August 3, 2007 16:30

Lily Allen plays festival warm-up show in Australia

Arcitc Monkeys and Editors also arrive for Splendour In The Grass

Photo Gallery: Arctic Monkeys
Photo: Ed Miles

The sideshows for Australia’s Splendour In The Grass festival are in full swing, with Arctic Monkeys, Lily Allen and Ok Go all playing gigs in Sydney tonight, AEST (August 3).

The shows – which began with Editors on Wednesday (August 1) –
are taking place ahead of festival itself, which takes place this weekend (August 4-5) in Byron Bay, nine hours north of Sydney.

Artists including Bloc Party, Kaiser Chiefs, The Horrors, Hot Chip and The Shins will all include shows in Sydney, as well selected shows in Brisbane, Melbourne and other areas of Australia.

The festival has been marred with a number of last-minute cancellations, with Damien Rice citing exhaustion and Klaxons pulling out after to singer Jamie Reynolds’ broke his ankle and was unable to travel. Hot Chip will now play a DJ set at the festival in their place.

Meanwhile Allen was in a jovial mood at her show this evening, sharing a fans gift of a bottle of Jägermeister with the crowd, serenading moshpit security, ignoring new Australian rules banning smoking indoors and covering tracks from Blondie and The Kooks, along with a sultry rendition her Kaiser Chiefs' 'Oh My God'.

The singer dedicated 'Everything’s Just Wonderful' to George W Bush, beauty magazine editors and bank managers amongst others, before adding: “This is for all the skinny rock stars and pop stars who pretend they're at the gym all day… when all they really do is take smack!”.

Lilly Allen played:

'LDN'
'Nan, You're A Window Shopper'
'Shame For You'
'Everything’s Just Wonderful'
'Littlest Things'
'Naïve'
'Not Big'
'Sunday Morning'
'Friend Of Mine'
'Friday Night'
'Knock ‘Em Out'
'Smile'
'Heart Of Glass'
'Oh My God'
'Alfie'