I am sharing with you a memory of Lily Allen’s show I attended some time back. In this era of Covid with limited gatherings such a memorable event is a wish. Last night Lily Allen played a secret London gig to a few hundred lucky people.
The venue was kept secret until yesterday afternoon when free tickets were given away on a first-come first-serve basis to fans who queued at a meeting point in Portobello Road after the information had been posted on Lily Allen’s MySpace page. The Tabernacle had a 400 capacity and was a fitting stage for Lily Allen who made her first stage appearance there as a child.
Fans were asked to turn up in fancy dress depicting a London tube station. Lily Allen played the gig dressed as Queen Victoria, before returning for an encore dressed in vest top and jeans.
Other fancy dress included angels (Angel), Sherlock Holmes (Baker Street) and a Green Park, though my personal favorite was a guy wearing the head of a chicken, wearing a sash with the name of a popular lager. Any ideas what London tube station he came as?
Lily Allen played a mix of songs from both albums for about one hour. The sound was good and the band were very tight. For the encore Lily Allen sang a deep dub-sounding version of Smile – which to the delight of the audience included a drum n bass rework in place of a middle eight, and a powerful rendition of her latest single The Fear before ending the show on a spectacular high with a great cover version of Britney Spears Womanizer.
It was great to see Lily Allen in such a small venue. She was relaxed and spoke to the audience between songs. After a few of which, she told the press photographers to fuck off to make more room for the squashed fans at the front of the stage, pouring glasses of wine through the gig, which she shared with her fans. A great performance, very professional and very initimate.
