Grace Barr opens Siobhán Winifred’s sold-out show at The Lower Third, London
On October 15th, Siobhán Winifred’s first ever UK tour came to a close with its fifth and final night. Held at The Lower Third, London, the indie-popstar brought along fellow musicians Grace Barr and Meg Chandler to open the sold-out show.
Grace Barr is no stranger to the stage, having performed at Manchester’s Neighbourhood Festival with the likes of Alessi Rose, Chloe Slater and Stevie Bill. From there, Siobhán invited Grace to open on her final two nights of tour: Bristol and London.
For a 250-capacity venue, there were a lot of fans eagerly queueing outside before the doors opened, hoping to get a great view from the front. Though this was hardly Siobhán’s first London gig, the recent release of her debut EP, Don’t Do Well Alone has deservedly spiked the singer’s popularity.
A 5-song project with a special feature from Stevie Bill (on the song, Killers), the EP’s most popular track is Lungs, Siobhán’s first love song which went viral online, now surpassing 350k Spotify streams.
Whilst fans waited to hear their favourite songs from the EP, Grace Barr brought an excited energy and angelic vocals for the first opening slot of the night, singing an acoustic set with her guitarist, Taran.
Photo by Martina Aguirre
The first of her six-song performance was Here We Go Again, an original track about going round in circles with regret that perfectly introduced not only Grace’s impressive vocal range but her on-stage charisma, too.
Met with a huge cheer from the crowd, she played three more original tracks: You Never Turned (about a guy doing a 180 when they crossed paths), Red Flags (a song about her best friend’s ex) and Unlucky, “an account of one of those days where every single thing in your life is going wrong.” Grace then announced she’d play a cover:
”Let's get this thing going because I have the job of opening. I’ve got to get you all in the mood, so I’m going to do a sing-a-long next!” Soon after, the opening strums of Taylor Swift’s Love Story started playing:
The crowd sung along to every word of the classic track, with many in the audience already displaying their Swiftie status through Folklore cardigans and Eras Tour t-shirts. Shocked by the volume of the crowd, Grace even said, “I played Bristol the other night and you guys are so much louder!”
Grace then played her original track, Deep Rooted Hatred, which can be found in parts on her Instagram, though the live performance added another layer to the already emotionally-charged song. Pointing to one of her friends in the crowd, she said that they’d called her “a hater at heart, but when she loves, she loves.”
Finishing her set with the cheerful and uplifting track, Hot Girl Summer, Grace prompted to crowd to clap along with her as she sung what could easily become next summer’s pop girl anthem with the way it lit up the room:
“Siobhán, thanks for having me,” she said before leaving the stage. “I’m a massive fan and can’t believe I’m here!”
In an Instagram post the following day, Grace summarised the night: “They didn’t lie when they said that Siobhán’s fans are the sweetest out there. Thank you for singing along to Taylor with me and giving me all your attention. I LOVED meeting all of you guys!”
To be the first opener in a small venue such as The Lower Third is quite a daunting task, but Grace owned the stage as if it were her own show, bringing her clever and original lyricism, talent for captivating an audience and heavenly vocals to ready the crowd for the rest of the night ahead.
Photo by Martina Aguirre
Next up was Meg Chandler, a singer-songwriter from Shropshire who had already opened each night of the tour except for Manchester.
Known for her genre-blending indie/folk/pop tracks with deep lyricism and moving melodies, it was clear to see why she had been picked as the second opener of the night.
The second track of her 6-song set was called Your Rule, which Meg introduced as “a brand new song that hasn’t been played before in front of anyone.” With haunting lyrics about escaping someone’s control, it certainly resonated with the crowd as the room fell practically silent, tuning in on the performance:
Meg then confessed to the crowd: “I have a very deep-rooted hatred of love songs. I think they’re quite cringey - every one except for Lungs! But, I wrote one once and think that it’s quite cool, just don’t come up to me after and say that it’s your favourite!” The stage lights softened to a warm pink as Meg sang, with many in the crowd swaying gently to the song.
Next, it was time for one of the highlights of her set, Meg’s 2022 single, Woodland. ”I’m going to play you my favourite song that I’ve ever released,” she said. “I make a fool of myself and get too emotional when I play this but it’s about my brother and he’s here in the crowd.”
For just over three minutes, it seemed as if the entire room held their breath to hear Meg’s tribute to their childhood in the dreamy countryside of Shropshire. To listen to the full track, you can head to Spotify below:
Asking the crowd “who fancies a sing-a-long?”, Meg then explained “a bit of a backstory is that I won my secondary school talent show with this next one, which is obviously my proudest achievement.”
As Paramore’s The Only Exception began to play, the crowd broke out in whispers of excitement which was certainly deserved by the singer because, if it weren’t one of those tracks that everyone already knows, you would have thought that it was Meg’s original song. Singing passionately alongside the crowd, this was one of our favourite moments of the entire night:
Rounding off her set, Meg played the popular track Bad Luck from her debut EP, This House before telling the crowd that the next one would be “the last song on the last show of tour!”
Thanking her guitarist Connor, she gushed that “this whole tour journey has been the best” and played her new and final song of the night, Roses.
Then, with a brief 15-minute interval before the main act, the crowd proved just how energised they were for the night ahead when Chappell Roan’s HOT TO GO! rang through the speakers, prompting most of the room to join in on the dance.
With a pre-show playlist filled with iconic names like MUNA, Renee Rapp, Taylor Swift and Maisie Peters, the crowd knew they were in for a fun night, singing and dancing along to their favourite pop tracks as they waited for the headliner.
Shortly after, Siobhán graced the stage alongside bandmates Darcey Beth, Jamie Lord and Jake Bott, opening with the fan-favourite track, Stay for Good.
A song that Siobhán has explained belongs to the fans, it was heart-warming to see the entire room raise up paper hearts with the words, “We’ll stay for good <3” on them, a fan project organised by @graceayva_ and @jolayoungg on Instagram.
”Thank you for your hearts, that was so so lovely. You’re gonna make me cry before I’ve even started!” Siobhán said.
Moving into her second song of the night, Siobhán played Sober, her gut-wrenching yet electrically euphoric third single released back in March of 2023. It was at that moment we realised just how dedicated the crowd were to her older music, singing along to every word as if the track were released just yesterday.
Hyped for the next fan-favourite song, Siobhán taught the crowd to sing the line: “When you said forget it, I-” from her debut single, Black Hole.
Dancing harder than ever before, it was one of those precious moments at a show where everyone in the audience seemed completely present and immersed in the music. Clearly enthusiastic about the gig, someone from the crowd shouted, “absolute icon!” toward the stage, which the rest of the room met with cheers and laughter.
For the next song, Siobhán explained: “We’re going to bring it down. A lot of you know I have a lot of sad songs, and this is a particularly sad one. It’s called This House.”
Clearly understanding the assignment, the crowd turned on their flashlights, swaying along to the heart-wrenching track about outgrowing someone and having to leave:
The band then left the stage before Siobhán announced, “I’m going to do a cover. I don’t know if anyone’s ever heard of an artist called Rufus Wainright, but this is from an album that we used to listen to in the car and it’s very full-circle of me to be able to play it at my own headline gig, especially when my family are here! It’s called Pretty Things.”
“It’s crazy how big this crowd is,” she said after finishing the song. “I can’t quite get over it! I’m going to do one more on my own because it’s a tribute to how I started and it’s another sad one, woohoo!”
Met by screams from the crowd, Siobhán told them that the next song “is an unreleased one and it doesn’t have a name. If you’ve ever been childish, this one’s for you.”
There honestly aren’t words for how beautiful this song was, and the crowd fell completely silent in awe of Siobhán’s lyricism. At the risk of spoiling the track before it (hopefully!) gets released, our very favourite line had to be: “Make me a grown up, make me be alright.” There’s not much else to say other than that watching it live was like the time-pausing ending scene in a coming-of-age movie.
Quickly joined by the rest of the band back on stage, Siobhán made sure that there were no dry eyes in the room with her breathtaking performance of Keep Sweet, a track from her debut EP that is criminally underrated, but incredible live.
With harmonies from Darcey, the iconic, cathartic guitar swell and sheer emotion from Siobhán, it was by far our favourite song of the night:
Lightening the energy up, Siobhán then explained that “We’re going to change the vibe. If you know the dance, please dance along!” before Charlie XCX’s Apple blasted through the speakers, with the band performing a fun, alternative cover of the song.
Next, was the song that most of the crowd had been waiting for: Lungs. A sea of hands with sharpie-drawn circles on them flew into the air as every single person in the room sang along.
One girl beside us had even brought a crocheted pair of lungs that she gave to Siobhán at the end of the show:
Photo by @xdaisyeleanorx
The energy was so high during the song that Siobhán exclaimed, “that was crazy!” which the crowd replied to with a “Siobhán fucking Winifred!” chant in pure excitement.
To commemorate the moment, she said: “We’re going to do a new one that we have never ever played live before. We just really want to play it! It’s about a period of time that was just perfect and how, obviously, things change and you can’t be in that perfect space forever so its just about missing it. Feeling like that is all good, it’s just about getting back there. The song’s called Toothpaste.”
For the penultimate track of the night, Siobhán pulled out all the stops with a mash-up of her beloved track Don’t Do Well Alone and Chappell Roan’s Red Wine Supernova, featuring trumpet.
As expected, the crowd absolutely loved this performance, dancing in unison to the chorus of Don’t Do Well Alone, spelling the words out with their hands:
"We’re going to pretend that this was our last song," Siobhán said before rushing off stage with her bandmates. In the usual fashion, the crowd chanted for “one more song” before she ran back onstage.
“Cheer if you want to hear a new song!” she shouted before the crowd burst into cheers, with fans stamping their feet in anticipation. “I don’t know why I’m riling you all up for something that’s really fucking sad,” Siobhán confessed. “This one, I’ve cried every time I’ve played it but I’m going to introduce it cause its important to me…
My grandparents were like the perfect relationship: they stuck together and were together for such a long time. After they both passed a couple years ago, I found my grandma’s calendars and on every birthday it said 'love you forever', so the song is about that and also my own relationship. I hope you like it and its really special to me.”
Already choked up with emotion, Siobhán told the crowd that the next song would be her last of the night, saying: “It’s gone so quickly! I can’t believe my first ever headline tour is over. I’m going to cry again but I love doing this and I’ve waited such a long time to do it.”
Supported by the love from a room filled with her biggest fans, Siobhán then ended the tour with her most popular (and in our opinion, the best) track, Killers:
Always one to deliver an energetic performance of dance-worthy music with gut-wrenching lyrics that make you feel seen, Siobhán’s final song at The Lower Third - much like the rest of the show - was nothing short of magical.
It’s nights like those when we’re reminded what music is all about: coming together to share feelings that are bigger than just one person, and the obvious passion of Grace, Meg and Siobhán made the entire night one to remember, that’s for sure.
For anyone reading this who now has a severe case of FOMO, we’re glad to tell you that both Grace Barr and Siobhán Winifred will soon be on the road, opening for The Snuts on their UK headline tour:
Even more excitingly, Siobhán and Stevie Bill’s music video for Killers premiered tonight at 7pm GMT, so head to YouTube to watch the two detectives uncover the murder mystery behind the song!
And, as always, you can find the rest of Siobhán Winifred’s discography on Spotify:
