to new songs Hit The Sky and Gospel Oak.
They also treated fans to the first performance of Swallowtail since 2016.
The evening started with a support slot from Nilüfer Yanya, before a group of youngsters helped by the Teenage Cancer Trust stepped out on stage.
Among them was Verity Barker, who turned 26 on March 26 after being diagnosed with a rare, incurable cancer and given weeks to live when she was just 17.
Summing up the poignant evening, the crowd sang happy birthday to her.
Wolf Alice had emotional moments of their own throughout, and at one point bassist Theo admitted he was close to tears, joking it was because of the venue.
He quipped: "It must be this gaff. It's very nice."
