Lily Allen, Dizzee Rascal

Ahh yes, a very late review if I do say so myself, but alas, I have my reasons, so stop moaning and read it anyway! It was always going to be one of 'those’ gigs, the ones that you remember for years to come. Even beforehand, it was promising to be special; two sell out arena shows under the belt of two artists who up until now have only headlined academies. That's not to say Dizzee and Lily have been shy to the big stage however, both artists have played huge shows before, but neither have accomplished something as massive as a co-headline show. Either way, to say I wasn’t excited for tonight’s MEN shindig would be a complete lie.

Opening the night is all down to London rapper Professor Green and for an artist that’s largely unknown he does a mighty fine job of wooing the crowd with his mix of grime and electro hip hop. While the MEN is still only half full, Green commits himself to working the folk at the front into a frenzy, making sure that absolutely everyone is having a good time. There’s a bit here for everyone to enjoy; sometimes it’s down and dirty grime, sometimes its radio friendly hip hop. The only thing really stopping him from taking off tonight is a lack of interest from the crowd’s perspective, but all in all he does a great job of doing what he is meant to do – putting everyone in a good mood for the night ahead.
(****)

Dizzee Rascal was born for this. The moment the lights go down the now jam packed MEN arena goes wild; they all know what’s coming. The stage side screens display an oddly disturbing green faced Dizzee Rascal picture, which is also imprinted on the T shirts of pretty much the entirety of Dizzee’s onstage entourage. The set list has the perfect mixture to please fans new and old, and boy does the man himself know how to please people. Throwing everything the way of the crowd, the once king of underground grime has settled himself down nicely as a major player in the current assault by electro hip-hop stars on our ears, but tonight he shows he is so much more than just a wannabe chart topper. There are hefty rock breakdowns, there’s dub step beats that get the crowd jumping like crazy, there’s danceable sections that turn the crowd from civilised bystanders into sweat covered dancers – there’s absolutely everything. Classics such as 'Just a Rascal’ are shouted back at him word for word by the Dizzee faithful, and the absolutely brilliant mash up of 'Stand up tall’ and Nirvana’s grunge classic 'Smells like Teen Spirit’ goes down a treat. The live band does a tremendous job of pulling each song off too; the backing singers especially, as they are given their own parts in different songs, and boy do they each do an amazing job. Dizzee closes the set with 'Dance wiv me’ and new track 'Bonkers’ and even though they don’t demonstrate Dizzee’s full potential, they truly bring the set to a close in style.
(*****)

I always thought it made more sense to put Lily Allen on first. A large majority of her songs are far more laidback compared to many of Dizzee’s tunes which are built for crowd interaction, and even though she is arguably the bigger artist, I made the presumption that her set would flatten the atmosphere after the previous hour of jumping, dancing and generally having an amazing time. Obviously though, I was completely wrong. She admits she’s suffering from a bout of bronchitis, but this only really affects the first couple of songs, and despite a couple of hiccups here and there, the set is almost perfectly performed. She’s done the Dizzee and thrown in a couple of electro beats and Dub sections to make things more 'accessible’ as a whole for the crowd to immerse themselves in, which, as a whole works fine, even if these bits don’t always suite the songs they are strung to the end of. Opening with 'Everyone’s at it’ and going straight through to 'LDN’, Allen is an instant winner with the masses of folks as a universal sing-along ensues. Despite being a bit ill tonight, she shows an enormous amount of care for her audience and, of course, her music. She is constantly charming, funny and universally appealing – she makes it too damn easy for you to forgive her tiny mess ups. I don’t really understand why Dizzee Rascal never joined Lily Allen on stage though – after all, they have done a song together, and even if they didn't want to do that tune, there’s plenty of other songs they could have done. Alas, she IS joined by one Professor Green during a version of classic 'Just be good to me’. If anything, this is just a clever way to get Greens name out there a bit more, but it’s good nonetheless. The night is drawn to a close with Lily’s hit 'Not fair’, and while this she doesn’t do what Dizzee achieved, she still pulls of a blinding set.
(****)

Tonight really does deserve five stars. It’d be simply ridiculous to give it anything less. Both artists put on staggeringly good performances, and the night went relatively mistake free. Tonight may be one of Lily Allen’s supposedly last shows, but at least she went out with a bang. A brilliant night out with two exceptional artists.