Review
Review
Lauren Mayberry comes home to Glasgow’s Barrowland Ballroom
The CHVRCHES frontwoman shines bright solo in the intimate arms of Glasgow’s much-loved little venue
Through a thick fog of smoke and dazzling strobe lights, Lauren Mayberry strutted onstage, covered from head to toe in clashing tartan. Her hair was fluffy and she’d stuck pearls to her cheekbones, just below some striking eye makeup. The crowd was erupting in cheer for the CHVRCHES frontwoman on her first solo tour, but she was up against crashing nerves. And a little shock.
“This feels quite f*cking mental,” she greeted after playing a storming rendition of ‘Crocodile Tears’, a track off her debut solo album Vicious Creature. Just as the applause quietened down, an ecstatic fan screamed out, “I love you, Lauren!”
You see, this was Mayberry’s first appearance in her hometown since going solo. Although CHVRCHES has by no means disbanded (she playfully teased the group’s return now she could see it’s “not so bad out here”) the alt-pop-punk singer long wanted total creative freedom away from the group. Since 2011, Mayberry has fronted the synth-pop trio with bandmates Martin Doherty and Iain Cook. There’s every reason to think they’re close-knit (the odd moments of apparent disarray are inevitable for every band) but the internet has taken less kindly to a young woman heading a band with two male colleagues both her senior.
Perhaps it’s not such a mystery, then, why Mayberry felt the pressure that Thursday evening in Glasgow, finally alone onstage and exposed to all those potential, conniving haters. Her vocals dipped a little as she moved into ‘Change Shapes’, the first single off the record, but she found her confidence as the crowd’s cheer bubbled up to reach her.
“This is the show I was most excited about but most shitting my pants for,” she finally admitted as she caught her breath, sipping from a water bottle. “I don’t want to disappoint you guys. And I wasn’t even sure anyone would come.”
Indeed, the floor of the Barrowland Ballroom was crawling with happy fans, some even dressed in CHVRCHES hoodies. As Mayberry sat down for her next number – the acoustic ballad ‘Anywhere But Dancing’ – she explained the origin of its idea. Surprisingly, in all the international acclaim Vicious Creature has garnered, the song was inspired by this little venue.
Giggling at such an uncanny moment, Mayberry credited a mural outside before starting, a line she couldn’t forget from the book Shuggie Bain about “all kinds of dancing.” Armed with this knowledge and lit by a single spotlight, her crystalline voice transformed this performance into the most special of the night.
As Mayberry danced and jumped through the rest of her set, mic stands went flying (‘Sorry, Etc’) and cartoonish props came out to play (megaphones and rotary telephones). Everyone jumped and squealed throughout her euphoric performance of anthemic ‘Something In The Air’, and deadened to a hypnotised silence during her second-to-last song, the wistful ‘Oh, Mother’. Then, to finish off, ‘Sunday Best’ was loud and exhilarating.
As she waved and left the stage, head bowed with a smile, there was no sense in questioning it – Mayberry was a powerhouse on her own. It had been a short set with less time in which to showcase herself, but she’d done it perfectly with unfettered energy and the odd, endearing spot of ad libbing.
And, Glasgow? You mean the most to her.
Lauren Mayberry continues her UK tour throughout March 2025. Find tickets here
