More ladette than lady, Lily Allen steps out onto the stage in her trademark frock and trainers combination, and a mockney swagger completes the image.
Uncharacteristically, Lily appears shy as she steps up to the mic. This 1,500-strong gig appeared to faze her, but this is hardly surprising - it must be disorientating to be thrust suddenly from the favourite page of My Space to the top of the pop charts. But there is little in her performance to raise her confidence. The calypso bubbles of Everything’s Wonderful are left flattened by the warbling bass, which also drowns out the vicious rhyming couplets of Friday Night. While the text-speak fable LDN and tale of tainted love Smile get a moderate reception, her performance remains bland and uninspired. Stage presence And much less can be said of her stage presence. Even as she covers songs by The Kooks and Keane, Lily doesn’t look like she’s enjoying herself. Between songs her quips come across as more crass than comic and true interaction with the audience is rare. As she leaves the stage, the swagger has become more of a slumped shuffle. The camera phone paparazzi have got their snaps of the provocative princess and her boy fans have got a glimpse of their bad girl fantasy, but the music fans are left feeling unsatisfied. Through her caustic blog and vindictive outbursts, Lily has had her say on everyone - insults have flown in the direction of Cheryl Tweedy, Gyles Brandreth and even Bob Geldof. "Overrated" Amid all the noise, I'll take my chance to have my say: Lily Allen is unimpressive and pitifully overrated. Of course, it'll take more than a dull performance to curb the tabloids' love-to-hate fascination with Lily. But maybe it's about time they listened more to Lily’s music and less to her rants – they'll find much less to write about. Lily Allen appeared at the University Of East Anglia in Norwich on Monday, 31 October, 2006. | 
