Lily Allen defends length of West End Girl shows: ‘I don’t want anyone to feel ripped off’

Lily Allen has defended the UK live tour of her album West End Girl after fans complained about 55-minute shows that have included no crowd interaction. Photograph: Henry Redcliffe View image in fullscreen Lily Allen has defended the UK live tour of her album West End Girl after fans complained about 55-minute shows that have included no crowd interaction. Photograph: Henry Redcliffe Lily Allen defends length of West End Girl shows: ‘I don’t want anyone to feel ripped off’ Singer has likened live show to theatre rather than a conventional concert but fans have criticised the performances and lack of crowd interaction Lily Allen has defended the live tour of her latest album West End Girl, after fans complained about feeling short-changed by the 55-minute shows that have no crowd interaction. Allen is currently on the UK leg of the world tour for the album that was inspired by her divorce from the actor David Harbour. The show sees her perform the 45-minute album in its entirety, without speaking to the crowd or performing any of her back catalogue. Lily Allen review – West End Girl’s marital collapse is superbly evoked at arena scale Read more The singer has likened the show to theatre rather than a conventional concert, telling Elle last year that it would “feel more like a Broadway-esque one-woman show, with really interesting set design. There’ll be no band and no dancers.” But some fans are complaining that the 55-minute show is too short to justify the ticket prices. Tickets for her shows at London’s O2 Arena have been about £100, while tickets for the upcoming Australian leg range from $110 to $400 for VIP packages. “I know that it said ‘Lily Allen performs West End Girl’ but it didn’t say ‘Lily Allen ONLY performs West End Girl’ very clearly,” one attender of her first O2 Arena show wrote in a two-star review published to Ticketmaster. “It cost me £100 per ticket for maybe an hour and 10 minute show with lengthy costume changes in between and no speaking at all … this has got to be the shortest and least value for money concert I’ve ever been to.” Another called it “disappointing” , adding: “Although her performance was excellent. She was on stage for less than one hour. She could have sang some of her old songs herself. If I’d have known this before I would not have purchased the expensive tickets.” Critics and fans have also been split about Allen’s decision to not appear in the first half of her own show , instead having a string ensemble play 10 of her older hits while the crowd is encouraged to sing along, karaoke-style. Journalist Rupert Hawksley shared his critical assessment of her O2 Arena show on Sunday on X , which prompted Allen herself to respond. “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 [US$114, AU$165] to sit in the gods,” Hawksley wrote. While Allen’s performance was “brilliant”, he wrote, “it can’t be right to charge that much for an hour,