My London with Celeste: love spells, vintage archives and "code tea"

Evening Standard

We asked singer-songwriter Celeste her favourite spots in London, earliest memories and artists she's most excited about.

Transcript

00:00I did the love spell on this boy at my school.

00:04It actually worked.

00:10I suppose it's my house which holds all of these different parts of what my world is inside,

00:18internal world and external world.

00:20I don't really drink so I'm not a pub person but I've been to The Eagle in Clerkenwell for dinner

00:32and the food is really amazing there and I like it because it's relaxed.

00:35It's not like you have to dress up, you can just be, well I thought you can just be relaxed

00:40and the food was amazing so probably there, The Eagle.

00:45The first thing I do when I get back to London, I suppose usually I just call everyone that

00:52I haven't seen for a couple of months and see what everyone's doing and then try to meet,

00:58go for a walk and usually go to the steam room just to get rid of the tired feeling.

01:08My earliest London memory is probably going to Camden Market with my mum and I remember

01:14she bought this amethyst, like purple amethyst choker necklace and I would always ask to borrow it.

01:21I think I was probably like five or six when we went but I'd always ask to borrow the choker

01:26but it was like her special sort of item that I couldn't wear obviously as a child.

01:33And then I remember, I don't know if it was the same day but I remember going to Covent Garden

01:38and there was this spell shop.

01:39I bought a love spell and then I did the love spell on this boy at my school.

01:44And I think it worked, it actually worked, so yeah.

01:53The last gig that I actually went to was Little Sims concert in Paris but then the last gig I went

02:01to in London was a night called Jazz Refreshed and my friend Lorenz did this improv synthesizer set there.

02:09And I kind of just realised with other people in the room, like we just shared this look,

02:15a sense that this is a really important form of expression and to go to a show where someone

02:22is totally improvising, no rehearsal is not really something that you experience very often

02:29and it feels really important and I suppose it's a reflection of maybe the way that people feel

02:35quite held back in themselves in the world and so that this means to express yourself totally freely

02:44feels really important. And yeah, that was quite a life-affirming moment to be at this gig I suppose.

02:53Which shops do I rely on? Fig and grains on Broadway market is where I get all my food shopping I suppose

03:04good ingredients is really important. But then for clothing really any little vintage market that pops

03:11up still go to Portobello a lot. Vintage archives, there's a lot of archives in London that I go to

03:16and either rent pieces or buy pieces so I'm always messaging those people and looking and seeing

03:23like what have they got. Best date spot? I suppose because I like to be quite private about these

03:30things I just usually invite the person around to my house for a cup of tea. Code tea, yeah.

03:38Fontaineer tea is important but also casual, you know, not like sitting opposite each other at a restaurant,

03:45it's just too formal. If I was the Mayor of London really and truly at this moment in time

03:53I'd probably like shut down all the major institutions and let people just have a moment

03:58of freedom without having to exist within kind of like these pillars that we have got so used to

04:06having to like conform in and probably just have a moment of truthful freedom of expression and

04:18I don't know what that means maybe people lose their heads and go out in the streets and go mad,

04:24I don't know. I would say my favourite Londoner is probably The Tube. If you're late it's almost,

04:30I don't know how it manages to do it but sometimes I'll have left 10 minutes before I'm meant to be

04:36somewhere and somehow miraculously make it on time by getting on The Tube. So I think that The Tube

04:42is my favourite Londoner I think, yeah, personified.

04:49If I actually was going to get given wherever I wanted to live maybe I would try to get some

04:55massive house in Holland Park. Actually The Cosmic House, no I don't want to take The Cosmic House but

05:02there's this house in Holland Park called The Cosmic House which is amazing and it's kind of this 1970s

05:10post-modern interior design house. I actually love that house but I wouldn't want to live in it because

05:15I think everyone else has to be able to see it and visit it as a museum but maybe if if I got to have

05:22any house it would just be like one of those beautiful houses in Holland Park with nice big

05:26open windows and air and sunlight and everything, yeah. Once my friends took me to this restaurant

05:33called The Academy which is above Andrew Edmunds and that was really good, that was really good and

05:40it was just quite simple food like fish and vegetables and then I think they had a dessert which

05:46was like a rum bubba which was like a spongy cake with rum and cream but also I have some friends

05:53that are good at cooking so a lot of my favourite meals are in people's homes I suppose, yeah. Sometimes

06:00in my own, my own home, yeah. It's funny because I suppose I always used to want to collaborate with

06:08people who had passed because a lot of my favourite singers like Billie Holiday and Nina Simone,

06:14Estes Phillips, they were all kind of gone way before my time but I think it's important to

06:22collaborate with somebody new and I mean I've always wanted to work with Ty the creator but I'm not

06:29sure if that will ever happen. I always, I've bumped into him a couple of times but I think he just

06:34thinks he's this lunatic girl and thinks like, and I'm always wearing the same thing when I bump into him.

06:41Ultimately I'd like to collaborate with a rapper. I want to collaborate with like Lil Uzi because I

06:46think that Lil Uzi is like a genius of our time. I really want to work with somebody that can

06:53change the way in which my voice is used in a sonic. They could even put effects on my voice or

06:59something like that. I don't really mind. John Glacier, probably La Timpa and trying to think who else.

07:11There was like this, oh Jovial, I think she's amazing. But they've been around for a long time,

07:19these people and it's just that they're not existing necessarily at this moment in time in the mainstream

07:27but they have their world and they have their fans that is very strong kind of thing. So yeah,

07:34probably John Glacier, La Timpa and Jovial, that's my favourite artist and sound right now.

07:41Now

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