Celebrating Griff’s debut album, ‘Vertigo’: the London acoustic shows
On July 12th, the rising popstar Griff released her debut album, Vertigo. With 14 tracks exploring the highs and lows of adolescence, Vertigo searches through a whirlwind of emotional turbulence for some kind of calm - or better yet, acceptance.
If you haven’t yet, you can listen to Vertigo on Spotify:
In anticipation of the album’s release week, Griff announced a series of in-store performances and signings across the UK:
She also hosted a pop-up shop on the Vertigo release day at Third Man Records, Soho. From 2-9pm, fans could:
Buy physical copies of the album
Use a Vertigo photobooth and free personalised embroidery stations
Meet Griff and watch an acoustic performance of some of her favourite songs from the album!
VoiceNoted didn’t attend the pop-up shop, but went to both of Griff’s ticketed London performances. So, if you couldn’t make it, here’s what you missed:
St John’s Church, Kingston - July 16th
The photos of this venue really don’t do it justice, but the sun started to set during Griff’s performance and the inside of the church literally glowed. And another thing we didn’t expect was for there to be seats, so we were only the 5th row!
Griff’s set was just under an hour, from 8:00-8:50pm and you can check out the setlist here:
Miss Me Too
Into the Walls
Astronaut
Pillow in my Arms
Hole in my Pocket
Anything
So Fast
Tears For Fun
Everlasting
Where Did You Go?
Vertigo
Introducing Hole In My Pocket, Griff explained that “The sonic thread throughout this album grows from ballads of despair to dancing to the feelings of heartbreak. What I love about this album is that it wasn’t really written about one specific heartbreak - it was over the course of a couple of years and reflecting on all the shifts in my life.”
“I really wanted this album to be digested as one thing, and Vertigo is connected by this feeling of unrest in yourself and this longing to heal but you’re not quite there yet.”
Griff played Anything after reminiscing on the time she debuted it as an opener on The Eras Tour…
…then the fan-favourite Tears For Fun had it’s debut performance!
Afterwards, there wasn’t a signing or opportunity to meet Griff, but that’s likely because this show was a little longer than the rest of her instore ones.
Rough Trade East, Kingston - July 19th
For context, this show happened on the hottest day of the year so far in the UK, and it was extremely hot. Because of that, we arrived later for this one (about 20 mins before doors) and due to the more central location of the venue, more fans were already waiting outside! Excitingly, this was VoiceNoted’s first time at Rough Trade East.
Here’s the full setlist for Griff’s July 19th show:
Miss Me Too
Astronaut
Tears for Fun
Hole in my Pocket
So Fast
Anything
Where Did You Go
Vertigo
Introducing the set, Griff talked a little more with us about the creation of her debut album:
“I was very fortunate post-pandemic to be invited on a lot of support tours which was amazing but it kind of meant that my whole world was flipped upside down. What I knew to do every day was to write songs but I couldn’t do that anymore - so what I would do is, in between the tours when I had a gap, I’d book an Airbnb, figure out how to convert the living room into a studio and just get there for a week and be alone with my thoughts.
Over the years, I collected all these songs and it was only when I listened to them that it became very apparent that the album should be called Vertigo:
To me, Vertigo is about how heartache and growing up often feels like this dizzy feeling - like the world is upside down and you can’t quite find your own feet on the ground.”
Griff sounds ethereal live, and the stripped-back acoustic performances are such a special way of hearing her music. In particular, her performance of the album’s closing song Where Did You Go was incredible:
And, of course, she played everyone’s favourite title track, Vertigo:
After the show, we got to meet Griff and she was so lovely! We talked to her about our favourite song Astronaut and even had our poster and records personally signed.
If you missed Griff’s acoustic shows and have an intense case of FOMO after reading this, you’re in luck because Griff is about to embark on a world tour! You can find details about where she’s performing here:
We’d recommend following Griff on Instagram to keep up-to-date with her music, and you can listen to her discography in its entirety below:
