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Post by That Skipping Rope. on May 13, 2006 15:15:52 GMT -5
HMV.co.uk is reporting that Lily Allen's first album will drop July 17th in the UK. I cannot f**king wait for this album! She is going to be HUUUGE! www.myspace.com/lilymusic
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Post by That Skipping Rope. on May 25, 2006 15:15:05 GMT -5
Lily in The Observer: Pictures of lily Lily Allen has packed a lifetime's experiences into her 21 years, and now she's set to provide the soundtrack to your summer. Miranda Sawyer meets pop's most precocious young star Sunday May 21, 2006 The Observer Last month I used my column in this magazine to bemoan today's lack of proper pop stars, the ones who talk the talk as well as walk the tight-trousered walk, who know that the music's only part of the job and personality's the rest. Anyway, just days later, the editor called me up, all excited, and said, 'I think I've found you one!'. Lily Allen was his answer to my rant, recommended to him by an OMM work-experience girl who had found her MySpace site. Lily had put up four of her chirpy pop-ska songs, about how the MD hasn't given her a birthday present yet. 'Tell him I like jewellery, gold, and 21-carat, none of your plate,' she grins. 'And some flowers tomorrow night would be nice.' Tomorrow night is Lily's first ever gig, at a west London club run by her ex-boyfriend. Nervous? 'Yes, I'd be stupid not to be,' she says, not sounding nervous in the slightest. 'I don't want people to think it's going to be this amazing Madonna show. I've only done a week's rehearsals.' Have you ever sung in public before? 'All I've really done is sung in assembly ... ' Whether she can pull off an outside-school live show is one thing, but on record, Lily's fresh; the beats are varied, from grime to jazz, her vocals, dreamy, with dark, funny, conversational lyrics. 'Words are really important to me. I'm not a real musician, I don't know the difference between a bass and a guitar, but I get really irritated if I can't visualise a song. I'll beat myself up over one line because I don't feel that it flows as a story.' Lily's debut single, 'LDN' (pronounced London, non-texters), mixes giggly carnival summer reggae with a whistle-along tune and lines so sharp they could have your eye out. Plus it rhymes Tesco with al fresco, which is good. Part-novelty, part-brand-new, somehow 'LDN' recalls Althea & Donna as well as the Streets. 'Knock 'Em Out', the B-side, about blokes trying to pick up girls, is built around a Professor Longhair piano break and is just as entertaining: verse rapped, chorus ('You can't knock 'em out, you can't walk away ... ') sung as sweet as Sugababe pie. Then there's 'Alfie', about her little brother's louche lifestyle; 'Not Big', that discusses an ex-boyfriend's inability to satisfy; 'Everything's Just Wonderful', whinam; before she did that, she lied to her mother and stayed on after a family holiday in Ibiza. 'I told her I was staying with friends for a week, but I ended up being there an extra month. I wasn't staying with friends, I was in a hostel in San Antonio by myself, working for this record shop called Plastic Fantastic and selling Es.' Lily was 15. It takes 10 minutes with Lily Allen to realise that she is one of the most self-assured women you are likely to meet. She seems predestined for fame: not through some lame X Factor desperation, or tits-and-teeth training, but because she's an original - fearless and funny - and because it suits her. She's born for the VIP area: such upbeat company she could single-handedly kill off the celebrity need for cocaine. Vogue is planning to photograph her and GQ and every other paper now wants an interview ... . and she sparkles so hard there's a backlash before she's even started. On the internet, there have been rumblings about Lily's background, a feeling that she must have exploited her parents' showbusiness contacts to get where she is and that she isn't qualified to write about everyday life. 'Well, I've worked really hard for five years, my dad's never met anyone from my label, he's never even met my manager,' she states. 'It's annoying when people assume that you're handed something on a plate, when it's actually completely the opposite. They're all pussies in the record industry, they thought I was a risk. It's not a secret that I like to go out and have fun and also the music's quite reggaeish, and I'm a white middle-class girl, which they couldn't get their heads around. Anyway, if there's one famous person that's going to go against you, it's my dad. Unless I was Pete Doherty's daughter or something.' Of her songs' subject matter, she says: 'I've been conscious to try and writeI was just like, "f**k that, I'd like to make f**k-loads of money and then retire by the time I'm 30, please!" That's what I want, to have a really exciting block of about 10, 15 years, then marry someone with enough money, get a house in the country and have kids. I really want to spend lots of time with my kids and sit round the table every night and make Sunday roast and grow nice flowers.' You don't have to be Dr Tanya Byron to work out that Lily's longing for stability is the result of her background. She was an unhappy child, attending more than a dozen different schools before leaving permanently at 15: 'I just used to f**k things up for myself.' She'd make the same mistakes wherever she went: finding kids of her age too immature, she'd befriend sixth-formers, who would then leave early to prepare for A levels, leaving her socially stranded. She couldn't concentrate on any subject she wasn't interested in, she ran crying from every exam, she never did her homework. There was one teacher at one school she liked. 'He used to teach classical studies, and he'd tell us stories and it was just amazing. Greek mythology! I was mesmerised. But it's stories which are fun ... I can't remember dates. History: who gives a f**k? So you can sit down at a dinner party in 10 years time and go "Oh, in 1066, the Battle of Hastings ... Some treaty was signed ... or whatever."' She can sound like a nightmare, though she says she was the easiest one of her siblings: her older sister, who her mum had at 17, was a wayward teenager, and her younger brother has attention deficit disorder. 'My mum took me to dinner parties, because I was the one she could do that with. I was really pretentious and precocious, people would say things, and I'd be like "That's really difficult, how did that make you feel?" and they'd be like, "f**k offe.' And Lily has her fair share of those. She met her first manager when he rescued her from some dodgy blokes in Ibiza: 'They pushed me up against a wall and tried to get all frisky with me.' Eventually he stole her mobile phone, called her mum and put her on a plane home. Something even stickier happened in Thailand that she doesn't want to talk about; instead, she tells a great tale about losing her licence through drink-driving. 'I tried to charm this officer at the station, going, "Been here all night?" And he said, "I just arrested you ... " Lily's favourite book is The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory. Her favourite films are The Blues Brothers ('the music bits') and Animal House. She's never fallen off a barstool but she's constantly weeing on her shoes ('weak bladder'). She can put her fist in her mouth. She cooks a good roast. She votes Green in local elections, Labour in general. She loves hip hop - Ty, Bubba Sparxxx, Three 6 Mafia - but she doesn't buy CDs, just records. She loves sleeping, too: 'That's why I don't get up to go to the gym.' The other day, her brother Alfie threw her laptop out of the window and broke it. What she was most annoyed about was the stickers she'd put on it. She'll have to get a new one but it won't be the same. When you ask people who know Lily what she's like, they use words such as 'independent', 'highspirited', 'good company' and 'innately glamorous'. Ask her for five words to describe herself and she counts them on her hand. 'Not big and not clever,' says Lily Allen. We'll see. Myspace: her final word Lily Allen has already been called the poster-girl of the MySpace generation - in fact, OMM wrote about her briefly two months ago with reference to the revolutionary community networking site. She says the response to posting picture
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Post by Deleted on May 25, 2006 16:12:03 GMT -5
LDN is wonderful.
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Post by francky on May 25, 2006 20:11:42 GMT -5
I like the songs that i've heard so far, it's very fresh and varied. I love "Smile" and "Little Things".
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banet2001
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Post by banet2001 on Jun 2, 2006 14:43:20 GMT -5
Lily Allen Debut Album RevealedMatthew Solarski reports: Several weeks now into our summer fling, and Pitchfork's hearts only continue to grow fonder for Miss Lily Allen, London's lovely singer/sampler who has the blogs abuzz and the message board elite swooning all over itself. If you're one of the 335,000-plus starry-eyed saps who've graced Allen's MySpace recently, you know this fetching lass has Summertime Sensation written all over her. Tunes like "LDN", "Smile", and "Knock 'Em Out" redefine infectious, but for every teaspoon of sugar Lily serves up, we get two bushels of hipster-friendly spice. So where's the bloomin' album already?? Easy tiger, it won't be long now. NME.com reports that Allen will drop her crazy-anticipated debut, Alright, Still, on July 17 via Regal/Parlophone. Can't contain yourself that long? Lily hits us with the single "Smile" on July 3. An unconfirmed tracklist is floating around the internet, and it looks a lil' something like this: 01 Smile 02 Knock 'Em Out 03 LDN 04 Everythings Just Wonderful 05 Not Big 06 Friday Night 07 Shame for You 08 Littlest Things 09 Take What You Take 10 Friend of Mine 11 Alfie In addition to being an irresistible songstress, Lily is also a budding DJ. She made a splash with her first mixtape, and now she's back with the sequel, which you, savvy interweb guru, may download here. Then get ready for some live Lily action as the daughter of actor/comedian/Fat Les member Keith Allen takes to the road. Gal could well be selling out Wembley Arena by this time next year, so our UK brethren would do well to catch her now, at one of these relatively intimate club gigs and/or fest dates: 06-24 Nottingham, England - Stealth Vs. The Rescue Rooms 06-28 Leeds, England - Bad Sneakers 06-30 Sheffield, England - Plug 07-17 London, England - Bush Hall 07-18 London, England - Bush Hall 08-06 Ledbury, England - Eastnor Castle Deer Park (The Big Chill) 08-18 Huntingdon, England - Secret Garden Party 08-26 Cardiff, Wales - Coopers Field (Get Loaded in the Park Festival) 08-27 London, England - Clapham Common (Get Loaded in the Park Festival) Please take a moment now to pause and appreciate that we made it through this entire news blurb without a single gild-the-Lily joke. Standards, my friends, standards. * Pitchfork Track Review: Lily Allen: "LDN" * Lily Allen: www.lilyallenmusic.com* Lily Allen on MySpace: www.myspace.com/lilymusicwww.pitchforkmedia.com/news/06-06/02.shtml#lilyallen
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Post by That Skipping Rope. on Jun 10, 2006 19:43:25 GMT -5
Track List: 01 Smile 02 Knock 'Em Out 03 ldn 04 Everything's Just Wonderful 05 Not Big 06 Friday Night 07 Shame for You 08 Littlest Things 09 Take What You Take 10 Friend of Mine 11 Alfie "Smile" Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vws9Yp_tZbE
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Post by Chromeozone on Jun 11, 2006 22:51:01 GMT -5
It's too bad they couldn't get "Nan, You're a Window Shopper" on the album because the sample wouldn't clear in time, that song was pretty ace.
I looooooooove "Smile" and "LDN," as well as "Knock 'em Out."
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Post by That Skipping Rope. on Jun 12, 2006 9:35:12 GMT -5
I understand why "Nan..." isn't on, though.
My favorites are "Not Big," "Shame for You," "Littlest Thing," "Everything's Just Wonderful," and "Smile."
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Post by That Skipping Rope. on Jun 16, 2006 9:09:55 GMT -5
UK-Fusion gave her album a 5/5. Lily Allen: Alright Still (Regal) By Lauren Glucksman Monday, 17 July 2006 As much as I’d hate to begin with a reference to Myspace, it’s unavoidable when it comes to Lily Allen. Daughter of actor Keith Allen and the name that’s got many tongues wagging (including Jo Whiley’s), Lily is the music industry’s brightest new darling. In the most unconventional way. Fresh, different, plus she wears a lot of gold, Lily’s quite the gamble yet is poised for commercial success. Unpredictably, the comparisons to others are rife: Mike Skinner, MIA, even “Corinne Bailey Rae on crack” according to the NME but none come close. A snapshot of her life in words and melody, Lily’s album is a style of reggae, ska and urban infused pop. Current single ‘Smile’ breezes through effortlessly (perfect to listen to on a lazy summer’s day), while the brilliantly written, ‘Knock ‘em Out’ pitches the perfectly blunt lyrics ‘Yeah can I take your digits?/ No, not in a million years/ You’re nasty, please leave me alone.’ The feisty thing, however, does show a softer side on such tracks as ‘Littlest Things’ and ‘Alfie’, ensuring she isn’t a one trick pony, and can deliver both with ease. And just to throw a spanner in the works, the pace is turned round with the autobiographical ‘LDN’, a journey with Lily on her perceptions of growing up in the big smoke, which is bound to be close to home for many others in her shoes too. It’s a great song too and certainly one of the favourites on here. So the girl’s got everything going for her. Great tunes, strong lyrics and a likeable personality. Her confident attitude might intimidate some but that makes her a welcome addition to the British music scene. It is quite clear she is not “Corinne Bailey Rae on crack” or “The next Mike Skinner”, she is only Lily Allen and aren’t we lucky to meet her? (5/5) www.uk-fusion.com/content/view/1365/30/
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Chromeozone
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Post by Chromeozone on Jun 17, 2006 20:50:09 GMT -5
I can't find the album leak anywhere. Argh.
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Post by That Skipping Rope. on Jul 3, 2006 12:58:55 GMT -5
Lily was in the Live Lounge with Jo Whiley today. Lily Allen in the Live Lounge 03 June 2006She's given us one of the most infectious songs of the summer - 'Smile' - and today we got to hear Lily Allen perform it in Jo Whiley's Live Lounge. It was perfect hot summer's day music, and she also gave us a cracking cover version of The Kooks' 'Naïve'. She also had a go at our keepy-uppy game like a trooper despite a nasty incident between her foot and a bee earlier. Listen again and see the photos here... www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/jowhiley/live_lounge/lily_allen_gallery/1.shtml#gallerystart
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Post by Chromeozone on Jul 3, 2006 14:31:11 GMT -5
Aww, I was hoping for a Kaiser Chiefs or Arctic Monkeys cover instead. Oh well.
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Post by That Skipping Rope. on Jul 3, 2006 14:48:39 GMT -5
Aww, I was hoping for a Kaiser Chiefs or Arctic Monkeys cover instead. Oh well. She covered "Oh My God" on her 2nd Mix Tape.
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Post by Chromeozone on Jul 3, 2006 22:33:03 GMT -5
Aww, I was hoping for a Kaiser Chiefs or Arctic Monkeys cover instead. Oh well. She covered "Oh My God" on her 2nd Mix Tape. Yeah, I have it. That's why I was hoping for another song by them for the Live Lounge.
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Chromeozone
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Post by Chromeozone on Jul 23, 2006 12:47:41 GMT -5
Debuts at #2 in the UK behind Razorlight.
On the singles chart, "Smile" slides from #1 to #4.
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Post by Love Plastic Love on Jul 23, 2006 12:50:29 GMT -5
Great cd!!
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Post by winner2000 on Jul 30, 2006 10:54:21 GMT -5
WOWZERS this CD is amazing! I was just flipping through some torrents to find something to download and recognized the name "Lily Allen" from this thread so I decided to give it a shot...what a fantastic album! My favourite track has to be "Everything's Just Wonderful"...fun stuff!
EDIT: The video for "Smile" so f'ing funny! I loved it!
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Chromeozone
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Post by Chromeozone on Jul 30, 2006 14:38:31 GMT -5
Smile holds for another week at #4 while Alright, Still slips from #2 to #3.
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Post by Damage on Jul 30, 2006 15:04:42 GMT -5
I ran into this yesterday - some blog posted about her, so i checked out her myspace and listened to half the album. I like her, she's kind of cool. Littlest things is my fav.
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banet2001
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Post by banet2001 on Aug 8, 2006 11:35:09 GMT -5
Lily Allen Signs to Capitol in U.S. There's just no stopping her: MySpace darling-turned-UK chart pop princess Lily Allen is headed our way. Capitol Records plans to release Allen's debut album, Alright Still, in America early next year. (It's out now in the UK on Parlophone.) A brief U.S. tour is in the works for October. And yet another nation shall be putty in her hands. www.pitchforkmedia.com/page/news/37777/Lily_Allen_Signs_to_Capitol_in_U_S_#37777
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Post by Chromeozone on Aug 8, 2006 12:47:29 GMT -5
YAY!!!!! But I don't know if she'll be as successful over here. I could see Smile being huge if the cards fall in place, but it'll be tough. Successful crossovers of Corinne Bailey Rae & KT Tunstall across the pond give some hope, though.
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Post by SHOOTER on Aug 8, 2006 13:56:20 GMT -5
I AM ECSTATIC THAT LILY HAS AN AMERICAN RECORD DEAL!!!!
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banet2001
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Post by banet2001 on Aug 17, 2006 14:07:48 GMT -5
Lily Allen will be briefly touring the US this October. Oddly enough, there are no New York dates listed yet. I am sure she will be adding New York before too long.
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Post by Damage on Aug 19, 2006 7:42:23 GMT -5
Here's the full tour listing: www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/37985/Lily_Allen_Schedules_U_S_ShowsAmerican dates: 10-12 San Francisco, CA - Popscene 10-14 Los Angeles, CA - Troubadour 10-16 Chicago, IL - Double Door Full itinerary: 08-18 Huntingdon, England - Secret Garden Party 08-19 Staffordshire, England - V Festival 08-20 Chelmsford, England - V Festival 08-26 Cardiff, Wales - Coopers Field (Get Loaded in the Park Festival) 08-27 London, England - Clapham Common (Get Loaded in the Park Festival) 09-09 Isle of Wight, England - Bestival 10-21 Manchester, England - Manchester Academy 10-22 Newcastle, England - Newcastle University 10-23 Glasgow, Scotland - Glasgow ABC 10-25 Edinburgh, Scotland - Edinburgh Corn Exchange 10-26 Leeds, England - Leeds University 10-27 Liverpool, England - Liverpool University 10-28 Sheffield, England - Sheffield Leadmill 10-30 Norwich, England - Norwich UEA 10-31 Cambridge, England - Cambridge Junction 11-01 Bristol, England - Bristol Academy 11-03 Portsmouth, England - Portsmouth Pyramids 11-04 Birmingham, England - Birmingham Academy 11-06 London, England - The Astoria 10-12 San Francisco, CA - Popscene 10-14 Los Angeles, CA - Troubadour 10-16 Chicago, IL - Double Door
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Post by Fool_4_Music on Sept 8, 2006 15:48:28 GMT -5
Billboard Magazine reports that Lily Allen is indeed releasing her album in January in the U.S.A. This is awesome news. I would love to make it to New York to see her in concert. Here's the article and the link to the original article. Lily Allen Plots U.S. Invasion With EP, Shows Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.21-year-old U.K. rapper Lily Allen will release her debut album, "Alright, Still," Jan. 30 in the United States via Capitol. It will be preceded on Sept. 26 by the four-song digital EP "Smile," the title track of which reached No. 1 on the U.K. singles chart this summer. The EP will include both the explicit and "Gutter" mix of "Smile," plus the non-album tracks "Cheryl Tweedy" and "Absolutely Nothing." Allen will also play five U.S. club shows next month: Oct. 8 in Toronto, Oct. 10 in New York, Oct. 12 in San Francisco, Oct. 14 in Los Angeles and Oct. 16 in Chicago. In the United Kingdom, Allen will on Sept. 25 release a new single, "LDN," which was previously issued in a limited run of 500 copies. The artist will play her last show before the U.S. dates tomorrow (Sept. 8) as part of Bestival at the Isle of Wight. Scissor Sisters, Pet Shop Boys, the Fall, Sasha, Carl Cox and Hot Chip are also on the bill. Two support slots for Scissor Sisters are on tap for late November in London. billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003118883
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Chromeozone
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Post by Chromeozone on Sept 8, 2006 15:49:59 GMT -5
Rapper? eh.....
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Post by Fool_4_Music on Sept 8, 2006 15:53:56 GMT -5
I know! That's not the first piece of press that I've seen refer to her as a "rapper." I guess anyone who speaks there mind in a sassy, witty and bitting fashion is a "rapper."
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banet2001
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Post by banet2001 on Sept 8, 2006 15:54:24 GMT -5
I will be seeing her live on October 16th. I will have to check out the non album cuts that come with the Smile EP that will be coming out.
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Post by Fool_4_Music on Sept 8, 2006 15:57:00 GMT -5
Cheryl Tweedy is a funny song. Sort of mocking the Girls Aloud singer. I also LOVE "Absolutely Nothing." It was strange...the US iTunes store had the EP as well as the Video for Smile on their site until VERY recently. I guess once they realized that it would be getting an official US release they pulled it from the site.
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Post by Damage on Sept 25, 2006 23:42:43 GMT -5
link. Me, my dad and Dumbo Lily Allen tells Chris Salmon why she owes her success to an elephant Chris Salmon Friday September 22, 2006 Guardian 'I'll never forget the spell she cast on an audience," says Rachel Santesso, who I've tracked down via MySpace, talking about a former pupil of hers at a Catholic school in London. The pupil - an 11-year-old girl - had been steered by Santesso towards singing Baby Mine, a song from Disney's Dumbo, at a school concert. "Her performance was unforgettable. It was a powerful moment, and I swear to God I knew then, without a doubt, that Lily would be a singer." The Lily in question is Lily Allen. And rather than being embarrassed by being pushed in front of her classmates to sing, she seized the moment. Allen remembers it well. "It's the song the mummy elephant sings to the baby elephant," she tells me, as she has her makeup done for a TV appearance. "My mum didn't turn up to the concert, but all the other parents did. They knew me as angry little Lily and everyone just cried, but in a good way. They were like, 'Oh my God, she's finally got something.' My singing had a really good effect on people and I loved that feeling. It was a big turning point for me." "Stop," says her makeup artist, "You'll make me cry." In the sleevenotes to her debut album, Alright, Still, the pop hit of the summer, she thanks Santesso for "finding her voice". Santesso probably just didn't realise how ubiquitous that voice would become, and on how many topics it would proffer an opinion. When I turn up to meet Allen, now 21, in the dressing room of a London TV studio, it's her dad she's talking about. "Oh no!" she squeals, having just been told by a friend that her father is "brilliant" as the Sheriff of Nottingham in BBC1's upcoming Robin Hood series. This, clearly, isn't good news. "Great," she pouts. "Now I'll just be 'Keith Allen's daughter' again." She laughs, but you can tell she isn't entirely joking. It seems unlikely, however, that she has cause to worry. Since bursting to prominence through MySpace, Allen has seen her debut single, Smile, reach No 1 and become a tabloid gossip column favourite. Opinionated and fiery, she has kept the papers buzzing all summer, for reportedly spitting at Peaches Geldof, admitting she sold ecstasy in Ibiza when she was 15, telling the NME she'd celebrate a No 1 with gak (cocaine) or laying into - deep breath - Madonna, the Kooks, Pete Doherty, Cheryl Tweedy, Carl Barat, Sandi Thom, Victoria Beckham, Bob Geldof, the Pussycat Dolls, James Blunt and Edith Bowman. Few musicians nowadays would be so free with their opinions. Fewer still also look good in a dress, so little wonder the tabloids have embraced Lily Allen. They pay handsomely for stories about her. "I think my ex-boyfriend Lester was offered 25 grand, but only got 10 cos he didn't reveal all," she says. "Although he did reveal quite a lot. And this guy who was in the Priory with me got paid for a picture of me with my boobs out. Which was nice." On the day we meet, Allen is the subject of the lead showbiz story in one of the red-tops. "Lily's bar spit spat," exclaims the headline. "Wild star Allen is booted out of pub after spraying beer over pals." According to the paper, she spent the previous Friday night in an Isle of Wight pub spitting mouthfuls of lager at indie band the Mystery Jets and the producer Mark Ronson. "There's not one element of truth to that story," she sighs. "I didn't go to that pub on Friday, I wasn't with Mark Ronson and I haven't even met the Mystery Jets." It's true Allen was in the Isle of Wight - she was playing at Bestival - but she insists she had a restrained weekend. "It was completely drugs and alcohol free," she says with the pride of someone who hasn't always experienced festivals that way. "Well, I had a couple of drinks, but I was sober the whole time." It seems Allen has reached that impressive-but-troublesome level of fame at which if newspapers don't have stories about you, they'll concoct them (intriguingly, the newspaper later removes the "Lily's bar spit spat" story from its website). "It does annoy me," she says, "because I don't want people to read stuff and come up with an image of me. I'm not the kind that goes around spitting at people. I'm not aggressive. I can be mouthy, but I'm a nice person. Aren't I, Mary Jane?" Allen's makeup artist looks up from her powdering. "Yeah, you're lovely." Clearly Mary Jane is unlikely to tell her paymaster she's deeply annoying, but the people around Lily Allen do seem fond of her. "I'm flattered that the papers think I'm interesting," continues Allen. "But they're turning me into a caricature. The thing that really annoys me is that I'm not in this business to be in the tabloids, I'm in it to make good music." Ah yes, the music. It is easy to forget the reason Lily Allen first came to prominence online wasn't her entertainingly honest blog, but the terrific songs she posted. Allen has an impressive 74,000 "friends" on her MySpace profile. However, the more telling statistic is that her tracks have been played on the site an astonishing four million times. As Paris Hilton recently proved, it's all very well being in the papers, but if your music's rubbish people won't buy it. The reason Allen's album, Alright, Still, has sold well since its release in July is that it's stonkingly good. Matching witty, observational tales of London life with an inspired musical blend that takes in ska, calypso, baggy and hip-hop, the album is clever, cutting and every-song's-a-winner catchy. Although producers built the tunes, Allen was responsible for the lyrics and the melodies, on which, she says, she worked "really f**king hard". Plus, of course, the album centres around her charming, singsong voice. By the time Santesso spotted Allen's singing ability, the 11-year-old's father had split from her mother, Alison Owen, who was working long hours as a film producer, leaving little time to devote to Lily and her two siblings. As Supernanny fans might guess, all three children became disruptive. "I was quite a misguided child," admits Allen. "I think everyone thought I was a bit of a joke. I was very much like my dad, wanting attention, fighting and being very aggressive. When she [Santesso] took over the school choir, I had nothing. All I had was my anger." "I remember a class of bright-eyed 11-year-olds came bouncing into my classroom, ready for their singing lesson," says Santesso, who was 21 at the time. "Then came Lily, shuffling in at the back, looking uncomfortable in her uniform, hair all over the place. She sat slightly apart from the others in a grouchy little lump. She was a tough little thing, but had these huge, melancholy eyes." Although most teachers dismissed Lily as an argumentative problem child, Santesso had a soft spot for her. One day, she heard Lily quietly singing Wonderwall and asked her to sing it to the class. Impressed by her "sweet, melancholy voice", Santesso told the other children that Lily was very talented. "After the class left, Lily snuck back in to thank me for 'saying all those nice things about me'." But Santesso, who's now a classical performer and composer, wasn't simply trying to boost the wayward child's confidence. "After teaching thousands of students, I can honestly say Lily still stands out as having been an exceptionally talented child," she says. "She was a natural musician and singer who also had an enormous talent for words." That was when Santesso suggested Allen should perform the Dumbo song. "There's a line in it that goes, 'If they knew sweet little you, they'd end up loving you too'," she explains. "I thought that was appropriate. And it broke my heart every time I heard her sing it." Allen has been criticised for what people see as her privileged background: "Lily, you're a rich-kid spoilt brat" as the Scouse rap act RiUvEn put it on their (actually rather funny) track, Lily Rich Kid Allen. But although she's now close to both her parents, Allen's childhood doesn't sound like fun. Her famous father would be surrounded by people giving him all the attention ("I'd be like, 'Hello! Over here!'") while her mother was busy working to support them. "I did probably lack a bit of the tender loving care that most kids get if their mum's at home all the time," she says. "I suppose all I really wanted was someone to put their arms around me and give me a big hug, and that never really came. It's not that my mum didn't love us, though - she loves us lots. But she was working incredibly hard to get a roof over our heads." The other criticism levelled at Allen is that her parents somehow secured her success. "Those accusations of nepotism are ridiculous," insists Santesso. "Many people, from Bach to Björk, had famous parents who were also successful musicians. You either have talent or you don't. And Lily has real, true talent in bucket loads." The irony is that Keith Allen did use his contacts to get his daughter's first record deal, with Warners back in 2002. But she parted company with the label before releasing any of the folk songs they'd written for her. In fact, she only became successful after her father's involvement in her career ended. It would be pushing it to say the Dumbo performance changed Allen's life. She remained a disruptive pupil, going through a dozen schools before leaving education at 15. After that, her problems continued with the infamous trip to Ibiza, where she lived in a hostel and pushed pills, and her spell in the Priory, which she checked into in 2003 suffering from depression. But her love of singing seems to have remained one of few constant positives in her life. Although it's clear Lily Allen doesn't suffer fools gladly, her most volatile days seem to be behind her. Regular therapy sessions over the past few years helped - in fact, she thinks they developed the straightforward honesty that drives her lyrics, her blogs and those slatings of famous people (although she hasn't done that as much since realising the fuss it causes). Allen's success, too, has helped her. Having spent years desperate for validation and attention, she's suddenly got it on tap. During a spare moment while I am with her she logs on to her MySpace and flicks through messages from some of those 74,000 friends - most telling her how ace she is. I ask her to guess how many friends Ms Dynamite has on her MySpace profile - after all, she was the last woman solo singer from London to achieve commercial and critical success. "Um ... 4,000?" guesses Allen, sensing it isn't many. The actual answer is 841. After poor reviews and poorer sales for her second album, 2005's Judgement Days, the Mercury-winning singer proved how quickly big acts can become small acts. "Yep," says Allen, nodding. "I'm quite realistic about that, because I've grown up in that world and seen it happen to people. It's a fun job to have, but I'm well aware it can be here one minute and gone the next." Does that concern her? "Not really. I'd be upset if it ended tomorrow, but I really don't think this is my place in life. There's so much more I want to do. Don't get me wrong, I'm really happy to be here right now, but I never understand those people saying they want to make albums when they're 65. When people around me get scared, saying I'm gonna lose all this if I slag off one more person, I'm like,'Oh f**k off, it doesn't really matter!'" In fact, she says, what's most important to her is finding someone to settle down with and create the kind of idealised (some might say fairytale) family environment she feels she missed out on. "That's the main thing in my life really," she says. "I wanna get married and have kids and do their homework and drive them to school. And I don't think you can do this at the same time as having children. I wouldn't want to anyway." Before that, though, Allen's main ambition is to play at next year's Glastonbury, the festival she's only missed once since she was born. "That would be the dream of all dreams," she coos. Keith Allen must be confident she'll achieve it, because according to another recent story, he's already said he's joining his daughter onstage for a duet. "Ha! As if," she snorts. "That is so not going to happen. I'll have extra security to keep him away!"
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