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Maisie Peters Rocks Hammersmith // by Catherine Clark, Dame Alice Owen's School

Maisie Peters at Hammersmith (taken by Catherine Clark) <i>(Image: Catherine Clark)</i>
Maisie Peters at Hammersmith (taken by Catherine Clark) (Image: Catherine Clark)

Maisie Peters Rocks Hammersmith // by Catherine Clark, Dame Alice Owen's School

 

On the 27th of April 2023, singer-songwriter Maisie Peters stepped foot into the Hammersmith Eventim Apollo for the closing night of her spectacular UK tour ‘Road To Hammersmith’. The crowd went wild - echoing her every lyric, because if there’s one thing Maisie Peters knows how to do, it's how to work a crowd. I was extremely lucky to be able to get my hands on standing tickets, and I can tell you first hand that it was a night to remember. 

The amazing Cate (Maisie’s support act and roommate!) opened the show with her song ‘Stupid’, a catchy but meaningful song exploring how it feels to never truly know if you're actually over them. A few songs later, with her lockdown song ‘Can’t Wait To Be Pretty’, the venue was littered with thousands of phone torches waving along to the song. It was a beautiful moment - everyone standing collectively, sharing the same surreal experience; we can only imagine how Cate would have been feeling.

After Cate’s phenomenal set drew to a close, the crowd was buzzing with anticipation. Excitement levels were high, building in suspense, counting the minutes until the clock hit 9pm and Maisie would walk on stage. And when she finally did, a deafening cacophony of screams erupted throughout the venue. The pure excitement was almost tangible as she sang the first line of her recent single ‘Body Better’. Every person knew every word, and as Maisie danced across the stage in a silver top and a bright pink tennis skirt, the crowd danced with her.

With an outstanding setlist filled with her greatest songs, my personal favourite song that Maisie performed would have to be the titular track of her first album, ‘You Signed Up For This’. Maisie engaged the crowd, waving at audience members and dancing as though there was no tomorrow; and when the final chorus of the song began, she switched to acoustic, strumming the song on her guitar into the main microphone stand. The crowd cheered and raved as she changed the line ‘I still haven’t got my drivers licence’ to announce that she had, subsequently, got it. It was a tear-brimming moment, one that I will never forget.

Maisie continued her show with a heartbreaking medley of, as she put it, her ‘most devastating songs’, finishing with an astounding, gut-wrenching cover of Taylor Swift’s ‘Dear John’. She then moved on (as if the crowd wasn’t flooding the venue with tears after the heartbreak she’d just ensued) with her upbeat, catchy fan-favourite pop song ‘Not Another Rockstar’. 

Maisie’s show came to a close, a little over an hour long, with 20 songs (including a 5-song medley, a Taylor Swift cover and an unheard song off her new album, out 16th June). As the crowd sang the final lyric of her encore song ‘Blonde’, there was that familiar contrasting feeling in all of our stomachs; sad that it’s over, happy that it happened. With Maisie’s extraordinary ability to engage and work a crowd, her spectacularly clever lyrics and her catchy, memorable songs, the show was absolutely unforgettable.

And the good news is; the fun doesn’t have to end here. Maisie’s touring Ireland and the UK again- and tickets go on sale on the 5th of May, so grab yours before they’re gone, for the show of your life. I’ll be there for her biggest ever headline show; Wembley arena. And on the 16th of June 2023, Maisie’s second album, ‘The Good Witch’, will be released.

But for now, let this witch enchant you with her two EPs, 1 album, a cauldron of singles, and her soundtrack for the British comedy series, ‘Trying’. They're sure to leave you hooked on her songwriting spell.

 

Article by Catherine Clark 
Dame Alice Owen's School 

YOUNG REPORTER