Smashing Pumpkins debut ‘Silvery Sometimes’, and cover Bowie, Fleetwood Mac and Led Zeppelin at sprawling Wembley gig

What a setlist...

The reunited Smashing Pumpkins played their only UK gig of 2018, performing new single ‘Silvery Sometimes (Ghosts)’ for the first time as well as covering David Bowie, Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin and more. Check out photos, footage and the setlist below.

Next month, the band will release their new album ‘Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun’ – the first album to feature founding Pumpkins members Billy Corgan, James Iha, and Jimmy Chamberlin since 2000. While the line-up also features longtime collaborator and guitarist Jeff Schroeder and touring bassist Jack Bates (son of Joy Division and New Order legend Peter Hook.), original bassist D’Arcy Wretzky is not included as relations remain fraught between her and the band.

To launch the album and celebrate their reunion, the band performed a sprawling and career-spanning 31-song set at London’s SSE Arena Wembley. During the encore and the last of many costume changes, the band also performed new single ‘Silvery Sometimes (Ghosts)’ live for the first time.

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‘Silvery Sometimes (Ghosts)’ 

The band also performed covers of David Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’, along with Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Landslide’ featuring Amalie Bruun on guest vocals, apiano-led rendition of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Stairway To Heaven’, and the closing song of Betty Noyes’ ‘Baby Mine’.

Other highlights with a blossoming and cinematic outing of ‘Mellon Collie’ favourite ‘Porcelina of the Vast Oceans’, as well as fevered responses for the classics ‘Today’, ‘1979’, ‘Zero’, ‘Cherub Rock’, ‘Tonight, Tonight’, ‘Ava Adore’, ‘The Everlasting Gaze’, ‘Mayonnaise’ and ‘Hummer’.

Reviewing the gig, NME concluded: “A show driven by opulence and indulgence, the spirit of the latest incarnation of the Pumpkins is clearly one of celebration – of themselves and for the fans.

“With Corgan flanked by his veterans and friends, there’s a vim that takes you right back to their glory days – but the vision of the spectacle and the shimmer of the new material lifts it all above an exercise in nostalgia. Backed by an audiovisual spectacular and with a setlist tailored for the journey, all are driven deep into the idiosyncratic and cinematic world of the Pumpkins. Here’s hoping the car doesn’t crash time.”

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‘Space Oddity’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x17R-bo2YU8

‘Stairway To Heaven’ 

‘Tonight, Tonight’ 

‘Bullet With Butterfly Wings’ 

‘Today’

‘Mayonnaise’ 

Smashing Pumpkins’ setlist was:

Disarm
Rocket
Siva
Rhinoceros
Space Oddity (David Bowie cover)
Drown
Zero
The Everlasting Gaze
Stand Inside Your Love
Thirty-Three
Eye
Soma
Blew Away
For Martha
To Sheila
Mayonaise
Porcelina of the Vast Oceans
Landslide (Fleetwood Mac cover with Amalie Bruun)
Tonight, Tonight
Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin cover)
Cherub Rock
1979
Ava Adore
Try, Try, Try
The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning
Hummer
Today
Bullet With Butterfly Wings
 Encore:
Silvery Sometimes (Ghosts)
Baby Mine (Betty Noyes cover)

Smashing Pumpkins live at Wembley Arena

Smashing Pumpkins live at Wembley Arena

Smashing Pumpkins live at Wembley Arena

Smashing Pumpkins live at Wembley Arena

While Peter Hook was in attendance, he did not join the band on stage as he did at a recent anniversary show.

“Billy Corgan very kindly helped The Light out when we first started, and New Order when we came back,” Hook told NME, speaking about his son Jack’s involvement in the band. “He’s a massive Joy Division fan, and he repaid me by stealing my son! It just goes to show that you can’t trust anybody!”

“I must admit that my son’s taste in music is a lot ‘harder’ than mine. He’s a massive fan of Smashing Pumpkins, Queens Of The Stone Age, people of that ilk. For him, this is a dream come true. They did 55 American arena dates playing to so many people. They’ve got so much work lined up, I don’t know if I’ll be getting him back for a while.”

Hook continued: “He’s having a lovely time, he’s a chip off the old block. He’s the best bass player I’ve heard for a long time and I’m immensely proud of him. Billy has been absolutely wonderful.”

Smashing Pumpkins release ‘Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun.’ on November 16.

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