Alison Goldfrapp was born in Enfield, north London, in 1966 and raised in Hampshire. She began making music at art school and contributed vocals to tracks by Orbital and Tricky. In 1999, she formed Goldfrapp with composer Will Gregory. The electropop duo made seven albums together, including 2005’s million-selling Supernature, before going on hiatus. In 2023 Goldfrapp, who lives in London, released her debut solo album, The Love Invention. Her single I Wanna Be Loved (Just a Little Better) is out now via AG Records and she will be supporting Scissor Sisters on their reunion tour in May.
1. Shop
I love this very cute little bookshop on Broadway Market. The owner, Conor, is an avid collector and goes on trips around the world picking up odd and beautiful things. You can always chat to him – he’s a real character – and his staff know all about the books in the shop, everything from Japanese sex books to weird art books. It feels very personal because they’re things that he’s interested in and found himself. And they have fantastic window displays – recently the whole thing was just cats, which was bonkers but brilliant. It’s a great place.
2. Film
I saw this at the Everyman cinema in Broadgate, where seeing a film feels like a real event – they bring your drinks to your big, cosy chair. I just loved Conclave. It’s aesthetically stunning and beautifully choreographed, with great pacing and complex characters. It’s set around the election of a new pope and the dilemmas that throws up, but it’s also about the very personal, conflicting emotions within the cardinal played by Ralph Fiennes. The music’s great, the acting is exquisite and there’s a real twist at the end. It’s wonderful.
3. Cafe
I get up ridiculously early, about 5am, and go out walking around London. Often I’ll stop at a coffee place, maybe a few. There are some that open 6.30 or 7am; Pophams doesn’t open till 8am, which is quite late for me, but it has the best pastries – I highly recommend the honey bun or the Marmite and cheese Danish. It serves good coffee too. I’ve always got up early, even when I was little. My dad would drag us into the woods to watch the sunrise. It’s just the way I’ve been brought up, but I do like it.
4. Book
The Lonely City by Olivia Laing
I’ll read anything Laing has written, she’s a really fantastic writer. The Lonely City was published a few years ago but I only just got around to reading it. It’s a study of art and the very particular kind of loneliness you get in cities, seen through her eyes during a period she spent in New York after the breakup of a relationship. It’s such an engaging book, powerful and thought-provoking, and I couldn’t put it down. For a book about loneliness it’s not miserable or depressing at all. It’s fascinating and I highly recommend it.
5. TV
Do you know what I did at 4am this morning? Before the new season of Severance I sat down and rewatched the whole first series. I’ve always been fascinated by sci-fi dystopias and this is a great example. It has a touch of dark humour and all the actors are brilliant (I love that they cast Christopher Walken). It’s about the separation of memory and the self, set in a vast, sterile office building and a banal suburban neighbourhood. The first season left us on a real cliffhanger, so I can’t wait for the new one.
6. Art
Helen Chadwick at Tate Modern Artist Rooms, London SE1, until 8 June
Chadwick, who died young in 1996, was someone I was very aware of when I was at art school. I remember really enjoying her exhibition at the Serpentine in 1994 – she had this huge, bubbling chocolate fountain which I was really taken by. Now the Tate Modern is showing some of her work in its Artist Rooms. It’s a mixture of photographs and installations, but it’s her photographs I particularly like. They are playful and repulsive and seductive all at the same time. She definitely had an influence on me and a lot of other artists.
