Lily Allen -- unprofessional?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

silvrlvr

Refugee
Joined
Feb 28, 2006
Messages
1,242
Location
Michigan, USA
From the BBC:

Singer Allen postpones US shows

Singer Lily Allen has postponed the next leg of her US tour, saying she wants to work on her second album.

The 21-year-old, whose album Alright, Still reached the US top 20, recently complained she was "bored slightly" at attempting to crack the US market.

Allen told fans she was tired and "itching to get back into the studio".

She will perform a handful more dates but has called off 20 shows in May and June. Those concerts will be rescheduled for the end of the year.

On her MySpace blog, Allen joked that fame had proved to be hard work: "I thought that being a pop star meant going out getting trashed with famous people and sleeping in all day."


This strikes me as very unprofessional and immature. I had been planning to see her when she played in Detroit. But I was turned off by a comment she made about her song "Smile" saying how she was sick of singing it, and I decided not to get tickets. I don't need to pay money to see an artist who doesn't want to be there.
 
I really like Lily Allen, although I do think letting all her fans down and postponing dates just because she doesn't really want to do them is pretty immature of her.
I won't mind so much though if she produces a brilliant second album :D
 
I like her a lot and appreciate her honesty, but yeah. Cancelling shows just because you'd rather do something else is pretty crummy.
 
corianderstem said:
I like her a lot and appreciate her honesty, but yeah. Cancelling shows just because you'd rather do something else is pretty crummy.

Then again to take money off of people when the show isn't going to be very good is pretty crummy too. Seems like a no-win situation to me then.
 
It sounds like she went out on tour when she wasn't prepared, and perhaps the success of her single overwhelmed her. But the way you learn to be a performer is to perform in front of an audience. By doing this, you risk offending folks in the business, who took a chance on you by booking you.

After all, who in the States had heard of Lily Allen a year ago, or Amy Winehouse, for that matter? Who in the States will care a year from now, when the next hot Brit singer comes over to try her luck?
 
her success is partly due to the whole immature/bratty image, so why the hell not?

i really don't care for her, even by bubblegum pop standards she's pretty mediocre.
 
LarryMullen's_POPAngel said:
I bought her album a month or two ago and I'm already tired of her. :shrug:

That's what I was about to post. I'm glad I got it on ebay for $3. If she can't handle one relatively small tour (in comparison to many larger-scale tours), she'd might as well give up on a singing career now.
 
BonoVoxSupastar said:
I think playing shows when her heart isn't in it would be very unprofessional and immature!

This strikes me as a very odd thing to say. Would you rather they cancel their shows? "Sorry, folks, I just don't feel like it." Or fake it?

I can't imagine there isn't a performer who hasn't had to go onstage and do a show when their heart wasn't in it at least once. But it's their job. Yeah, sucks for the audience who gets a lackluster show, but I'd hardly call the performer unprofessional or immature. (Unless they were spitting on everyone or kicking beer cups into the audience. That's immature. :wink: )

And apparently I'm the only one who still likes Lily Allen.
 
When it's sunny and warm here again (if it's ever sunny and warm here again...), I'll want pop tunes, and I'm sure I'll go back to the album. It seems like more of a summer CD anyway.

Part of me is sympathetic to the fact that she's relatively young and very far away from home. But mostly I want to punch her in the arm and tell her to enjoy what may be her only 15 minutes of fame while she's got them.
 
LarryMullen's_POPAngel said:
I bought her album a month or two ago and I'm already tired of her. :shrug:

So, I guess this goes both ways. :wink:

Indeed. :yes: It was fun while it lasted, but I probably didn't need to buy her album. It gets tired and old very quickly.
 
Q

I don't know much about her or her music. I doubt I've ever heard any of her songs. So I don't have any feelings about her one way or another. However, I just took a quick look at her Myspace page and read a few of her blog entries.

This one was from March 17:

Yo , so its been a while , I havn't really had much to say , I still don't . I've started to feel it's my duty to write blogs , I didn't feel that before . Life is weird at the moment . Is it really important to break America ? If it is I have to write my life off for the next 9 months , playing the same gig answering the same questions to different journalists and such , or go home sit o my boyfriends sofa for a bit , then write a new album . what d'ya reckon ? As much as I love driving across America and doing the same thing every night , I'm bored slightly , this is no reflection on my audience , cause I have a huge amount of respect for them . It's the songs , I'm bored . Since January I've toured Japan , New Zealand annd Australia , I've done a European tour , gone to Paris fashion week , done a UK tour , spent one night at home , apparently I beat up some paparazzi , and now I'm on a US tour . It goes till May . I dunno what to do.

part of one from Feb 17:

busy busy busy , as usual . This week I have been from Chicago to NY to Philly, I did shows in all cities , then I did a TV show called Conan O'brien in Manhattan . I flew from NY to london on Tuesday night and arrived in London for the Brits on wednesday morning . I went to the brits and lost all three I was nominated for , I knew that was going to be the case , all my categories were very tough . Then I went out for a few drinks , assulted some paparazzi with my stiletto and went to bed . On thursday i woke up @ 8 in the am and left my hotel in tears , i didnt want to leave . I wanted to go home , I wanted my Mum to cook me a roast , i wanted to walk my dog , I wanted more than 5 hours with my boyfriend . I got in my car and and was followed to the airport by the razzi , actually they followed me all the way to the gate , Heathrow has it's own press dept I saw the guy that was featured on the BBC program " Airport " their PR guy . He and a couple of photographers followed me to the gate and I got on a plane to Washington . Washington was freezing . I go to my hotel and then I got an email from my record company , all the post brits pics of me crying ( outside my hotel ) , supposedly I got in a fight with Amy Winehouse and was left crying . UTTER BOLLOCKS . Anyway this annoyed me momentarily but I needed to sleep, as this morning I had to get up at 6 to get on a plane to Boston , so I moved on .

part of one from Feb. 8:

We did our own gig at the Metro in Melbourne before getting on a 16 hour flight , which by the way was struck by lightning , I could smell burning . Luckily we were only ½ an hour from LA but I hate flying , and cried all the way to Baggage Claim . I love Customs in America, they are just so friendly , really make you feel welcome you know ? They really enjoy their 10 min's of power , I'm not very good with people like that , tends to get me worked up a little , especially just after a 16 hour lightning struck flight, anyway they put me on some list, 'cause now every time I get on a flight I have to have some full on humiliating security search , which is fun . Am I rambling? Sorry ! Anyway got out of the airport , had a cigarette then got on another 6 hour flight to NY.

Australia was fucking boiling and NY was -2 or something , my body went in to shock and I spent the next couple of days sick , and in bed vomiting . We were in New York for the recording of Saturday Night Live , which is a huge deal over here and things started to feel a little Hollywood .

This last year has gone so quickly for me it was only last May that I was playing in London at the Notting Hill Arts club to 250 people and suddenly I'm in a dressing room right next to Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz about to sing on TV to 50 million people or something stupid . Talk about mind fuck. Needless to say I was shitting myself but I think it went ok . The next day my album went up to number 2 on itunes here in the States. I got stopped a few times in the street which has never happened to me here before, I guess that's what Saturday Night Live does . My Mum and my boyfriend came over to see me do SNL and I spent ½ an hour crying on the floor of the soho grand hotel lobby saying goodbye to them before getting on another plane to LA . It felt going back to school after the holidays , if that makes sense . I don't know when I'm going to see them again .
Landed in LA at 12.30 am and rushed to IN'N OUT burger, they only have it in California and it's the only fast food I'll eat, they don't have freezers only fridges and you can see them cut the potatoes for the chips (fries) besides it's yummy , anyway I don't need to justify my fast food consumption here , do I ? Read "fast food nation " it has a whole chapter about them being the most ethical burger joint. Checked in to the Hyatt on Sunset and then went to bed. The next day I did interviews from 10 in the morning till show time at the Henry Fonda Theatre , the show was ACE , really really good . Then I went to the studio for a couple of hours, did some work and met Kanye West, he's a legend, and a really nice guy .

WHHHHOOAH long day , got to bed by about 3 and then got up early to catch a flight to San Francisco . Checked in and did some phone interviews in my room for a couple of hours. Had a row with some journalist cause he kept trying to make comparisons between myself and Paris Hilton , Saying that we both got where we are because of our families' money and connections , and the " obvious " musical similarities . I told him he was misinformed and where to go . Then I went to soundcheck and did a gig at a lovely venue called the Great American Music Hall

It went really well , but I was tired so I went straight from the stage to the car to the hotel and dove into bed . Got up this morning at 8 did a phoner to radio 1 in the uk and then went to the airport . Im writing to you from the plane , I'm on the way to Chicago . I MISS England so much and my Maggie May and my mum and my dad and Alfie and sarah my sister , and all the fans back there , I miss you all . I'm coming back for 18 hours next week for the Brit awards so I'll see you then !

She's 21 years old. Sounds to me the kid needs a break.
 
I was going to come and say, "nah she just speaks her mind," but after reading that she is cancelling tour dates...

that is a bit of a shit effort.

I hate to bring up U2 or compare Lily Allen to U2... but they managed recording a new album while touring... shit the second half of their tour included the new album!

And btw, who is Keith Allen? :reject:
 
Keith Allen is Lily's father.

Everyone loves a holiday from their job :)

Its not really that of a shit effort, if she's rescheduling the dates - and If she's a second album out, the tour would most likely contain the new songs.

Keane did it last year (albeit due to drug addiction).
 
corianderstem said:


This strikes me as a very odd thing to say. Would you rather they cancel their shows? "Sorry, folks, I just don't feel like it." Or fake it?

I can't imagine there isn't a performer who hasn't had to go onstage and do a show when their heart wasn't in it at least once. But it's their job. Yeah, sucks for the audience who gets a lackluster show, but I'd hardly call the performer unprofessional or immature. (Unless they were spitting on everyone or kicking beer cups into the audience. That's immature. :wink: )

And apparently I'm the only one who still likes Lily Allen.

You can be accountant and not have your heart in it, for at the end of the day if the math is correct the math is correct.

But I don't want a minister who doesn't believe to preach to me, I don't want a painter who doesn't like what she's doing paint for me, and I don't want someone singing who's heart isn't in it.

That's part of their job.

She could have easily continued the tour half assed, and still get paid, but she decided not to.
 
Perhaps a better option for her would have been to be the opening act for an established band. She could have earned some stripes without having to carry the entire weight of a tour, learned from her peers, and saw what touring involved in the States. Clearly, her management put the cart before the horse here.
 
From aversion.com:

"Although Lily Allen's been too drunk to finish her own tour, she's not too charitable to Britain's most famous drug fiend.

The pop star told GQ magazine that she's no fan of the Babyshambles front man, in no uncertain terms: She's said he needs to be "exterminated" after his drug issues bore her.

Allen's not exactly Ms. Sober, herself. She recently scrubbed a swath of American tour dates after getting too drunk to play well."
 
HIM recently pulled the same shit, cancelling their US tour (and royally screwing their support bands) because they "needed to go back into the studio and start their next album"

what the fuck mate.

I was going in order to see Lostprophets opening, couldn't care less for HIM, and what they did to their openers (also Papa Roach and Kill Hannah) just sucked. Selfish bullshit.
 
I saw her talking on TV last night, it was a Canadian station. She made a comment and then followed it with something like, "I realize I'm not in America right now, thank God." The host said that she had earlier said that she called people in America backwards, so she laughed and gave a lame little, "I love America, America is great!" apology thing. She said that she wants to go back to the studio because since she only has one album out, she doesn't have many songs to choose from. It's so boring just having a small selection of songs to sing that the only way she can perform is to get really drunk before the show, like by drinking half a bottle of Jagermeister.

I had listened to "Smile" back when I heard all of this buzz about her, and I didn't like it. I'd thought about checking her out further and giving her another chance. But if she's going to have an attitude like that, meh. There's a lot of other music I'd rather check out, much of it by musicians who appreciate their fans a little more.
 
Back
Top Bottom