Music

Having lived most of her life around Ladbroke Grove, Lily is intimately acquainted with the area, and her calendar gives a prominence to Carnival that people usually reserve for Christmas. She takes it seriously, as evidenced by her fretting over whether Time Out’s choice of photoshoot venue was sufficiently Carnival-esque, and her elaborate preparations for the real thing.

‘I take great pleasure in spending a lot of time putting my Carnival outfits together,’ she says. ‘You’ve got a Sunday one and Monday one, they’re always coordinated. And I have a theme, like a neon theme or an animal theme, or a ragga theme. And you’ve gotta buy new trainers. The first thing I do on my way into Carnival is buy two whistles, and take the whistles off the string so I can put Carnival laces in my trainers.’ Feature continues

For someone who doesn’t like ‘going to crowded places’, Lily is happy to tour the soundsystems – she’s fond of Gaz’s Rockin’ Blues on Talbot Road and the drum ’n’ bass set-ups on All Saints Road. ‘I just find it all really amusing. When it’s sunny it’s just amazing, and you’re just sitting there and there’s all these pools of rude boys all walking through [mimes rudies swaggering], pissing on each other’s territory and it’s just so aggro, but then so contrasted with all the kids and the families at the same time. I just think it’s really interesting.’

Even her take on that other Carnival tradition, random violence, is filled with a sense of childlike wonder. ‘Obviously, it’s really sad when things go wrong and people kinda get stabbed and shot and stuff,’ she blushes. ‘But y’know, that’s just the way that it is.’

Shootings and stabbings permitting, this year Lily will finally realise a long-held ambition to play at the Carnival. Well, not actually at the Carnival, but nearby, and on the same day. Along with hip hop superstar Mark Ronson (himself a former local boy, prior to an American relocation), Lily is headlining the unofficial Carnival after-party at YoYo, the acclaimed and eclectic hip hop/R&B/whatever night at Notting Hill Arts Club. ‘I’m really looking forward to it,’ she says. ‘It’s my spiritual home, where I played my first gig and I feel like I owe it to them for supporting me so much.’

Lily would have preferred to play outside – at least that’s the way the fantasy always went – but the complexity of her beat machine set-up means she’ll have to settle for a club gig. Still, it’s in keeping with her usual preference in post-Carnival entertainment. ‘When Carnival finishes,’ she says wistfully as her helpers gather her various bags ready for the off, ‘some friends of mine put on an illegal rave, up Westbourne Park. Someone we know’s got a house there, so they put up their own soundsystem and play all drum ’n’ bass. That’s usually where me and all my friends meet after the Carnival, and just stand there and drink cider until it gets locked off by the police. I love that bit of it.’

So there you have it. If you’re stuck for something to do on Monday and can’t get into YoYo, at least now you know where you can get a drink.

And with that, she’s off, no doubt to hoover up more yards of ketamine using Heather Mills’s leg as a snorting utensil. Well, either that or write an angry letter to the Independent about inner city mental health provision.