my keith allen stories

I had to chuckle when I read this as I have 3 of my own.

The first time I met him was during my ‘oh those were the days’. I was working for the Hayward Gallery press office at the time and Spellbound was the current exhibition. Damien Hirst was exhibiting his first feature film, staring Keith Allen and with music by Alex James of Blur (I think). It was the press opening and Alison was extremely busy looking after several other artists so I was entrusted with looking after this motley bunch. They rolled up obviously having either been up all night or with very little sleep. They had an obvious distrust of PR and just stood there completely ignoring me and looking at the ground whilst grumbling. While wondering just what on earth I was going to do with them all I looked down at the ground too. And thank god that I did as I noticed that Keith and Damien had the same shoes on. “So, who got em first?’ I challenged. It worked. “I did.” “No I did.” Ha ha, they were actually fighting for my attention.

The second time was backstage at Glastonbury in 1998 where we were guests of John Peel (RIP). Backstage in those days was one tent with a few bottles of warm wine and a barrel of warm beer. It’s so different now and to be avoided at ALL cost. It was a sedate affair with a handful of people reading The Guardian. Keith Allen suddenly appeared with a ghetto blaster on his shoulder. He stormed through with his entourage shouting “Come on you f*****s, it’s supposed to be a P-A-R-T-Y”.

Finally at last year’s Glastonbury New Order did a great set, which included loads of my favourites. At the time when I knew it was the last track, and knowing that Blue Monday was rehearsed and on schedule to be performed, while eagerly anticipating seeing it live for the first time, Keith Allen stormed onto the stage with a load of knobs in football shorts. They completely ruined it for me by doing World in Motion as their last encore. It shouldn’t be allowed.

By the by, his daughter is now on the music scene. You can check her out here http://www.myspace.com/lilymusic. Let’s hope that she doesn’t build a similar reputation.