Pitchfork

Is some mysterious ailment afflicting Great Britain's pint-sized pop stars, rendering them effete and malcontent? First an exhausted and "massively disappointed" Lady Sovereign shelves her UK dates, then Lily Allen follows suit, axing a good portion of her U.S. commitments and joking about finding the reality of pop-stardom a "huge disappointment."

Turns out Lily's pretty much sticking to the story she told on MySpace the other day. Speaking to Pitchfork yesterday, Lily chalked up the cancellations to "lots of things."

"Firstly, you know, I released the album Alright, Still in July in England," said Lily. "I've been touring with it all over the world since then, and I think most people usually release the albums in England and America pretty close within each other. I just feel like it's been dragged out for so long, and that-- you know, the show isn't as good as it was, because I'm having to sing so much. And I've been getting really drunk in order to even look at the stage, and I don't think it's fair to take money off of people when the show isn't going to be very good. So that's the first thing.

"And also, I'm pretty tired. I want to get the second album out, and I'm not going to be able to do that if I'm touring. So I'm going to stay in America and do all the kind of promotional commitments I have to do, which is all the TVs and radios and stuff, and I'm still going to do all the radio[-sponsored] shows that I was asked to do in the first place, so it's only about half of the shows that have been canceled."

So that second album...? "I've got some ideas, but I'm not going to say what they are," said Lily with a laugh.

Lily's festival dates, too, will go on as planned. "That's one of the other reasons," said Allen. "I'm getting paid quite a lot of money to do all the festivals, and I don't want to have worn myself out with the little gigs [and] be really tired for the festivals, which have much bigger audiences.

"And also, it costs so much money to go on tour! And I'm not earning that much, so yeah."

The response from MySpace friends has been overwhelmingly positive and supportive, but Lily says bollocks to the haters out there. "I'm not giving up on anything," Allen insisted. "I'm just doing it in a different way. And I think you actually reach a bigger audience if you're doing the radio interviews and playing radio shows and doing the TVs-- and ultimately, I think, my hardcore fans have already been to see my shows. The people who haven't heard of me yet, or who haven't seen me play, can wait till the next album, because I'll be back."

Scope Lily's remaining dates just after the jump.

Dates:

04-29 Indio, CA - Empire Polo Field (Coachella)
05-13 Seattle, WA - Everett Events Center
05-15 Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern
05-16 Tucson, AZ - Club Congress
05-17 Phoenix, AZ - Marquee Theatre
05-19 Boston, MA - Tweeter Centre
05-21 Denver, CO - Ogden Theatre
05-22 Lawrence, KS - Liberty Hall
05-23 Chicago, IL - Vic Theatre
05-24 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
05-26 Columbus, OH - Newport Music Hall
05-27 Detroit, MI - Majestic Theatre
05-28 Baltimore, MD - Sonar
06-01 Charleston, SC - Center Stage at the Plex
06-04 Cleveland, OH - House of Blues
06-05 Indianapolis, IN - Vogue Theatre
06-06 St. Louis, MO - The Pageant
06-08 Dallas, TX - The Palladium Ballroom
06-12 New York, NY - Roseland Ballroom
06-12 Fort Lauderdale, FL - Revolution
06-13 Orlando, FL - House of Blues
06-15 Manchester, TN - Bonnaroo Festival
06-21 Bath, England - Bath Pavilion
06-23 Glastonbury, England - Glastonbury Festival
06-29 Werchter, Belgium - Werchter Festival
07-06 Kinross, Scotland - T in the Park Festival
07-07 Paris, France - Solidays Festival
07-13 Barcelona, Spain - Summercase
07-14 Madrid, Spain - Summercase
07-18 Cornwall, England - Eden Sessions
07-28 Yuzawa-machi, Niigata, Japan - Naeba Ski Resort (Fuji Rock Festival)
08-10 Oslo, Norway - Oyafestival
08-11 Gothenburg, Sweden - Way Out West
08-15 Sagres, Portugal - Surf Festival
08-18 Staffordshire, England - Weston Park (V Festival)
08-19 Chelmsford, England - Hylands Park (V Festival)
08-24 Krakow, Poland - Coke Live