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Lily Allen · S1 E1
May 2, 1985
Born into British entertainment royalty — but it wasn't glamorous
Glastonbury, summer of 1985. A few weeks after being born in a Hammersmith hospital, Lily Rose Beatrice Allen is carried through a muddy field by her father, the comedian Keith Allen.
London Calling by The Clash (1979), official music video. Lily Allen's first trip to Glastonbury was at six weeks old, carried through the mud by her father. Joe Strummer, whom young Lily called "Uncle Joe," was a close family friend who made her mixtapes of reggae, ska, and Brazilian music at the festival. This is the punk anthem that soundtracked the world she was born into.
Entertainment Royalty
Her father is Keith Allen, a Welsh hell-raiser at the heart of London's alternative comedy scene. Her mother is Alison Owen, a young film producer who will one day make Elizabeth, Shaun of the Dead, and Saving Mr. Banks. Together they know everyone in British entertainment, but the family lives in a council flat in Bloomsbury, eating spaghetti on toast.
Sources
Allen, Lily. "My Thoughts Exactly." Blink Publishing, 2018, Ch. 1.
London Calling, The Clash (1979)
Joe Strummer opens with a distorted radio broadcast that cuts into a driving bassline from Paul Simonon. Written during the Three Mile Island crisis, the lyrics capture something bigger: the feeling that the old world is crumbling. For baby Lily, carried through the mud at Glastonbury by parents steeped in this music, the song is a birthright. The punk energy, the rebellion, the refusal to play by anyone else's rules: it all starts here.
TAP TO REVEAL: Which beloved BBC comedy characters were secretly based on Lily and Alfie?
Littlest Things by Lily Allen
The most tender track on Alright, Still. Over a Mark Ronson production, Lily's voice drops to a whisper as she catalogues tiny romantic memories. It is the flip side of her sharp public persona, a glimpse of the vulnerability that started in that Bloomsbury flat.
Littlest Things, Lily Allen (2006)
Follow the lyrics while you listen. This is the tender flip side of Lily's sharp public persona, a whispered catalogue of tiny romantic memories that reveals the vulnerability hiding underneath.
The Vital Stats
What was Keith Allen's connection to punk rock before becoming a comedian?
Keith Allen leaves the family when Lily is four years old. Next: who he really was, what he was running from, and the hole he left behind that she will spend twenty years trying to fill.
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