ELLIE DIXON: LONDON, UK - 02.11.21
On a magical Autumn's evening, 200 Adoring Ellie Dixon Fans filled The Camden Assembly to celebrate the release of her first professionally produced EP, Crickey It's My Psyche. The stage was decorated with signs made from fairy lights, cereal boxes adorned with felt tip pen drawings and handwritten lyrics, all referencing the EP, and a mysterious container filled to the brim with biscuits.
The audience, dressed in Ellie's merchandise, party hats and glittering makeup, cheered in excitement as the supporting artist Claudia Kate took to the stage and picked up her guitar. She opened her set with 'Pity Party' from her debut album, a damn good place to start. The track began as a beautiful coming of age piano ballad with highly relatable lyricism that quickly becomes a song to sing at the top of your lungs with a change of tempo and a continually building backing track.
Claudia spoke eloquently on stage about self-love, female empowerment and body positivity which resonated deeply within the audience's souls. This was followed by a performance of her song titled 'fat' which tells the story of what it is like to battle your own mind over the size of your body, which is reminiscent of Alt-Pop Artist Baby Queen's discography. The lyrics are simple yet powerful and combined with Claudia's passionate vocals, which continually builds throughout the song, and Melodious guitar riff brought many of the audience members to tears.
The line "this is a nasty feeling that I did not teach myself to feel-I did not bloom from my mother so that I could live a life of guilt" speaks volumes about the current state of the world. This song was followed by a cover of Florence + The Machine’s ‘Dog Days Are Over', which was flawlessly placed in the set. The song speaks of finding happiness after a period of struggle and sadness, which gives the audience hope that there can be an end to feelings of negativity surrounding your weight and appearance. As Claudia exited the stage, I heard an audience member comment on how they had never seen so much applause for a support act before. It was clear just how loved Claudia Kate was by the crowd.
As the headliner, Ellie Dixon, entered the stage she could not keep a smile off her face and the same could be said about the members of the admiring audience. Having grown her online presence as an artist over lockdown, this was the first time Ellie could physically interact with her fans and experience the kind of energy that can only be felt at live gigs in a room full of people who adore your music. She almost looked in shock as she began to play her opening song/certified bop 'Sucker' and the audience began to sing along with her. The Red lighting perfectly visually encapsulated the story behind the track: being hopelessly in love with someone where the feeling is not mutual. Ellie puts her own light-hearted and fun spin on the topic with catchy lyrics and groovy instrumentation. Each moment that comes together to create this track is tremendously detailed and it makes for a delightful auditory sensory experience.
Ellie performed several fantastic covers during her set and one of said covers was 'Toxic', originally written and performed by pop legend Britney Spears. On TikTok, where she is very well known and loved, Ellie added her own unique and excellently written verse to the song, and it went viral, accumulating over 11 million views. She, of course, performed this version of the song live too which the audience absolutely loved. One of the best moments of the night was when Ellie performed a track titled 'Vibe like a biscuit' which came to be due to a very humorous song prompt given by a close friend. The song was fun and ridiculous in the best possible way and the purpose of the container full of biscuits suddenly became clear as Ellie threw Jammie Dodgers into the crowd.
It is clear that Ellie Dixon is an artist who doesn't take herself too seriously which is terrific to see. To end her magical set, the audience were blessed with not one but two sensational performances of ‘green grass’ which can only be described as THE self-love and acceptance anthem. The lyrics "You are not an image or a product or commodity-You aren't worth more because you like to eat broccoli," summarises who Ellie Dixon is as an artist: silly and fun but with an important and powerful message to share with the world. As Ellie vacated the stage, the audience cheered for more and after a few minutes of a suspenseful and humorous voice-over, she returned to the stage for an encore in an inflatable spaceman costume to sing one last song: ‘Space Out!’.
This quirky and intergalactic tune about feeling detached from reality is one to dance to. This extraordinary gig will be a very fond memory in the minds of everyone who had the pleasure to witness it and the inside jokes made with the audience, such as Ellie describing a song as a 'globule' and screaming the word 'Crickey' at every available opportunity will never be forgotten.
