Lily Allen
Lily Allen performs West End Girl live at RAC Arena, Perth | 01 November 2026
On the first of the month fans crowded the RAC Arena for Lily Allen’s final show of her ‘West End Girl’ tour.
From previous knowledge of the tour, I knew that the show would work a bit differently to others, with Lily Allen playing her new album, ‘West End Girl’, in full with no supporting artist, and no encore. I thought that this was a very unique idea, but it makes sense as throughout her album she tells a story and if she did a more traditional set list, a mix of tracks off of the album and some of her previous hits, it would be a disservice to the storytelling from the album itself.
To combat the lack of a supporting artist, and give the fans something to enjoy before Lily Allen was on stage, she had a six piece cello ensemble, named the Dallas Minor Sextet, led by a conductor who performed instrumental versions of some of her most popular tracks, with the lyrics projected on to the screens either side of the stage, for the audience to sing along karaoke style to the songs played. The segment included one of my favourite songs of hers, ‘LDN’, which I was happy to hear live and thought the cellists did a great job with the arrangement. I think that this was a great idea as it gave a chance for fans to enjoy older tracks, or their favourites, off of previous work, as well as being able to keep the iconic simplicity of performing her album front to back. It also warmed up the crowd before the show.
When Lily Allen came on stage her stage presence was felt throughout the arena. As someone who’s usually going to see bands play shows, I don’t usually see artists solo on stage so I was interested to see how she would perform, and I was not disappointed. She moved around the stage tons throughout the show, interacting with furniture and props, aiding the storytelling of the album. From a set design perspective, I think the space was filled very well with the furniture and props being laid out across the stage and not just central, which is nice so that fans from all sides of the arena can get an excellent view of the action on stage.
My favourite set that she had was during ‘Dallas Major’. During the song she steps on to a platformed part of the stage that rose, turning into a tiered cake where she stood atop. I thought that it looked so cool with the purple colour palette of the tiers matching her outfit but it also gave a great opportunity for fans further back in GA to be able to see her not just through a screen. I think that the most iconic props/sets that she had was a long trains of fabric that she pulled on to the stage during ‘4chan Stan’. I had seen this moment on the tour all over the internet before the show so was eagerly awaiting the song. One of the trains of fabric was actually a collage of receipts of things that her ex had bought for this other woman, with the lyrics talking about how he was hiding who she was and what he was doing with her saying ‘what a sad, sad man’. This made the action on stage of her wrapping herself in the fabric so impactful, hence why I’d seen so many clips online.
Lily Allen also had a few costume changes throughout the show, starting in a pretty party dress, taking it off in a later song leaving her in a body suit which she then added a teal robe over the top of for some tracks, half way through the set, she then changed into a purple outfit, accessorising with a ‘cuck’ apron for ‘Nonmonogamummy’, ending in a gorgeous pale pink dress that had kind of an exaggerated bullet bra look to it. I loved her costuming throughout the show as I think costume is such an important part of storytelling and every accessory that she added during songs really complemented the themes and vibe of the track.
For an album that is being performed in its entirety, the visual storytelling really aided the emotions within the album and I was really impressed with the set and costume design. In addition, I adored Lily Allen’s acting throughout, really making the concert a show and an unskippable experience.
Review by Ava Thomson
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