Felt, jangle-pop band, reunites as Feel for their first show in 37 years

Three original members of the jangle-pop band Felt played together for the first time in 37 years on Saturday, August 15, performing under the name Feel at the Glas-Goes Pop festival in Glasgow. Drummer Gary Ainge, bassist Marco Thomas and guitarist Philip King, joined by Martin Davies on keys and Andy Wellings on lead guitar, played instrumental versions of Felt songs at Glasgow University Union.

Felt formed in Britain at the end of the 1970s and released 10 albums across the 1980s, from 1982's debut Crumbling the Antiseptic Beauty through 1989's Me and a Monkey on the Moon, before playing what had been their last show together, in Birmingham that December.

The band announced the reunion last month on Instagram, describing Feel as "the present tense of Felt" and explaining the new lineup would honor original member Maurice Deebank's melodic writing and Martin Duffy's keyboard work by playing the songs instrumentally, alongside instrumental versions of some solo material by frontman Lawrence.

The band brought out Belle and Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch and rising artist Rhadika as surprise guests for a rendition of Felt's 1984 track "Primitive Painters." Rhadika later wrote that she "somehow got to be a part of it" after growing up hearing her father play Felt's records, adding, "I was holding back tears of joy as well as reflection."

The reunion joins the rest of this week's indie news, and marks Felt's first live appearance of any kind since 1989.