In this day and age there is nothing to stop you making your own records. Then you can package them, promote them, distribute them and then chase up the money for them ALL ON YOUR OWN.

If artists are so inclined to blame them for everything that's wrong with their world I'm amazed they don't just get on with it themselves and show them how it's done.

Not sure when I went off her it could have been when as someone who went to public school she started singing about the Police being the “filth” or maybe it was complaining about being judged on her looks and then having to walk past a 2 story clothes shop window display of her on Oxford st on the way to work each day. Or maybe it was her grim tv programme. Or or

or has she beeen mentioned in despatches as a new "high profile" female assistant to the new, decidedly "low profile" Doctor Who?

I've worked for two companies that have been taken over. In both cases the change in circumstances led to me enjoying the job significantly less, and certainly feeling less loyal towards the company, and in both cases I eventually left as a result. Why should it be different for a pop star?

Not sure why she's complaining about the 8th Arrondissement, mind. Isn't that the posh bit, with the Place de la Concorde etc?

She could always pay for her accom, flowers etc herself. She isn't employed by them, and in the good old days such fripperies were charged bck to the artist anyway. Having lived in Paris I can reassure the Massive that the 8th is perfectly nice, as is the vast majority of Paris. Getting exposure on a plate by having famous parents is a bigger leg up than most wannabes get - she should count her blessings.

Surely the main (only?) reason that La Allen attracted anyone's attention at all in the first place was the leg-up offered by her (moderately) famous parents? One imagines it was not remotely connected with actual talent or ability (or likeability, or.... I could go on....)

What might be of more concern with regard to EMI is their current intention to close the fabled Olympic Studios in Barnes (check the interweb for details) because of course the place runs at a deficit. Never mind the impending loss of an irreplaceable studio or any of that guff. Gotta pay for dreck like Lily Allen's expenses bills somehow.

My theory on Lily Allen is that a lot of people who probably consider themselves to be "serious" music fans liked her album when it first came out, but you could probably draw a chart demonstrating how this ardour faded as her subsequent tabloid presence grew. I'm not accusing anyone here of that - disliking her music is perfectly valid, if you're judging it by what's contained within the grooves - but I don't see why anyone's opinion of Alright, Still (I still think it's a brilliant album) should be affected by whose daughter she is or how many times she punches a photographer or slags off her record company.

So I'll be buying the new record.

not enough to have bought them but they are great pop songs. The kind that when they come on on the radio, I'll turn them up.

But my original point is that she wasn't (openly?) obnoxious until she achieved a fair level of success. Which just seems to be a shame.

The opening part of the interview is telling, where the comment is that she's at the age where she's either surrounded by people who hold the same opinions as her, or where older and more cynical people don't want to destroy her innocence.

So I took her comments about EMI to be those of someone who hasn't yet realised that businesses, in whatever industry, are there to make a profit and couldn't care less about the "artistic merit" of their performers. The old management at EMI were obviously crap at making money, only time will tell if the new owners are any better.

that this "I get a two star place in the 8th on my own. I'm like 'do you want me to get raped and killed?'" was said in jest or with at least a hint of irony!

I don't know if I'm more annoyed by her spoilt stupidity or the fact that she said "I'm like..."

irony or jest were her intention - more like a petulant strop a la Violet Elizabeth Bott.

The estimable Mark Lamarr (for it was he) caused hilarity in my office by describing Lily Allen's recorded output as "Only useful as lagging" which is about right IMO.

I'm surprised that some agent hasn't come up with the idea of Lily and Peaches Geldof recording a duet, The Petulant Strops would be a great name for their backing band!

I expect Lily will appear on the Word blog and write a tearful late night diatribe against us old cynics. Either that or she will unleash the thousands of My Space "friends" to hunt us down!

Pretty much everyone on EMI is upset with Terra Firma's management of the enterprise, and seem to be indicating a desire to get out of their deals. LA is just one of many.

However... I have some sympathy with Guy Hands. Why on earth should he run the company at a loss? If EMI cannot make money then it is not really a going concern, and in that state is not much use to a venture capitalist such as he is. Seems to me that people view EMI as part of the British establishment and therefore beyond profit and loss - probably just because they had The Beatles on their books. As a label it has been stuck in the 60s and 70s for way too long and has signed almost nothing with any true spark, and certainly with very little longevity since then.

I rather like Lily Allen. She's gobby and funny and kind of reminds me of my little sister. Plus she's not the only EMI artist who has been critical of Terra Firma, Damon Albarn wasn't kind on them in last month's Word. The thing is he's a 40 year old man. He's no doubt said some dumb things in the past and he's learned his lesson; his criticisms were as a result, more constructive than Lily's but you'd expect that.

If Lily is still a popstar when she's Damon's age no doubt she'll be a bit wiser. But she's way more interesting, sparky, funny and (I think) better than all of your worthy but dull Duffy's, Adele's and Marling's of this world. Music these days would be a lot duller without her.

Why is that?

To the above.

Lily Allen is gobby, opinionated, frequently misguided, petulant, spoiled and rarely boring. In other words, she is a proper pop star. If Elton John had made exactly the same comments it wouldn't have drawn the merest whiff of attention.

More power to the Allen. I think she's fighting with Katy Perry at the moment, according to the last `entertainment bulletin' I heard on the office radio. Hopefully she'll get laid into the X-Factor winner next.

`Hear hear' was not to Five-Centres post (although I don't necessarily disagree with that one), but the one above it. He sneaked in before me.

presumably their "MORAL OUTRAGE!" correspondent, reads The Word:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/article2104719.ece

...stories get nicked. But that truly is scraping the barrel. Could it be that Gordon Smart is an even bigger idiot (and destined for even bigger things) than Piers Morgan?

Having lived in the privileged cocoon of a middle class acting family that borders on the realms of eccentric; it is quite easy to understand why 'Tabloid' Lily opens her mouth to criticise. Having left the realms of teen pop queen and all associated with that position, she has tried the high profile love affair with a 'Pop star' - a bloke! That ended sadly in a well documented miscarriage or was it suffering for her art?
Now she has moved onto a family friend of supposed wealth old enough to be her father. A move that probably highlights the end of her pop career and a photoshoot with OK.
Why is it that these spoilt brats of a certain type of showbusiness family get the opportunity in the first place? - Probably because 'Daddy or Mummy' knows someone at EMI.
Hence the only word to explain Lily Allen - SPOILT!

. . . but what on earth is wrong with the 8th, or L'Huitieme Arondissement, as I never called it when I lived there back in the day. In terms of the Parisian poshness league, I'd rank it second only to the 16th, with maybe the 17th fighting it out for third place. Think Mayfair, and you're on the right track. Poor Lily should try a hostel out in the 18th or even the 12th, and she'd know all about it. Apart from this schoolgirl error, I think she's great.

I don't like Lily Allen. I find her music soulless and her attitude deplorably self-pitying. But in a spirit of New Year goodwill, I thought I'd read her interview with an open mind (normally I'd skip straight past it), and assume my snap judgement was incorrect. She then went on to prove why snap judgements are so often right.

So thank you Word for publishing the interview. It's good to have your preconceptions challenged... and then roundly justified.

I suspect Ms Allen wanted to convey 'attitude', which doesn't wash with me, Lily, love. Either that, or she is genuinely hacked off with being given an all-expenses paid trip to Paris, in which case she should be raising it with her employers, hopefully with the same response any of us would get if we tried the same thing at our workplace - a P45.

Lily has been inspired to write a song about by the interview for her new album:

Money Drugs and Trousers

I was feeling despondent
In the 8th Arrondissment
They didn't send me no champagne
All I got was real e mail pain

Money drugs and trousers,
When will they allow us
Money drugs and trousers
It’s not really fair

Thought I had my feet on terra firma
It seems that I am still a learner
But if I organise a sports day
Then knife crime will go away

I told Elton to fuck off
And I told Jagger to fuck off
But I tell everyone to fuck off
All day long

Hinduism is so cool
But Christians they do not rule
If Muslims were on Songs of Praise
That is something I would praise

I am really famous
But they never pay us
I've sold millions of records
But I still shop in Tescos.

oh my god, cool like innit.

Evidently Lily has splilt from her millionaire boyfriend because the age difference was effecting her family and friends, according to tabloid reports.
It is also alleged that she would have found it difficult to continue the relationship owing to touring and plugging her new album.
Men of the World beware.....

...she could have referred to them as 'The State Repressive Apparatus' a term coined by the late (and possibly deranged) Louis Althusser. Something like;

bofe me and me mate was
done by the state repressive apparatus
just for nickin' some potatoes
and chuckin 'em at posh waiters

or some such twaddle. Why not a word competition to see who can pen a Lily Allen lyric.

This weekends Telegraph mag had a fairly long Lily Allen interview. I read it with interest and have to say she came across really well - bright, witty, slightly confused (but in a smart way) and not at all cross with her lot as a pop star. Not sure of the Word interview was an off day - I hope so.

Don't know how many people are still reading this thread, but anyway, she was on Front Row yesterday, and once again I was quite taken with her. I thought she came across fine in Word - and I speak as someone who doesn't think much of her music, especially her wafer-thin singing voice. And the Telegraph piece is a very detailed portrait of someone who is only too aware of her own weaknesses.

Yes the girl does come across as a lot more interesting than many "stars" of music biz 21st century, mainly in a "Phew I'm glad She's Not My Daughter" kind of way if you're an old fart such as I, fair play to her. And I must say despite the silly singing accent that must have taken a showbiz kid ages to develop (and it caught on! And, with Kate Nash, got worse!) I quite like her songs, pity that when I log on to a favoured download and streaming site there's only about six different ones, with various and confusing dopey remixes and with more or less effing and blinding. Cahmon gal, get ter work aht vere gorblimey. Send for der Sherrif of effing Nottingham, git him to talk to er.

I read an interview once when she was talking about territories and units sold and that did it for me.

Her dad is Keith Allen though!