On a miserable, wet and windy night in Birmingham, outspoken Lily Allen managed to bring a touch of humour and sunshine to the city as part of her latest tour.

Dressed in a short floral dress and hair piled on her head, Allen surprisingly kept chat to a minimum. To be fair, she did a lot more than most of her contemporaries, but by her standards, this was her slightly subdued.

Despite this, it is still difficult not to warm to actor Keith Allen’s daughter, a likeable stage presence, full of charm, good nature and self deprecation. Now with two albums to draw on, her set was full of her hit singles from debut album Alright, Still. But this was mostly to plug her follow-up, It’s Not Me It’s You, three years in the making.

She kept her two biggest hits for the encore, with a drum & bass infused Smile, and then recent number one The Fear, her ode to celebrity, before topping it off with an infectious cover of Britney’s Womanizer.

By Lee Perry.

Picture courtesy of Jason Sheldon.