The Smashing Pumpkins play first UK show for seven years

The Smashing Pumpkins marked their UK live return with a mammoth three-hour set at London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire tonight (19 June).

Billy Corgan's group, dressed in dramatic co-ordinated white outfits, ran through a number of tracks from the new album ‘Zeitgeist’ including ‘Bleeding The Orchid’, ‘Doomsday Clock’ (which also features on the 'Transformers' movie soundtrack), ‘For God And Country’, ‘Neverlost’, ‘Starz’, ‘That’s The Way (My Love Is)’ and new single ‘Tarantula’ .

They opened the set with epic new track ‘United States’ which included a homage to Jimi Hendrix’s Woodstock performance of the American national anthem ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ as a massive black and white interpretation of the US flag unfurled behind the band replete with asterisks and the Pumpkin ’s ‘SP’-heart logo.

The set included songs from as early as their second album, the classic ‘Siamese Dream’, as well as the fan-favourite rarities ‘Winterlong’ and ‘Lucky 13’ .

The set was:

'United States'
'Bleeding The Orchid'
'Today'
'Stand Inside Your Love'
'Shame'
'Hummer'
'Bullet With Butterfly Wings'
'Glass And The Ghost Children'
'Lucky 13'
'Doomsday Clock'
'Silverfuck'
'For God And Country'
'Thirty Three'
'Rocket'
'Winterlong'
'To Sheila'
'Tonight Tonight'
'Tarantula'
'Starz'
'Zero'
'Disarm'
'Neverlost'
'That’s The Way (My Love Is)'
'1979'
'Untitled'
'Gossamer'
'Cherub Rock'
'Muzzle'


'Zeitgeist' is released on July 7.

The Smashing Pumpkins headline this year's Carling Weekend: Reading and Leeds festivals on the weekend of August 24-26. They previously headlined the festival in 1995.