interview from last year was "fawning". It landed her in deeper shit than anything else she's said in the duration of her career.

Lily Allen is an interesting person with interesting opinions and though she can't help who her dad is, she can't undo the advantages her background has given her either. In the end most of us here think she's good at being a pop star - she's provocative, she's funny, and her songs are entertaining and memorable if not always 100% original (but then what is?). She's certainly about a billion per cent more interesting than the landfill indie hordes. And (the clincher) she's good copy. We are after all in the entertainment business.

As pop stars go, she's pretty cool. I can't stand her Dad.

And the point she made in the story that was in the podcast was a good point, which seems to have led to a change in the position of the music business alliance she was arguing against.

as she seems to have some spirit about her and some idea of the ridulousness of her situation also the recent hoo haa about copyright brought out a very unpleasant wave of misogyny towards her that was distasteful. You'll miss her when she's gone !

It genuinely puzzles me. We seem to spend a lot of time bemoaning the blandness of current pop and current pop stars, and when someone comes along who defiantly ploughs her own furrow, who actually has opinions (whether you agree with her or not), and is hugely entertaining, we do our best to slap her back down. I really don't get it.

Fair enough if you don't like her. I just don't understand the vitriol doled out by those who don't.

She's charming, entertaining and opinionated.
She doesn't have the world's greatest voice - but what she's got she uses intelligently.

I'll give her that.

... being nice to some besotted young ten year old boys. This makes her completely a-ok in my book.

Plus she makes me laugh and has came away with at least four songs that I really quite like.

...the required benchmark for any Word reader, surely.

...but what puzzles me is the arguments employed by people who don't like her. There are lots of things I don't like - Arsenal, for a start - but I understand that people have lots of feeling about them ranging from adoration through mild interest all the way to antipathy and I don't deny their right to be represented in the media. I don't want to read a magazine or be a part of something that is tailored to fit my own prejudices.

And I don't think you can draw a line between the expression "Lily Allen sucks" and the fact that she's often in the papers and some people make critical claims about her which you don't find reasonable. Those things are not her doing. Neither is the fact that Kate Moss is her friend. From what I can gather Kate Moss is the best mate of everybody famous.

She's a good pop star, this is the entertainment business. Thank god, the good people who produce the mag still remember that.

"She could keep a lid on the constant press coverage if she wanted."

You mean take out an injunction to stop photographers following her as she did earlier this year?

Can't stand the way she sings but I love to hear her talk

Yes.

She's not the worlds greatest songwriter, and the music always sounds similar to the previous track; but she's got something that makes me like her.

No fake "worthiness" like Adele, Duffy, Kate Nash and Amy. Likes a laugh, makes decent fun records and is an excellent interviewee.

I can't understand why there's so much vitriol poured on her in some quarters.

And, after demolishing the first four discs in the Comic Strip Box Set, I've decided I very much like her Dad too. Given his performances in The Bullshitters and The Supergrass, he gets a Get Out Of Jail Free card in lieu of Vindaloo.

Her presence, and that of other populist trash figures such as Jade Goody, spoils an otherwise fine publication.

she's not going to be the next shriekback...

just another celeb. popstar talking posh and singing common.

it's all just a game for these people, they're not singing for some artistic/creative impulse... there's no art in it, or desperation. or dare i say ot "no soul"..
it's all just me, me, me...
how many of her songs are self-referring?
get yourself a nice expensive sequencing package, get some kids from the local poly music-course to help you with the choon, and mention your surname a few times when sending the demo off...

if you don't understand why these sort of "popstars" are so reviled, then you don't understand how sycophantic the music-biz can be.
they are not here through any form of artistic merit... it's all just MARKETING.
let's just call it "jamie cullum syndrome".
they're not out to change the world, just sell a few items and then admit that they were never really into "pop music" once it's all gone down the pan.

...and now here's some other pop-news just in...

...i went to a poly that mid-way thru my degree changed to a uni.
nice.
marketing may be the oldest trick in the book, but prostitution is the oldest game in the book.
both are not too dissimilar.
larry parnes did indeed find a lot of talented people, most of whom shook him off and went on to do their own thing, as soon as they realised his methods were stifling their creativity.
i've seen one of his prodgeny live... georgie fame, and boy... was he embarrassed at having to play all that early stuff.
but then he's a real musician who played the clubs, and got people into obscure blues music, but never ever appeared in hello/chat/whatever magazine...

in my book though... jumping the shark is defined as the moment "popstars" start whining about being famous or writing songs about the trials and tribulations of such.
poor little things, all wanting fame without being errr... famous.

jamie cullum though... is to jazz what iceland frozen food is to gordon ramsay.
why settle for anything less?

the "so what" question is often brought up, so what if lilly allen is bland, so what if her utterances are made from the safety of knowing that a little of controversy sells a few units, so what if music buyers purchase her music instead of something that has been crafted by some talented kid off a council estate who has dragged himself up by the feet and has real experiences to draw from, so what if she'll turn on her fans on a few years and disapear, so what if i prefer my music to have some value...

play lilly allen/jamie cullum/girls aloud next to "so what" by miles davis - then get yourself the book: Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece by Ashley Khan, and you'll see where i'm going with this.

any more showbiz chums you want me to destroy for you?

her dad once did an excellent routine for channel four(back in the alternative days), on the editing techniques that TV uses to alter the basis of an interview... same thing applies here.
marketing.
marketing.
marketing.

sod it, i'm off to listen to Poptones by PIL for the weekend...

about the way Lilly Allen is treated by people is that the media create the over-saturation and then the snobs take this as their clue to pour generalised unpleasantness on her.

The media also spends a lot of time dissing her in terms of appearance and the like.

I find it amazing that within that maelstrom she can still produce great music. Her last album It's Not Me, It's You is brilliant. It lived up to the promise of a couple of the singles off her generally poor first album.

I agree she's a genuine talent. Much of the abuse she gets is because she doesn't fit into the celebrity box properly and so this upsets celebrity worshippers, but she is too celebrity for the likes of many word readers and other people with "good taste".

She is great. Her music is relevant and exciting and her lyrics are really good when they are good.

I would also like to defend Kate Nash whose album Made Of Bricks has some excellent songs on as well, though not every one is a winner.

Both these ladies use lyrics that are about modern concerns and lives that are often very witty and they do so with some great pop tunes and very nice voices.

Much of the abuse they get is, I have to say, a bit misogynistic in its tone. People seem to object to them because they are "loud" women. Do men get the same level of dismissal for being young, having fun and being outspoken?

[PLEASE EXCUSE RUSHED POST WITH POOR PHRASING AND PUNCTUATION BUT I AM RUSHING AS I HAVE TO GO TO WORK!]

She CAN sing - listen to her live. The technique isn't brilliant but she can hold a tune. She's sparky, she's opinionated, she's intelligent. She also looks good dancing around in Agent Provocateur frillies. And she says likes it fudgewise. All good enough for me.

..in all the negative press is a partly response to the subject matter in It's Not Fair if you ask me. And I agree with lennylaw - she can sing and she's an entertaining character. Not sure if rhyming 'Tesco' with 'Alfresco' makes you a talented wordsmith though.

I think the charge of misogyny gets in thrown a little bit too quickly when it is often just plain old slagging-off, regardless of the recipient's gender.

As the OP of the thread I have to say I do not actively dislike her I just feel she is massively over-hyped.

Andrew Harrison replied to my first post by describing her as:

"an interesting person with interesting opinions... In the end most of us here think she's good at being a pop star - she's provocative, she's funny, and her songs are entertaining and memorable if not always 100% original (but then what is?). She's certainly about a billion per cent more interesting than the landfill indie hordes. And (the clincher) she's good copy. We are after all in the entertainment business."

On that basis please can we have more Robbie Williams ?

And I think she's rather attractive !!

soul.
once you've heard it, there's no going back.

some of her songs are great her background doesn't matter

who's been in "the music biz" on and off for years. He currently plays in an acoustic duo who do stuff like Mardy Bum alongside Who and Kinks covers. He went to see Lily Allen in Holland earlier this year and rated it one of the best concerts he'd been to for years.

I offer this merely as an opinion from someone who's been there and done that for many years and who tends to judge music by what he hears more than anything else.

Liam G and his missus, er wassername, from All Saints - in Selfridges yesterday - having a bit of a tiff.

Nothing major - just the kind The Light and I have all the time

Should have told Heat mag I suppose - probably would have led on it.

"Oasis singer marriage on rocks?"

But I didn't. Telling you lot instead - and you don't care.

No sight of Lily Allen, Sadie Frost or Kate Moss.

I'll keep you posted

for this month's article. Polemic and passion. My favourite kind of writing.