Lily Allen - West End Girl

Oddly, they've removed the sample, that made this song a would be airplay hit. Is this just a REMIX ROYALTY BUZZ-TRACK?
 
Saw the show tonight in Manchester.

It is a great album and obviously works really well as a self contained piece, but for an arena gig, the fact she was onstage for a cool 58 minutes felt like a bit of a swizz.

It really didn’t feel like she’d done much to scale up the show from its small theater origins either, bar a few screen projections. A band would have been great, and it was a shame not to get a Madeline. It was just sort of her wandering around the stage for an hour singing to the backing tracks with a few props and occasional vape breaks.

Also she literally doesn’t say a WORD to the audience, even after it’s all over. :D

This probably sounds overly negative, I did love what we got. I just wish there’d been a bit more given the price and scale.
 
The audience bought into the whole album thing much more than I expected. Most people singing along to every song which was a nice surprise !
 
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I've had this convo since she did the whole theatre then round two; arenas thing...will she do MORE for the arenas - and its as I thought, NO :D I think she should have btw, but she's sticking to her guns.
 
I would have loved to have seen it in a theatre setting. It doesn't seem in the slightest suited to an arena, without deviating from the whole conceit.
 
Ellie said:
Oh dear. Anyone going? Maybe it was just a Sunday thing.

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That’s exactly what it was when me and @AlgoAlex saw her too.

I enjoyed it a lot for what it was, but the more I think about it the lazier it feels. Especially after seeing Robyn this weekend.

Like, even if she felt really strongly about not doing any other material, a live band or some backing vocalists could at least have added something to the source material.

Even the male vocalist on Nonmonogamummy was just a screen projection!
 
Lily says fuck off everyone actually

Screenshot 2026-06-29 184721.png
 
I have no problem with not talking to the audience and can imagine it makes the show more immersive.

I just think if she's effectively performing a one woman theatre show, it should've stayed in theatres. of course people would've expected something more from an arena expansion, whatever wording was used during the on-sale.
 
In my eyes, she's been clear from the off that she's just doing the album. People bought the tickets when it was advertised as such, and in many cases, she'd already done multiple shows of her tour doing just that!

I have no interest in seeing that show in an arena setting, so I didn't go. Others could have done the same, but it's not her fault they didn't read the event listing!
 
It is what it is I guess. I can see both sides.

There are still so many tickets left to the next few shows and all I see are people trying(and mostly failing) to offload the tickets they bought months ago on various ticket sites, sometimes at a fraction of the price they paid for them. It might be a bit of an own goal for Lily in the medium to long term.
 
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I think she was very clever doing all those theatre shows with around 2k capacity before announcing the arena dates. It created a huge amount of hype selling those out so quickly.
 
Why would you do the same theatre show in an arena where you'll have a rather different audience profile though? She should tailor her shows to who will be turning up, to some degree at least.
 
ZenGiraffe said:
Why would you do the same theatre show in an arena where you'll have a rather different audience profile though? She should tailor her shows to who will be turning up, to some degree at least.
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Realistically it's the same audience profile though. I imagine the only difference in audience is FASTEST FINGER FIRST for the theatre shows.
 
I think her defence of, "But it says this on the advertising", while accurate, also leaves a bad taste in the mouth. If she's having to explain herself on social media, it's not great really.
 
I don't see this haunting her. The girls that get it, get it. The girls that don't will still be front of the queue in their pink cowboy hats if the mortgage needs paying and she announces a greatest hits/'Alright, Still' anniversary tour.
 
There have been so many “performing the whole album” gigs and they usually have something else added on to it, so that advertising (which wasn’t explicit from memory) is kinda bullshit.

I do see both sides, but I also think £86 for an hour is a stretch in an arena setting. Would it really have hurt her to throw in another 5 songs with someone on guitar?
 
I think the advertising always (as in from the initial theatre dates) stated 'Lily Allen performs West End Girl', but certainly if you look at ticketmaster for example, you're just buying Lily Allen concert tickets.
 
I'm definitely Team Lily when it's her Vs some cunt from The Spectator, but gurl absolutely should have made the West End Girl theatrical spectacular act two and had act one be 30-40 minutes of other material. For the version that played in theatres too.

If Kate Bush can do that, she can!
 
I went to the theatre show and had no desire to do the arena.

I think she’s right in her reply there, however, the support act is actively TROLLING :D but I also think it’s funny as fuck.
 
For me it's not as much about the content of the show - which I agree was exactly as advertised. But the lack of a live band, backing vocalists or much of anything beyond a couple of cheap props does smack of a cynical cash grab. She could have done so much more without compromising her artistic vision for the tour.
 
I just think if it was anyone else but Lily Allen, these complaints wouldn’t be made. I do understand people feeling ripped off but it is a very unique show. I’ve not seen anything like it before. Yeah complete performances of anniversary albums but never something like this which feels like a a true moment that she probably isn’t getting the credit she deserves on.

I do think for festivals she should have brought out the hits tho.
 
Logic? said:
I just think if it was anyone else but Lily Allen, these complaints wouldn’t be made.
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I don't agree with this... she's had so much love and acclaim with the album, it's not like the media is out to get her. at the end of the day a sub-one hour arena show that cost 85 quid a ticket is always gonna raise a few eyebrows.
 
Jark said:
I don't agree with this... she's had so much love and acclaim with the album, it's not like the media is out to get her. at the end of the day a sub-one hour arena show that cost 85 quid a ticket is always gonna raise a few eyebrows.
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Wasn't that one of the cheaper tickets available too?
 
I think if you're going to transfer a show from theatres to arenas with a suitable price hike to match you need to make it more big budget, more thrilling.
 
lolly said:
I think the advertising always (as in from the initial theatre dates) stated 'Lily Allen performs West End Girl', but certainly if you look at ticketmaster for example, you're just buying Lily Allen concert tickets.
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But still, I’ve been to “Saint Etienne Play Foxbase Alpha” and “Belinda Carlisle- the Runaway Horses Anniversary Tour, the whole album will be played live” etc. and there’s ALWAYS been something else. This is just unusual and out of sync with expectation.
 
Sheena said:
But still, I’ve been to “Saint Etienne Play Foxbase Alpha” and “Belinda Carlisle- the Runaway Horses Anniversary Tour, the whole album will be played live” etc. and there’s ALWAYS been something else. This is just unusual and out of sync with expectation.
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Given that I defend her right to present exactly what she wants, I guess she needs to be a LOT more explicit then.

And not take the piss in terms of ticket prices.
 
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