40 Fun Facts About Wolf Alice

Wolf Alice's "Don't Delete the Kisses" closes the first episode of which Netflix romance about two schoolboys?

Heartstopper used the song to close its opening episode in 2022, then came back to Wolf Alice for another track in its second season.

Jeremy Corbyn urged supporters to buy a Wolf Alice album during its 2017 chart race against which country-pop star?

Shania Twain won the race when her comeback album Now entered at number one, leaving the band at number two for the second album running.

Wolf Alice's announcement of The Clearing likened it to an album written today in North London by which band?

Fleetwood Mac were the reference point for a record written in Seven Sisters, which the band billed as a classic pop/rock album.

Wolf Alice opened 17 European shows in the summer of 2022 on Love On Tour, the tour of which pop star?

Harry Styles had the band open for him from Hamburg on 26 June to Lisbon on 31 July, days after they released an EP of lullaby reworkings.

Wolf Alice took their name from a short story about a feral child, written by which English author?

Angela Carter put "Wolf-Alice" in The Bloody Chamber, her 1979 collection built on fairy tales, where nuns give up trying to civilise the girl.

Wolf Alice's Visions of a Life beat albums by Arctic Monkeys and Lily Allen in 2018 to win what?

Mercury Prize night gave "Don't Delete the Kisses" a second life: the band played it twice at the ceremony and it entered the UK Top 100 for the first time.

Which Wolf Alice album gave the band their first UK number one in June 2021, after two number twos?

Blue Weekend sold 36,182 copies in its first week and ended 2021 as the biggest-selling album in the UK's independent record shops.

Wolf Alice spent part of 2018 as support on the Concrete and Gold Tour of which American rock band?

Foo Fighters were not the only big name in the band's 2018 diary: Wolf Alice also opened for Queens of the Stone Age on their Villains tour.

Ellie Rowsell and Joff Oddie started Wolf Alice in 2010 as what kind of act, before recruiting a rhythm section?

An acoustic duo of Rowsell and Oddie played the first Wolf Alice gig, at Highbury Garage in December 2010, before the pair decided to go electric.

Which Wolf Alice song earned a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Performance after reaching the US alternative top ten?

Moaning Lisa Smile was inspired by Lisa Simpson, whom Ellie Rowsell called the band's favourite eight-year-old; the video follows a Lisa-like outsider.

Which independent label, also home to The 1975, released the first three Wolf Alice albums?

Dirty Hit signed the band in 2014, four years after it was set up by four partners who included former England footballer Ugo Ehiogu.

Wolf Alice's Ellie Rowsell said "Bloom Baby Bloom" channelled which rock frontman from a woman's perspective?

Axl Rose was the model for a song on which Rowsell set out to use her voice as a rock instrument; it was the first single from The Clearing.

Wolf Alice wrote the songs for The Clearing in Seven Sisters, London, but recorded the album in which American city?

Los Angeles hosted the sessions for the band's first album after leaving their long-time indie label, and it went straight to number one in the UK.

How does Ellie Rowsell deliver the verses of Wolf Alice's "Don't Delete the Kisses", in contrast to the chorus?

Spoken softly rather than sung, the verses reminded NME's reviewer of "The Wonderwhy" from the band's debut, where Rowsell uses the same trick.

Wolf Alice won which Brit Award in both 2022 and 2026, beating Coldplay and Little Mix the first time?

British Group had gone to an all-female act for the first time only a year before Wolf Alice's 2022 win, and the band took it again in 2026.

Clash magazine described Wolf Alice as the lovechild of grunge and which other genre?

Folk ran through the band's earliest pop songs, and the sound only toughened up once a bassist and a drummer had joined.

Which producer, a co-writer of Adele's "Hello", made The Clearing with Wolf Alice?

Greg Kurstin did far more than sit behind the desk, adding piano, synthesisers, Mellotron and even a Marxophone to the album's tracks.

Which furious two-minute punk single did Wolf Alice put out just before "Don't Delete the Kisses" in 2017?

Yuk Foo was written in a dressing room on an American tour, where Ellie Rowsell kept her voice down so the bands next door would not hear her.

Which Wolf Alice member joined in 2012 as a stand-in after the original drummer broke his wrist?

Joel Amey was meant to be temporary cover but never left, and he takes the lead vocal on "Swallowtail" from the band's debut album.

Ellie Rowsell wanted Wolf Alice's synth-heavy "Don't Delete the Kisses" to be a tune for which activity?

A long drive with your head out of the window was the picture Rowsell had in mind, along with a love song that held nothing back.

Which Wolf Alice album track entered the Scottish top 40 in 2017 after featuring in T2 Trainspotting?

Silk was never a single, but a place on the sequel's soundtrack beside Blondie, the Clash and Underworld carried it to number 39 in Scotland.

Which Wolf Alice song, an ode to childhood friendship, features in the game Life Is Strange: Before the Storm?

Bros was one of the first songs Ellie Rowsell wrote, and the version reworked for the debut album earned an Ivor Novello nomination.

Which Wolf Alice single won Best Track at the 2016 NME Awards and features in Guitar Hero Live?

Giant Peach borrows its title from Roald Dahl, and Ellie Rowsell called the song a love affair with the city she grew up in.

Ellie Rowsell said the friend behind Wolf Alice's "Beautifully Unconventional" reminded her of which 1980s teen film?

Heathers gave Rowsell the idea of finding the one person outside the clique, and she pictured herself and her friend as its two leads.

Which director filmed Wolf Alice on tour for On the Road, planting two actors among the road crew?

Michael Winterbottom shot 16 gigs and the life backstage, weaving a fictional romance between two crew members into the real tour.

Ellie Rowsell of Wolf Alice sang guest vocals on "3WW", the opening track of Relaxer by which band?

Alt-J brought Rowsell back for "Deadcrush" on the same album, and she joined them to perform "3WW" on Later... with Jools Holland.

Which Kurt Vonnegut novel had Ellie Rowsell just read when she wrote Wolf Alice's "The Last Man on Earth"?

Cat's Cradle gave Rowsell a line about travel that she copied into her notes, then argued with in a song about the arrogance of humans.

The cover of Wolf Alice's Visions of a Life shows which relative of Ellie Rowsell dancing round a horse's skull?

Her aunt, Helen, is the figure in the photograph, caught mid-dance in her Sunday best.

Wolf Alice teased Visions of a Life in May 2017 by mailing fans what, each carrying song titles and lyrics?

Postcards went to fans on the mailing list first, and the band only shared them on Twitter later, a few weeks before the first single.

Wolf Alice's 2021 album opens and closes with two songs that share which title, the second marked "II"?

The Beach bookends a record that the band also turned into a short film, set over one night in a London bar.

Which actress from the music film Sing Street starred beside Ellie Rowsell in Wolf Alice's "Just Two Girls" video?

Lucy Boynton, who also played Mary Austin in Bohemian Rhapsody, appeared in the video for the fourth single from The Clearing.

On which BBC Radio 1 DJ's show did two members of Wolf Alice co-host the premiere of "The Last Man on Earth"?

Annie Mac had Ellie Rowsell and Theo Ellis beside her for the first play in February 2021, and the video went online an hour after her show began.

Wolf Alice made their US television debut in June 2015 on which host's show, two months before visiting James Corden?

Conan O'Brien introduced the band to American viewers on 16 June 2015, six days before their debut album came out.

After three albums on an independent label, Wolf Alice signed with which major label in February 2024?

Columbia put out the band's fourth album together with RCA, the label that had released their debut in the United States.

Wolf Alice opened for which Britpop star at his Finsbury Park concert in June 2018?

Liam Gallagher booked the band for 29 June 2018, in a year they spent largely on the road opening for American arena acts.

Which director, known for No Doubt and Eurythmics videos, made Wolf Alice's "Don't Delete the Kisses" video?

Sophie Muller set the video on the London Underground, following a young couple played by Chelsea Edge and Jack Anderson.

Justin Meldal-Johnsen, who produced Wolf Alice's Visions of a Life, spent 20 years as bass player for which musician?

Beck hired him in 1996 and kept him as bassist and musical director until 2016, the year before the Wolf Alice album came out.

Which song did Wolf Alice release on Chess Club in February 2013 as their first physical single?

Fluffy drew comparisons to Elastica and Hole, and the band re-recorded it two years later for their debut album.

Which closing track of Wolf Alice's The Clearing did The Sunday Times single out as the album's highlight?

The Sofa was released as the album's second single, and the paper called it as perfect a package as any song of the year.

Which opening track of Wolf Alice's Visions of a Life, its fourth single, is about the death of a friend?

Heavenward premiered on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 show on 18 September 2017, eleven days before the album arrived.