Billy Corgan has played Smashing Pumpkins‘ classic ‘Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness’ with a 60-piece orchestra at London’s Royal Festival Hall. Check out footage and the setlist below.
The two shows at the iconic London venue were held on September 1 and 2, and came as part of the frontman’s ‘A Night of Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness’ tour, which he announced in 2025 and kicked off in North America later that year.
The shows see him perform alongside an orchestra to deliver an operatic reimagining of Smashing Pumpkins’ hit 1995 album ‘Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness’ but as a “completely new, sonic and visual experience”.
At the second of the two London shows last night, the orchestra kicked things off with the album’s title track, followed by an emotive rendition of ‘Tonight, Tonight’, and an unusual tender spin on the more lively hit song ‘Jellybelly’.
Amazing music last night with Billy Corgan – Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness 🎶🇺🇸🎃 @southbankcentre @SmashingPumpkin pic.twitter.com/jm6Oc1uhtJ
— Culture Couple (@cultcouple) September 2, 2026
It was the orchestra who played the first four songs in their entirety, before Billy Corgan made his way onto the stage for ‘Thirty-three’ – locked into character, not holding a guitar or addressing the crowd, and simply focusing on delivering heartfelt vocals.
He would return to the stage periodically for the set, which featured 20 songs and was split into two acts. In the first act, he came out again for ‘Zero’, and in the second he helped deliver fan favourites ‘1979’, ‘To Forgive’, and another rendition of ‘Tonight, Tonight’ to close out the show.
Other songs played by the orchestra included ‘Muzzle’, ‘Lily (My One And Only)’ and ‘Stumbleine’ in the first half, and ‘By Starlight’, ‘X.Y.U.’, ‘Bullet With Butterfly Wings’, and ‘In the Arms of Sleep’ in the second.
Music on the night is composed by Corgan alongside Grammy-nominated conductor James Lowe, and costumes at the London gigs were designed by House of Gilles by Gilles.
The tour continues in Antwerp on September 6, followed by two shows in Paris and one show in Madrid later this month. Find tickets here, and more footage from the second London show below.
Billy Corgan’s London setlist was:
‘Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness’
‘Tonight, Tonight’
‘Jellybelly’
‘Galapogos’
‘Thirty-Three’ (with Billy Corgan)
‘Beautiful’
‘Muzzle’
‘Lily (My One and Only)’
‘Stumbleine’
‘Zero’ (with Billy Corgan)
‘Thru the Eyes of Ruby’
Set 2:
‘In the Arms of Sleep’
‘1979’ (with Billy Corgan)
‘By Starlight’
‘X.Y.U.’
‘Bullet With Butterfly Wings’
‘To Forgive’ (with Billy Corgan)
‘Cupid de Locke’
‘Porcelina of the Vast Oceans’
‘Tonight, Tonight’ (with Billy Corgan)
The tour comes following Smashing Pumpkins dropping the 30th anniversary deluxe reissue of ‘Mellon Collie’ last year, which featured over 80 minutes of unreleased audio from their 1996 tour, a hardbound book with new liner notes from Corgan, a custom tarot card set, and seven frameable lithographs.
Before then, the singer, podcaster and wrestling expert spoke to NME that February and opened up about the milestone for the 1995 album – hinting that he was “working with the parent label” to release a revisited version of the record at the time. “It’s weird because I can’t believe it’s been 30 years. I’m really excited, but at the same time, I’m like ‘What happened over these last 30 years?’” he said.
More recently, he has invited Hole’s Melissa Auf der Maur on his podcast and opened up about being inspired by Courtney Love, invited Love herself onto the show where they shared their issues with “gatekeeper” Kim Gordon, and duetted with Sombr at Coachella.
He also brought out Olivia Rodrigo, Yungblud and Melissa Auf der Maur during the Pumpkins’ set at Lollapalooza 2026, and promised that there are “two LPs” of unreleased songs from his short-lived band Zwan on the way – as the band have 60 unheard tracks in the vault.
