Lily Allen has never let anyone else have the last word. So it must have taken remarkable restraint not to comment on the criticisms of her live tour. Since it opened in March, this theatrical, introspective one-woman show, which involves a performance of her 45-minute album sensation West End Girl start to finish, with no chat or interaction with the crowd, and whose only concession to her back catalogue is a string quartet warm-up playing orchestral versions of her old hits with lyrics on a big screen, has divided her fans.
For some, it is a storytelling masterstroke. Others left feeling short-changed. Allen – who has given up fighting with the trolls who vilified her, or defending herself to the media, as she spent so many of her formative years doing – has let her art speak for itself. Until this week.
It was a tweet from Rupert Hawksley – opinion editor at The Spectator and formerly of this paper – that broke the camel’s back. “Lily Allen at The O2 * No support act * Arrived on stage at 9:10pm * All wrapped up by 10pm * Not one word to the audience * £86 to sit in the gods”. At the time of writing it’s had eight million views, 557 retweets and 29k likes.
Hours later, Allen responded. “There is a support act. The show has always been advertised as ‘Lily Allen performs West End Girl.’ I was a few mins late as my tights were laddered and i had to change them. The show is just over an hour as it’s just the album in its entirety. It’s my artistic choice not to talk to the audience, the fourth wall helps with the storytelling. Most people find it to be effective. I don’t want anyone to feel ripped off, Everyone on this tour is really working very hard to give people the best show we possibly can, and i’m extremely proud of it.” Obviously, she’s being both lauded for advocating for herself, and absolutely torn apart.
