Miss Me? - Listen Bitch! Proper Tea
Episode Date: May 13, 2024Lily Allen and Miquita Oliver answer your questions about property. Do they regret not living in university halls? What's the weirdest thing they've found in a new house? Have they ever lived in a "pa...rty house"?Next week, we want to hear your questions about ASTROLOGY. Please send us a voice note on WhatsApp: 08000 30 40 90. Or, if you like, send us an email: missme@bbc.co.uk.This episode contains very strong language and adult themes.Producer: Matt Thomas Technical Producer: Will Gibson Smith Production Coordinator: Hannah Bennett Executive Producers: Dino Sofos and Ellie Clifford Assistant Commissioner for BBC: Lorraine Okuefuna Commissioning Editor for BBC: Dylan HaskinsMiss Me? is a Persephonica production for BBC Sounds.
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This is the BBC.
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BBC Sounds.
Music, radio, podcasts.
Miss Me does contain some adult themes
and some very, very strong language.
Mainly from the kids.
Mainly from the hill.
Welcome to Listen Bitch.
Woohoo.
Nice to be here.
No.
Come on.
What?
What do you want from me?
You did say this to me last week.
You said, I said I felt like I was a bit like, ugh, when we were talking.
And you were like, yeah, but you were feeling a bit, ugh.
So I'm going to ask you to perk it up.
I'm not feeling, ugh.
I'm just like, I'm not going to do that.
Oh, someone's arrived with a cup of tea.
Someone from the world of showbiz.
Oh, my God.
I just got some tea.
Oh. And why, pray tell, do we have proper cups of tea? Because today we are talking about
property. Property, that's right, property. I mean, I really don't't I really hope people like this subject I don't want to get too like
you know
night frank about things
or you know
Foxton's
or Savile's
or any of the
more independent estate agents
well those I respect and love
but when you know
it does feel like the death
of a neighbourhood
when you see a few too many
of those places on the corner
also I feel like when I got my hair dyed this color he said the guy that um was in the
chair next to me not the um anyway he said uh when people like have a haircut like this in your
neighborhood you know the property prices are going up what like the one you've got now yeah
gentrification do i feel like those haircuts were more of a sign of
gentrification in like early noughties like remember what was it called what was that hoxton
the hoxton hoxton fin yeah hoxton fin and there was the buzz do you remember the one where people
would shave the back and have the lot like the mullety bit at the back yeah i quite fancy the
undercuts the undercut was fit.
Lester had one.
I had one for a bit.
It was one of the biggest mistakes of my life.
In fact, next time somebody asks me any regrets,
I'm going to say, yeah, buzz cut 2007.
Fair.
And we had all these haircuts in a myriad of different flats
and homes across the country.
I'm just trying to bring this back to property.
So let's take it to the world. Let's bring this back to the subject at hand. Okay.
First question. Hi, Lily. Hi, Makita. Happy belated birthday to you both.
Jen here from Sheffield. So I'm turning 40 this year and I don't own property. I have owned property in the past, but right now I'm renting, living in a
beautiful house in a beautiful area. But I'm not going to lie, sometimes thoughts about the future
get pretty heavy and I'm thinking, you know, I really need to be getting my act together and
getting on the property ladder. Just wondering what you guys think about that. Is property
ownership the be all and end all? Or is it OK to kind of just enjoy renting and the lack of stress that sometimes comes with that?
Thanks a lot. Bye bye.
Thanks, Jen. In it, Jen, I feel exactly the same.
I feel content and happy that I'm renting in a flat that I adore and in a place that I just can't.
I think it's the most beautiful place I've ever lived.
um and in a place that i just can't i just think it's the most beautiful place i've ever lived so maybe i'll join with jen on this and as two people in this position we'll ask you lily should
we be ashamed that we don't own our property you've got a hard relate going on um it's funny
it's kind of cultural there's so much focus in england or sorry sorry Great Britain on owning property bricks and mortar investments
long-term investments um it doesn't seem to be so prevalent here uh property prices are
astronomical in New York and everyone rents especially in Manhattan no one really owns
property here as far as I can make out maybe it was because it was so easy for so long in this
country to own property uh for like my my mum's journey yeah especially with right to buy yeah
right to buy and also just well this isn't ownership I was gonna say squatting my family
lived in some beautiful houses across Londonegally. Like the rest of the culture at the time.
But do you know why I want to buy, Jen?
Mainly because there's a wall that I'm desperate to knock down.
And I now feel it's an affront, even the fact that it's here.
It's funny you mentioned the squatting thing,
because where we grew up in Labrador Grove was like highly squatted.
Like all our parents' friends who were all, you know,
artists at the time, I wouldn't say from creative industries
because they weren't employed, they were just doing their thing.
But they were all squatting, right,
in those old Victorian houses and buildings.
And it was because of the sort of bohemian nature
and the excitement around all of the people
that were essentially living there
for free that people that had money wanted to be associated with those people and so move you know
wanted to buy and move into the area which started uh the gentrification of west london and labrador
grove can we talk about gentrification we're going to talk about property this is what i hate most
about gentrification this area is a shithole we. We'll be here because it's all we will get given.
We'll make it funky and desirable.
You'll come here, take the funk away,
push us out and then dry out the vibe.
But then the vibe starts somewhere else.
Margate is like a good example of that.
Everyone, do you know what they call,
actually it's not Margate, it's Hastings.
They call the people from London the filth,
which means failed in London, try Hastings.
Stop it because we've got some friends,
we've got quite a few friends in Hastings.
A few of the filth.
I know some of the filth.
That's what the Hastings locals call the Londoners
that come from mainly East London to Hastings and buy up all of the property, cheap property and raise the property prices and then make it soulless.
Interestingly, the people I know that lived in Hastings didn't fail in London at all, but they've made a whole community and crew.
I mean, there's a lot of people that we know that are down there now.
Anyway, I'm sure we'll have more time to talk about gentrification because I would love to. But to answer your
question, Jen, I don't think we should have shame. I think, and this, in the way the world looks
today, the fact that we can even afford rent somewhere that we love is quite a big thing.
I mean, I think it's just mental, isn't it? The property market. I remember being in, I guess it was 2008 when I, you know, was riding high in the charts and, you know,
selling a lot of records and making a pretty decent amount of money. And I couldn't afford
to buy a flat in Notting Hill or, you know, Labrador Grove where I grew up. But I could
afford in Queens Park because it was like an up-and-coming area and i bought myself a two-bedroom flat in queens park how old were
we when you bought queens park i was 2008 so it was we were like 24 or something 24 exactly and um
and i remember thinking at the time like i, I'm doing really fucking well, but I'm finding it a struggle even myself to get a starter flat in the area that I grew up in.
And anyway, I managed to, I got the money together, I bought the flat and then the credit crunch happened, the crash.
So I went into negative equity really quickly, which I can't even really explain what that means.
But essentially, my flat had lessened in value because there was a property crash.
So the mortgage rates that I was paying, the monthly payments didn't make sense in terms of like what the actual flat was worth at that point.
the actual flat was worth at that point.
And it took me like 10 years to get out of that for the property to get back to the price it was
that I'd bought it at and for it to go into profit again.
Anyway.
I don't quite understand mortgages.
I'm sure it will come up.
Do you want to ask for another question on this one?
Yeah, please.
Can we have another question?
Hi, Makita and Lily.
I'm loving the Miss Me podcast.
I feel like I've grown up with both of you in my life
from T4 days and watching Lily's career grow
since I was like 17, 18.
So my name's Holly.
I'm from Cambridge and I live now in New Zealand
and I've lived here for five years.
So on this week's topic on property, I've recently at the age of 36 finally
moved into a house that we now own so we can obviously do stuff that we want to it I've always
lived in rented or obviously family accommodation so never been able to put my personal stamp on it
I feel like I don't even have a personal style.
But from following both of you,
I feel like both of you have amazing personal styles
and I wondered how that kind of developed
and how you kind of styled your own homes
and made them feel like yours.
Thanks so much. Bye.
Aw, that's nice, isn't it?
That's right up your straza babes right
up my straza look at your sitting room look at the bloody room you're sitting in right bloody now
it's quite quite swish this is definitely the swishest property i've owned i think it's important
to say that no wait a minute i mean the massive country house with like acres and shit that was
quite swish i thought that was pretty impressive. It was very swish.
It was 10 acres actually.
But you know what?
If you didn't have,
if you hadn't done that house,
it may have seemed a lot less swish.
What you're very,
you've got quite swish taste.
Yes, I do.
That is true about me.
And someone asked me the other day
about the Queen's Park sitting room lily knows
how to do a house you really you always have since we were quite young who was asking you about the
queen's park sitting room i'm interested i can't remember i can't remember but they were like that
was a great sitting room right and i was like yeah like it's it was remembered it's like a lot
of color i mean you did it quite a few times didn't you you redid Queen's Park and kind of knocked walls out
and made it much bigger
nicer flat
it was fabulous
quite a lot of renovating
um
uh
my
how's my personal style
evolved
um
yeah
um
well
I suppose like
in the early days
because you know
my
surprisingly enough
like being able to buy
myself property coincided with the beginning of my career and especially my touring career and I
felt like when I was traveling around the world um it could be quite like a lonely existence and
everything kind of felt a bit the same you know you're just sort of pulling up in buses into like
the industrial part of town and going into a venue and into the dressing room.
So anyway, I've started, you know,
going out and about to sort of like flea markets
and secondhand furniture shops and like local artisans
all over the world and I would buy stuff.
What, like when you were on tour?
Yeah, so especially like when I'd go to places
like Brazil and Mexico.
Did you get like a lot of like your rugs and blankets and things like that?
Yeah.
Like all of that.
Rugs, textiles.
I'm big into my textiles.
So yeah, especially, you know, like countries in South America, I'd like go and find like the places where the local, you know, weaving places or, you know, whatever their textiles were.
And I'd buy, you know, yards of their fabric.
And then I come back to England and I unpack these boxes at the end of my tour.
And I would, you know, upholster things like cushions or like an ottoman or a sofa.
I mean, you have to understand that this is a very grown up thing to do.
Like to get something upholstered, I have to get the sofa on my balcony upholstered and I'm like intimidated by the process and even the word.
Like I'm looking to get something upholstered.
But you were doing this in your mid 20s and it brought you quite a lot of joy.
It always has.
Oh, I love it. I absolutely love it.
There's nothing I love more than, yeah, like redesigning a space, reimagining a space.
That's what I want to do. I can't really sit still in any space I'm all whenever I walk into someone's home I'm like where
would I put that shirt what would I do in this room um but my my tip my tip for interior design get this is start with a rug okay like an outfit you'd start with shoes well I just think that like
the mistake that people make is with color right and it's very hard to decide what color a room
should be what color all of the furniture and everything should be and then put a rug in at
the end that's
going to match with everything very difficult to be able to do that and I think if you start with
a rug you can see what your color palette is and you start from there so you pick out a little color
here color there you know maybe do the cornicing in the color that's in the border of the rug and
you choose like two or three colors and maybe you have the sofa in that color and and that that's always that's always what I do start with the rug and work
your way up that's that's actually bloody brilliant advice one thing I've done with
also you have great rugs and now I know why tour um I've started putting rugs so not like
bath mats but like rugs somewhat hardier rugs in bathrooms.
And it's so nice because they cover the whole floor rather than having like some square bath mat.
It's really good. That's been a great thing for me and rugs.
But one thing I would say about my interior style is I've always had loads of flats and just filled them with janky old shit.
Don't you remember Eagle Wolf Road?
How many like weird old rocking chairs there were with like half a leg.
And I don't know why.
I don't know what it was about.
I just, I think I thought I was buying antiques.
You know what?
Actually on this, like when I bought my place in Gloucestershire,
I was hanging out with like quite a lot of like posh,
like aristocratic people, I think,
like because they were all my ex-husband's mates
were like sort of old money.
And I felt really intimidated by it.
So I got myself this house in the country
and then I basically filled it up with stuff
that looked like they could be like heirlooms, right?
Like passed down from generation to generation.
Like my mum's family, like, you know,
worked in the dockyards in Portsmouth
and my dad's family also worked in the dockyards,
but in Wales.
Yeah, we're both not very heirloomy.
No.
There are no heirlooms coming to us.
Nothing was coming from Grandad Eddie,
the submariner, my way.
Grandad Eddie. I don't know poor granddad eddie um but anyway um yeah so i filled up this house with like heirlooms
things that looked like they could have been like passed down through the family and when
i divorced sam and moved out of that house i was so it was the whole thing was so painful for me
that i chucked everything into um storage boxes and just chucked it in the storage unit and it wasn't until about a year or two ago
where I went back to Gloucester and I started unpacking all of those boxes and I just thought
like who were you like what were you it was almost insane it was like I was like unpacking like props from a play of somebody that
was like do you know what I mean like you're building a character this sort of like old
money kind of it's like completely batshit crazy yeah it's interesting because you have such
identifiable interior style so you would have been going so against yourself by creating this other version
but almost like you know pictures of like like you know like well like old rowing no like you
know colonial people in india like with elephants in the background but you know i mean like antique
pictures that looked like it could have been people like people from the family's like why
were you trying to paint that picture of yourself like i don't want people to think that i'm like my family were like colonizers in bengal like this fucking insane
person character building comes from this kind of colonizer
we should really keep going because these are long answers that i have so much more to say
so let's uh let's have another question and I'm sure it'll probably be a bit interior-y anyway
hi Lily and Makita my name's Sarah I'm originally from Nottingham but I've lived in Manchester for
the last 13 odd years um on the subject of property I bought my first and current house in 2017
which is a proper old school Victorian terrace, a very Coronation Street
style house with a yard and an alleyway at the back. And to cut a very long and weird story
short, I found bags of the previous owner's actual human feces in carrier bags in the basement when
I moved in. And I just wondered what's the weirdest thing you guys have ever found when
you've moved into a new property.
Thanks so much.
Absolutely love the podcast.
Well, not that.
I thought you were going to say, I want to know why you think they did it.
I was like, I have no fucking idea.
Jesus.
That is a lot.
I wonder what the message was, though.
Get out my house?
Get out my house.
No, I'm sure that, you know what you need sage stage the spot i have not really
found anything strange like that but when we moved into gloucestershire they left a cat there in our
barn oh but that's quite countryside yeah we called her diana and she lived with us until we left and
then we left her there for the next owners.
Oh, for the next owners.
Okay, I thought you just left her in the barn.
And then she joined what?
Your pack of dogs?
You had about five, six dogs in the house?
Yeah, I loved them.
My doggies.
Oh, my doggies.
It was nice.
No, but I left something at a flat once. One of my things I hate more than anything, moving house. Sure, it's hell,
but the process, I've done it so many times. And can I just say without any help from my parents,
I know I'm 40, but there was like a good time in my late 20s, early 30s where I just did this on
my own and I was moving a lot. So I got very, what's the word, like production liney about it.
The hardest thing is when you rent a flat and you start thinking about your deposit and the sentence leave it like it was when I got here and
it's like of course it's not going to look the same but one particular flat I um I uh I built
a wardrobe in the kitchen of course you did of course you did why wouldn't you do that that's not weird at all the shoreditch flat do you remember what a flat it was garden walk on the corner of like um you
know hoxton great eastern street yeah and you could see and it had like a terrace and you could
see all the barbecue i mean the view was next level and i lived in the middle of shoreditch
which at the time was actually what i wanted. I was only like 24.
Anyway, yeah, I built this wardrobe and I hoped they wouldn't notice.
And they did.
They did notice a wardrobe in the kitchen.
They didn't think you'd added anything.
No.
I was like, but that could be quite useful, actually.
Sure.
We'll have more questions in this space
about property after the break. or binging TV shows all night. Save up to $20 per month on Rogers Internet. Visit rogers.com for details. We got you, Rogers.
Let's have another question.
Hello, ladies. I hope you're well. I'm Sarah from Bedford, originally from London, though.
And I'm really grateful that you've
created this wonderful podcast. It entertains me no end, although I was a little bit late to the
party, so I binged the first few episodes and now I'm sad because there is nothing left to binge and
I have to wait patiently every week. The question that I wanted to ask you relating to property
is, do you miss that you didn't go away to university
and live in halls with other students um I know that I didn't have that experience and I now look
back and kind of regret not living with other people um but maybe you did maybe you had a kind
of parallel university style experience thanks very much bye thank you I love that you binge miss me
that makes me very happy um first of all I feel this I so feel okay you'll know you go on you
feeling it too you go well first of all I went to boarding school so I feel like I got that
experience I lived with people and then after you know working for a few years in London doing bits
and bobs I you know became a recording and touring artist and lived with like 12 middle-aged alcoholic men in a bus for five years.
So I kind of feel like I did that.
You did. That's your uni, the University of Life.
Stroke touring.
I am the opposite.
I was desperate to go to uni and particularly have that halls experience.
I think loads of people go, don't go to uni for loads of different reasons. My reason was I was
working already. And I remember I was on, um, I had, um, I was on, I think it was like covering
Chris Moyles on radio one or something. And we had to like talk about some, why would we be doing a
book review? Anyway, there was a book about uni and I read it and I just
turned 20 and I became really like at a crossroads I was really like do I leave all this and just go
to uni can you imagine if I just like go on I'm going to university but I didn't obviously but I
will always oh god yeah I really yearn for it I always would have loved it
and then you know
what I used to do
I used to go see
our friends at uni
and just like go to
their freshers weeks
I went to Jessie's
and someone else's
so I would like
crash uni a little bit
and then
and that's it
oh and my other uni
experience would be
touring around the country
when I was doing
Terrible DJ.
So, yeah, I've had just little snippets.
Little snippets, but I would have loved to get involved.
I'd like the degree.
I don't really need to live with other people.
Thank you.
Lily wants the degree.
I'd like the experience.
Should we have another question?
Sure.
Hello, Makita and Lily.
My name is CJ.
I am sending you my question from Utah, USA.
My question for you regarding property is,
how do you approach it when you are buying something,
investing in something?
Is it more business focused?
Is it just an investment opportunity?
Is there any sentimentality to it?
Do you buy a piece of property with the mindset of this is going to be my forever home?
I have just purchased my first home with my husband just about two years ago now.
And I looked at it as this is my forever home.
A lot of people have said to me, oh, never, you know, never say never.
And you don't know what the future holds.
A lot of people have said to me, oh, never, you know, never say never.
And you don't know what the future holds.
But I get a lot of comfort thinking that I can age with this home and I'm going to make memories. And I love all that.
And I just wondered how you two approach property.
But yeah, I'm loving the podcast.
Thank you very much.
I really love that question.
That was so gentle, that question.
I would listen to you do a podcast.
It's very nice.
It's like a little lullaby.
Congratulations on your property.
This is very much geared towards Lily Allen
because I've never owned a property.
Well, listen, I approached my first flat
thinking it was going to be my first flat
and I would probably move somewhere else. It was like a bachelorette flat and it wouldn't and I was probably you know
moved somewhere else it wasn't it was like a bachelorette flat it wasn't I wasn't in a
relationship at the time so I wasn't thinking about family at that point and then I got pregnant
and I bought my place in Gloucestershire and I too I thought this is going to be my forever home
and I wish I hadn't um gone into it with that um sentiment because I lost that home and I wish that I hadn't um gone into it with that um sentiment because I lost that home
and I felt like an utter failure for many many years afterwards I really you know I didn't I
grew up all over the place my mum moved from house to house and I never really felt like anywhere
was home and so that was the one thing I wanted to provide for my children was like
somewhere that they would grow up with and that would make them give them stability but we did
how many years there of idyllic Christmases and summers yeah but they were like four five and four
and five five and six when they left so they don't really remember it oh my god do they not remember
Overtown they do a little bit but not. But anyway, that was why I bought it.
And my dream was that it was going to be
where we all came back for Christmases forever
until they had their kids,
there was enough space for everyone.
And then I lost it all.
So actually it's safer to not be too attached
to the places that you,
for the reasons that you're wanting to live somewhere.
Yeah, I think so.
I don't, I love the house that I live in in Brooklyn now,
obviously it's beautiful, but I just think, I think, you know,
never say never is probably quite healthy because, you know,
if things get hard and, you know, the going gets tough
and you have to move, like, I think it's very easy to associate,
you know, to start going, it's very easy to associate so you know to start going it's spiraling and
and you feeling like it's a personal failure and that you've and and to shame spiral and um and
it's and it's not it's it's a house it's a roof over your heads well talking about shame spiraling
CJ well I lost everything when I went bankrupt they were so pissed off I didn't own a property
or a car or anything they couldn't really get me in that way and I remember thinking
I was like god I was so reckless and didn't put this money into property because I had nothing
to give them but they did do things like where are you living I was like at the time I had the
way I picked my flats I think you know I've never bought anywhere but I've rented a lot of flats
and I always need like light and space.
And this was on Talbot Road, right by Danny and Judy's, Lily's auntie and uncle, a road that we know really well.
It was like kind of going back to where I was from. But they said, that sounds nice.
That sounds too nice. And they told me I had to leave and I had to move back into the spare bedroom in my parents' quite tiny two bedroom
flat in Clapton. And I felt like such a failure, but actually after about a week, I just felt safe.
And to know that I could feel safe in the back room of a tiny little flat and feel like I had
everything I needed was pretty shocking to me
I was quite surprised I thought that I would feel like I had absolutely nothing but I actually felt
like I had a lot in that time of nothing if that makes sense yeah but also having been um you know
touring and recording artists and me that was where I made my money right especially when streaming
started you couldn't really make money from streaming. So it was always making money on the road.
And there was like an irony in that, you know,
before I would go on tour,
I'd spend like weeks,
like packing every single thing
that I could possibly need into like little bags,
compartmentalizing everything,
little bag for this person,
another bag for another person,
and carrying this all around the world,
like an insane person.
And then, you know,
after a couple of weeks of being on the road,
you'd realize that you don't need anything except your phone and your credit card
and access to a toilet.
And that is all that you could possibly ever need.
Phone to figure out like where the nice coffee shops are in the morning
and your, you know, your credit card to be able to pay for it money to buy the
coffee and now we don't even need the credit card it's just built into the phone so just your phone
but i did find it very ironic that the only way that i could pay for this home my dream home
was to never be in it oh my god yeah it was this like mental thing like i was like sending all this money back home to keep
a roof over the kids heads and the nannies that needed to be there because they you know someone
needed to look after the kids and give them some stability while i was away but the only way to pay
for all of this was to never be there to be able to enjoy it i have actually more to say but i think
we should move on we should move on dragging this
listen bitch out can we have another question from you our lovely audience hi um makita and
lily my name's charlotte and i am from surrey i was thinking about the house thing um so yeah i
my first proper place where i lived was a student house. It was a Victorian terraced house in Farnham.
Basically, it was a little three-bed terrace, which was mouldy,
and it was a whole row of houses with all students living in.
And we ended up basically pushing down the fences between all of the houses.
So we had one massive garden, which we obviously had loads of massive parties with fires
and sofas and rubbish strewn everywhere but it was a great time in my life and I do definitely
think back to that time and remember a lot of fun things that we did I'm still friends with a lot of
those people as well and we meet up quite a lot still which is really nice but yeah I suppose I'm
just thinking do you remember a time
in your life when it was like the party house as well and what shenanigans did you get up to
wow oh wow why are you looking at me don't know don't know let me just ask um let me just get a
little can i just get a little clarification on that is she saying that they had like a a few
houses in a row and then they knocked like the fences down?
Fences in the garden.
Oh, in the garden.
Yeah, so basically her and a bunch of people,
they all had terrace houses next to each other
and they knocked down the fences in the gardens
to make one big garden.
That sounds so cool.
That's such a vibe.
Yeah.
That's such a vibe.
I like that.
Thank you for that.
Thank you for that little reminisce.
I can feel you all getting pissed having a good time. So, Makita, let's talk about party houses. I like that. Thank you for that. Thank you for that little reminisce that I can feel you're getting pissed
and having a good time.
So, Makita, let's talk about party houses.
No.
No.
We're starting with you.
Because we had some raves at your house as well, right?
Well, you know, if we're talking about,
I mean, it's difficult
because there's like the childhood homes,
my home in Powers Terrace,
and particularly Lily's house in Islington,
St. Peter's Street,
both big blocks of our childhood in those houses and like the fact our parents threw great parties that's one of the many things they did very very well right
can i get a yes true that true true true that and um and then so we were taught very early
or like how to host how to do shit in the house and make it good.
I took that too far in our early 20s.
I took that lovely messaging from our parents and times it by 10.
But I just loved a house party and I always had a good big flat for them.
So what was my, I guess Eagle Offroad, because that was like the first house that I got when I was 21.
I was like living in this like shithole. And someone was like like you know that you're like on telly and making quite a lot
of money like why don't you get like a nice place to live and I was like oh yeah I'll do that and I
got it like a month before my 21st birthday and I was very proud of myself and it was a big beautiful
flat with like a mezzanine which I loved um but you know a lot of crazy shit happened there and
a lot of upsetting stuff happened there and a lot of beautiful shit happened there.
I think if you're going to have a yard in your early 20s for a few years, it's going to be messy.
Don't think I ever really. Actually, maybe we had parties in Queen's Park, Brunsby Road.
After parties, but not like parties.
Not party parties. Yeah. Things did get messy.
You have to be very careful, can I just say?
You have to be very careful with having too many parties and too many strangers in your house
because what happens is people leave their energy at your house.
So I had so many parties at one of my flats
that it felt like it was always a party,
even when people weren't there,
that all this energy had been left.
And yeah, it was a very intense way to live.
I think I've always been quite
aware of that yes I think I have like ghosts from my childhood like from my family home feeling like
that energy of like weird people have been here and stuff that I don't really think that I should
even know about has happened probably in my bedroom um and so I yeah I've I have been quite selective with my personal space
in adulthood yeah you know yes we'd have after parties in my Queen's Park flat but it would be
very um bespoke hand-picked people hand-picked you well also you're I'm different to you
you're like
yeah everyone come out
I'm like not you
you can come
you can come
you're not invited
sorry
I was like absolutely
and like definitely
bring your brother
like just Makita
enough
yeah I'm just like
no
kick back
no
one for you
Lily can I bring
no
no no no no
what are we doing we were doing another question no I'm really for you. Lily, can I bring... No. No, no, no, no, no. What are we doing?
We're doing another question.
Lil, I'm really sorry, but it's not a voice note, okay?
It's not a voice note.
Oh, no.
It's from our producer.
Okay.
Well, we know his personality.
I won't do an impression of him because I wouldn't be able to do him justice.
So I'm just going to do this straight.
Well, to be fair straight is what's
quite well straight works quite well hi i'm moving house this week oh he is he really is
i'm leaving london oh do you know this is emotional i'm leaving london after 16 years
it's bittersweet we've had some amazing times there it's the house we brought our daughter back to but it's definitely
the right time to leave
why am I wanting to cry
grow up
grow up
what's the hardest
move you've made
sorry
I don't know
why I'm crying Dino
but I just like
I was thinking
that when
because Lily
earlier we were talking
to Dee about the fact
that he is moving
and I was like, it's God, right?
It's quite a big deal.
And he was like, well, whatever.
But this is obviously what's going on inside.
It's very hard.
I can't imagine ever leaving London.
You seemed like you were quite quick with it to leave, Lil.
Yeah.
I mean, I just don't,
I mean, I did think quite long and hard about moving here to New York and,
you know, it was a huge upheaval for my kids and stuff, but I just felt like it was too exciting
an opportunity to, um, to not take up, you know? Um, and I just thought like the girls grew up
half in London and half in New York. That's two of the most exciting cities in the world to have you know spent your formative years in um so I did feel I did it was hard leaving um mainly because of the
like logistical things that happened I don't know if you remember but we our paperwork wasn't right
when we first moved over here and I'd taken the girls out of school and you know packed all of
our stuff up it was in like shipping containers coming over to America and then we literally like had a goodbye party and then all went to the airport and because
it was COVID they had immigration on this on the Heathrow side and this immigration officer was
just like no then your paperwork's not right and I was like what do you mean there were new tenants
in our home like we didn't have anywhere to. I literally had to like go on Airbnb, find somewhere.
And then I had to come back to London.
I had to go to the council to beg them to give the place back to the kids for their school places.
I said, you know, you've got due to care for my children.
I'm sorry.
They'd already given their places away.
That was really hard because we were like in limbo.
And not only that, all of our stuff was in
shipping containers on the atlantic on its way to new york so we didn't have anything we didn't have
any clothes we didn't have anything you dealt with that very well at the time i remember you really
went into lily crisis mode and you were just like right house school clothes it was very impressive
so what would you say to what would you say to, what would you say to our
producer Dino about having had so many beautiful times of 16 years in London? Something about
London that tells you, it gives off this impression that you can never have a good
time without it. And it isn't true. I still need to learn that, but it isn't true.
I think, you know, my advice to you, Dino, would just be, you know, be grateful for what has happened.
And, you know, hold those memories close and dear to you.
And, you know, enter this new period with anticipation and excitement.
And who knows what the future holds.
It's going to be great.
What is wrong with me today?
Your new neighbors all will be rallying around
and be bringing you local bits of food.
Also, we should say, Dina's moving back to Sheffield,
which is where you're from,
and there's something deep about moving back to where you're from,
which is, unfortunately, I wish I wasn't raised in Notting Hill
because I can't afford to go home.
I'm like, yeah, I think, you know what, finally I want to move back.
You know, townhouse, Weston Park Road.
They're like nine million pounds.
I'm only moving back to West.
Babe, we play our cards right with this podcast.
That's what I'm saying.
You'll be an Italian DJ at the Coliseum
and I would just like to buy like a fat yard in West.
A flat in Notting Hill.
I want to do that for the six-year-old me.
When me and you were working together the other day,
we were doing something on the road that I grew up on
and I could see, because we were in like the house
that's opposite the house I grew up in.
So I could see at one point the view that I had from my bedroom,
which is this particular balcony.
And it's like when I fell in love with having a view
and seeing other people living their lives really hit me, really hit me. I was like, I want to do
this for her. I want to get her that house in Westbourne Park that she always wanted. So keep
working hard. All right. Let's make this a hit. Let's keep this. Let's keep this going up. Okay.
Shall we do next week? Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait wait wait wait i've got a little special sign for you will it signal the plane
will i be a total arsehole if i pass my driving test this summer and just like blast out the
missing tune from my ride because i'm sorry it's a vibe it's a tune thank you bluetooth
we've never shouted out who did that we never shouted out bluetooth thank you yes yes to
bluetooth honestly thank you i love that little bit Anyway, that was just to get you ready for your subject, for your topic. Ready? One, two, three.
What are we talking about? Astrology. Yay! Really? Yeah. Why not? I don't know anything about it.
So you can, it's like a chance for you to educate me.
Wait, should I get my chart done or something before then?
Yes, yes, yes.
Because that will tell you your sun sign, your moon sign.
Because you know that when you get into your 40s or late 30s,
you start becoming more your moon sign.
And we're both Taureans,
so I would be very interested to know what your moon sign is mine is pisces am i gonna have to ask my mom what time of day i was born because she will
not know yes yes you are what if you don't know well i guess you would have to ask her and she
should know this can you just tell me if it was like the morning the afternoon or the evening
good luck i'll see you next week finally our time you were born good luck please
please voice note us and you can do so by messaging us on whatsapp should we try and
sing it over the miss uh the miss me backbone oh let me just throw that beat down let me just
throw that beat down. Oh, 8,030, 40, 90, 30, 40, 90.
It's an absolute mess.
It's an absolute mess,
but I think there may be somewhere to go there.
Who knows?
Who knows?
I'll leave them.
Oh, 8,030, 40, 90, 30, 40. be somewhere to go there. Who knows? Who knows? I'll leave them. A thousand,
thirty-four,
ninety,
thirty-four.
Is he playing at tone down?
That's enough.
We're going to have
to work on this
in a studio
with some more time.
Oh,
no,
but it should be
more like,
wah,
you know the wah bit?
It should be a bit
more like that.
Anyway,
I'll see you next Timberland.
Jesus Christ.
That's right.
Thanks for listening to Miss Me
with Lily Allen and Makita Oliver.
This is a Persephonica production for BBC Sounds.
Welcome to the Toonie and Russo show
on BBC Sounds.
I am here with two of football's
most famous friends,
Alessia Russo and Ella Toon.
I remember when you scored
and you did like five different celebrations.
Oh yeah, I did all sorts.
Hands went up, hands went out,
a jump.
Someone's given them to a podcast.
Are you joking?
It was like the best three years ever.
I think I came back a bit Americanised.
Yeah, she did.
She started seeing these madmen.
Sucker.
Apple's like American action.
They've been there a month.
From BBC Five Live, the Tini and Rousseau show with me, Vic Hull.
Listen on BBC Sounds.
On BBC Sounds.