Bella Wolfson - Smile: The Story of Lily Allen

Copyright 2010 Omnibus Press
This edition 2010 Omnibus Press
(A Division of Music Sales Limited, 14-15 Berners Street, London W1T 3LJ)

ISBN: 978-0-85712-463-0

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Picture Research by Jacqui Black

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Ever since I can remember, I bin poppin my collar.

An early quote on Lily Allens now somewhat legendary
MySpace page.

M ay 2, 1985: a manic-looking man with wild eyes and a colourful vocabulary is driving his wife, who is quite calm considering the circumstances, from their council flat in Bury Place, Bloomsbury, to Hammersmith Hospital in West London. The man is Keith Allen, comedian, actor, Comic Strip regular and at this moment, panicking future father. The woman is Alison Owen, a dynamic up-and-coming producer with a young daughter from a previous relationship. They are about to welcome their first child together, and in so doing, welcome a character into their world who would match their chaos and throw in a truckload of drama, emotion, laughter, destruction, notoriety and unshakeable love.

Alison bedded down in the maternity ward, produced a book from her bag and, serenely, began to read. Shed done this before and knew what to expect. Keith was already technically a parent twice over as a result of a couple of one-night stands, but this was the first time he would really become a parent, present from the moment of his childs birth. As a result he was not quite so serene.

He tried to calm down by looking out of the window. Despite its name Hammersmith Hospital is not in Thames-side Hammersmith but on the northern reaches of Shepherds Bush, and it was a far from idyllic view, dominated by the imposing walls of one of the capitals biggest prisons, Wormwood Scrubs. Keith was, as he explains in his book Grow Up, trying to locate the exact cell Id been in all those years before while waiting to be shipped off to Borstal when Alisons contractions started.

All of a sudden the top of Lilys head appeared, all of a rush to get the fuck out of there and get off to some party The newborn Lily was rather green and, as her father poetically recalls, covered in all this white shit. But she was a beautiful baby with a glossy thatch of dark hair, perfect pale skin and big, knowing brown eyes.

Thus did Lily Rose Beatrice Allen make her first appearance into the world she would, in about two decades time, hold in the palm of her hand. She would be a tough yet tender Taurean, always something of a contradiction; she would grow up loving her home comforts but she faced a fragmented upbringing and a career that ensured she would be forever on the road; she would prove a vital (sometimes reluctant) female role model but would often admit to feeling threatened by other women; shed develop into a girl whose street style and intermittent mockney airs would bemuse critics and clash with her middle-class roots and turbulent private school education. A natural-born rebel with, as far as her far from conservative parents were concerned, little to rebel against, she would rebel against the world, and sometimes herself and her own better judgement. And, for better or worse, she would always be utterly her fathers daughter, and her mothers, in very different ways while always remaining very much her own person. Lily would also become a compelling natural diarist and documenter of London in her blogs and her song-writing (lets face it, if Samuel Pepys were alive today, hed have a MySpace blog himself although hed have to wait for his potential readers to finish reading Lily Allens before they got to his own posts), and it seems right that the baby Lily would live the first few years of her life in the heart of the city, moments from the British Museum (and the shoppers heaven that is Oxford Street).

Lily Rose, known to all now except her bank as simply Lily, by all accounts owes her pretty name to a less than romantic source. If legend is correct, Keith chose to name his daughter after The Lilywhites, a nickname for Fulham FC, his favourite team. Fortunately Lily is also a fan, not that she had a huge amount of choice after Keith left the family when Lily was five, football matches would represent essential if awkward bonding time for Keith and Lily, although she would always feel as if she was being treated like a boy. It was just as much, if not more, fun when he occasionally took her with him on film shoots. She observed with no small interest how her dad would be treated when he was filming, she saw how he had his own trailer and how a car would pick him up when he was needed. She liked the look of that. Being famous didnt look like a bad life at all.

Once in the public eye herself, she would be defined in many peoples eyes by her fathers apparent influence but, according to Lily herself, he was rarely around as much as shed have liked him to be. Maybe her fierce independence and embracing of other cultural references in her music and persona would be her way of ensuring that thered at least be a part of her that was defined by elements she chose, not by the world she was born into.

But there were elements of her familys world that would inevitably shape her own path and sense of self: a love for bucking trends, giving authority the finger and also adhering to family traditions such as attending the Glastonbury Festival each year with a collective family of fellow bon viveurs. One thing was for sure, Lilys parents were determined their children should fit round them, not the other way around. This was partly because thats what groovy liberated parents did, but in another way the Eighties was very much the me generation: Thatcher was in government, and people were encouraged to make it on their own terms and live their lives to the full if they wanted something, they had to push forward and grab it, kids in tow or not. But this would at least amount to an interesting journey for the children. This would be no normal childhood, whatever normal is.

TV presenter Miquita Oliver, Lilys best friend since the age of two, had a similar experience, which may be why they bonded so fiercely. Miquita, born the year before Lily, grew up with former Rip Rig and Panic singer and single mum Andrea Oliver, who counted Neneh Cherry as a bosom buddy and Slits bassist Tessa Pollitt as a sister-in-law. As a result Miquita, Lily and Tessas daughter Phoebe would grow up amid a whirlwind of creativity, open-minded, artistic individuals and bohemian parties in the former punk squatland of Ladbroke Grove.

The three girls would also appear in the Portobello Panto, a West London festive institution at the Tabernacle in Notting Hill, started by Keith Allens actor brother Kevin, and recently revived by Lilys sister Sarah. Lily would later complain that she always had to play a frog or a boy, Phoebe and Miquita would get the beautiful parts.