If Sophie Grey’s intention was to bring a dose of retro-futurist electro-pop to the second of Sting’s three-night stand at the Hammersmith Apollo, she certainly committed to the bit. Appearing through laser-like synth pulses, dressed in a silver metallic bodysuit with wraparound shades and a keytar slung over her back, she resembled an ’80s sci-fi heroine stepping straight out of an arcade game. Her set – a brisk, stylised 25 minutes – was delivered with precision, theatre, and an intentionally robotic cool that contrasted sharply with the classic-rock nostalgia the 5,000-strong crowd had come for.
Sophie Grey @ Hammersmith Apollo
Opening with Just Like That, the lead cut from her Just Another Sonic Monday™ project, Grey moved with deliberate stiffness, almost android-like. It set the tone immediately: this wasn’t a warm-up set so much as a performance-art vignette dropped into a boomer-heavy audience still finding their seats.
“I have a question,” she announced in an icy monotone. “Is my future husband in the audience tonight?” The silence that followed said everything about the disconnect in the room. Undeterred, she powered into Mr. Right (Is It You?), a track soaked in shimmering synth-pop nostalgia. Her aesthetic and sound existed firmly in the neon-lit realm of retro electro – a world very different to the decades-spanning catalogue that had brought most of the audience to Hammersmith tonight.
A pre-programmed robotic voice – her recurring digital companion throughout the night – chimed in: “Sophie Grey, shall we perform a cover?”
“Oh don’t mind him, he’s my robot companion,” she quipped before launching into the Buggles’ Video Killed the Radio Star. It was the one moment the whole theatre synced up with her. The Apollo immediately erupted into claps and cheers, the crowd delighted by a bona fide classic. Missing was Trevor Horn, who had joined her at her O2 Kentish Town Forum show earlier in the week, but the cover still proved to be the most universally embraced moment of her set.
The robot interjected again – “Sophie Grey, you’re receiving a phone call” – prompting Grey to theatrically answer a chunky 1980s phone receiver as Maybe Baby fired up. The bit was knowingly kitsch, fully leaning into her love of all things analogue-electronic.
Sophie Grey @ Hammersmith Apollo
By the time she reached Dirty Thoughts, her closer from her Just Another Sonic Monday™ suite, the robot once again chimed in: “Everyone looks beautiful here.”
“Everyone looks so good tonight,” Grey confirmed, deadpan yet playful, before the throbbing synths kicked back in.
A bizarrely specific introduction from the robot preceded Mommy Issues — “He is a believer of retro electro, however he is abnormally close to his mother” — to which Grey offered no clarification, simply powering on with the song. Middle Of October followed, and then she wrapped up with On Hold, announcing: “I am Sophie Grey, the retro electro artist.”
Grey delivered exactly what she is — futuristic, tongue-in-cheek, synth-driven pop — but her aesthetic and sound were always going to be a tough sell to a middle-to-late-aged crowd waiting to hear Roxanne and Every Breath You Take. The mismatch wasn’t her fault; it was the by-product of being a Cherrytree Records labelmate of Sting’s, slotted into a bill where her natural audience was off dancing at Fabric, Koko, Heaven or G-A-Y.
Still, for those willing to step into her glitchy, neon world, Sophie Grey offered a tight, strange, and stylish showcase — just perhaps not on the night built for it.
Live review & photography of Sophie Grey @ Hammersmith Apollo, London by Kalpesh Patel on 27th October 2025.
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