Organisers of the Isle Of Wight Festival have hit out at Lily Allen after she pulled out of their 2008 event. Allen's people reportedly informed IOW bosses this week that the singer will no longer be able to play at the festival in June. The official reason for her pulling out, apparently, is that work on the singer's second album is behind schedule. Presumably Allen wants to have new material in place before returning to the stage in a singer capacity. But the festival's boss says that that excuse is "not acceptable".
Speaking to 6Music, IOW Promoter John Giddings told BBC 6 Music that he wouldn't be getting legal about Allen's pulling out, but that he thought her reason for not performing was not good enough, adding "I didn't book a record, I booked an artist". He also questioned whether the official reason for Allen's decision to pull out was the truth, observing: "I read in the tabloids a load of different reasons".
He concluded: "Unfortunately this country has developed some great new girl singer songwriters, but they seem to be having a few problems don't they?" Which I'm not sure is totally fair - Allen's reason for pulling out of the IOW Festival is possibly a bit rubbish, but given that Allen's recent personal problems, as far as I can see, amount to a miscarriage leading to the break down of her relationship with Chemical Brother Ed Simons, I'm not sure its fair to compare her situation to the tabloid exploits of other singer songwriters, but whatever.
Obviously Giddings will save some cash from not having Allen on his bill, and he says he plans to use that to make his event more eco-friendly, a move seemingly inspired by Radiohead's recent announcement that they'll only play festivals that fulfil certain environmental criteria. Giddings: "If you read what Radiohead say, that they're only going to play events in future that are properly ecologically sound, then I'd rather use the money to do that and make the audience experience better, than just book another group. I want to make our festival ahead of the game in all of this, making it carbon neutral, and with the Isle of Wight bringing in their Eco Island policy, this would dovetail perfectly into that".
Which is all lovely. But back to Allen's personal problems now, and reports today that the singer is being treated for depression at a top London clinic as she comes to terms with the aforementioned miscarriage and relationship breakdown. The Sun says she has begun treatment after "sinking into despair". They cite a source thus: "The last couple of months have been really hard for Lily. She was so happy to be pregnant and was willing to give up her showbiz life to settle down and have a family. Her miscarriage was a huge blow and she hasn't really recovered. She has tried to put on a brave face but she found she needed to get some professional help". Assuming that's all true we can probably deduce that [a] Giddings is right to say the official reason for Allen's departure from the IOW bill isn't 100% true, and [b] he probably shouldn't be making light of her personal situation.
Last bit of Lily for now, and some words from the singer herself. She's ranted on her MySpace about the good old paparazzi after claiming one of them smashed a window on her car. The window of her new BMW was reportedly smashed while she partied at the Groucho Club in London on Monday night (presumably they let her out of the treatment clinic for that - or the clinic story is nonsense), and while some of the papers said her car was attacked by unspecified vandals, she seems adamant it was a snapper what done it.
She writes: "If you see photos in the press or online of my car window being 'smashed by vandals', I just want you to know that it was one of the many paparazzi who were following us who did it. There were so many of them hassling us that it is difficult to say which one of them did it but I had to leap in a taxi to get away from them. My friend Emily had to get into the car which was covered in broken glass and drive it away. It was a scary situation and I want people to know that it was totally their fault and that the whole situation has angered and upset me. Emily got cut from sitting on the broken glass and we are both horrified that people could behave in this way and get away with it".