Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware - S11 Ep 26: Lianne La Havas

Episode Date: July 7, 2021

What a joy it was to be reunited with the wonderful Lianne La Havas this week. We met way back when I supported Lianne on her tour in 2012 & now she joins us round the table at mums for a vegan feast. She tells us all about growing up & eating with her Jamaican family in South London, her great grandmas red pea soup, her Greek heritage & love of Spanikopita, how she hates chocolate custard & her supermarket shopping trips with the one and only Prince. Love this girl, enjoy! x Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello and welcome to Table Manners. I'm Jessie Ware and I'm here sitting in my mum's seat for the intro today. Yeah, I do feel a bit weird about you sitting in my chair, Jessie. I just wanted to know what it felt like to sit on the throne. On the throne, darling. But I am getting a bit institutionalised since all of this has happened. Why? Because I like to sit in my own seat.

all of this has happened. Why? Because I like to sit in my own seat. So tonight we have a person who gave me my first support gig ever at the Scala. No, was it the Scala? Yeah, of course. Yeah, the Scala in Kings Cross. And I've loved her ever since I heard...

I was spellbounded. Spellbinded? Yeah, I saw her on Jules Holland and I sent it to you room for doubt and I sent you and I said you've got to listen to this girl she's amazing I've never that is spine tingling that performance on Jules Holland her in the round on the guitar just her doing an acoustic version well it wasn't acoustic it was an electric guitar but it was her on her own singing that voice just can get you and it has done ever since she's Leanne Le Havas she's had her third record out just recently really recently it's really beautiful everyone loves it it feels like she's been spending a lot of time in LA it feels kind

of it's got this like slight I I mean, she's so brilliant. I love her. She's a South London girl. I think she's from Streatham. Yeah, she was from Streatham originally, but I don't think she lives there now. I'm sure she's gone East, darling. Well, I remember we were both in East for a while,

but I've got a feeling she's back South. So, well, she's coming from South today. So I don't know whether she's coming from a studio or what, but you know, we'll get the tea. Anyway, I love her to bits. I love her voice. She's just got this amazing smile. She's so warm and I have a lot of respect for her as a woman in music and the stuff that she does. I think she stays really true to herself and I don't actually

really know much about her and food. I've been set the task of making dinner tonight. It's a vegan dish she's vegan I've done puy lentils and aubergines in like mixed spice and I not gonna lie I find it really nerve-wracking when I cook vegan food I don't know why it's like we need to do more darling we're not I do because I'm not confident yeah it's a funny thing it's like confidence that you think vegetables are a side and you can make no i don't think i don't think a vegetable i'm too scared that i'm gonna put like a beef stock in and forget oh no i'm not scared about that anyway i've done puy lentil aubergine it's in our book well i've got a winter pudding which is like a summer pudding but it's more wintry with different spice fruits oh god i hope you haven't nicked my spices for my spiced poi lentils.

And I've got some very nice Jude's vegan honeycomb ice cream. Oh, I love Jude's. Oh! Yeah. So we've got spaghetti, salad, I bought some vegan cheese. I need to do the salad. I need to do some pumpkin seeds.

Oh yeah, nice. Leanne, have us coming up on Table Manners. Oh, cheers. Thanks, babe. And cheers. Leanne Le Havis, you're here on a Wednesday night, only from down the road. You're a South London London girl but I didn't know that you'd come back to South London, I thought because we were both in

East London for a while that's true, for the beginning of my twenties, right up to the middle twenties, I was all about East and then you get tired, yes, I got tired that's literally what happened but did you grow up in

Norbury, have I made grow up in Norbury? Have I made that up? No, that's facts. So I want to know about life in Norbury, little Leanne, what you were eating. You're going to be crying. Oh, what were you eating with your family around the dinner table? Who was there? Uh, grandma.

So my mum's mum. Grandad, my mum's dad. And my great grandma, my grandad's mother. Grandad, my mum's dad. And my great-grandma, my grandad's mother. Did you live all together? Yeah. Oh, how exciting. This is what I should move towards. I should be moving on with you.

The offer is there. I'm making a shed at the bottom of the garden, Mum. You're welcome to it. I'm going to do that too, by the way. A studio. It's not going to work. I haven't decided what it's going to be. I want it to be an art studio. Are you, are you? I love, yeah, I love drawing, but I don't want the house to be full of messy crap. So I want to put it in the garden. Boyfriend wants a workshop

of some kind. So your, who was cooking out of all the grandparents and great-grandparents um it was all of them really but some information is that my grandma was blind so yeah my mum's mum she was blind she was kind of she had many health issues but she was really mobile like she was all around the house she knew how to she memorized the house hello sorry prince oh this is prince love cats that's prince named after prince oh i know it's kind of meant to be um yeah so my grandmother was blind and so my granddad was pretty much her carer and i also because i could read small writing and stuff I would help out you know with measuring medicine and all of that so um my grandma did do cooking though my in my memory she was definitely

in the kitchen she like needed help but she knew where everything was so where was she from originally Jamaica so she's Jamaican yes so her and my grandad on my mother's side. Oh, both Jamaican. Which bit? My grandma was from St. Anne. St. Anne. And my grandad is from Trelawny. We went to Trelawny, darling.

Yeah, we did. We went to Jamaica, yeah. I love that you went to Jamaica. Yeah, we went to Jamaica. Mum got a cheap holiday there. We did love it. We were in a very interesting hotel. We were in a very...

We loved... Where did we love? It was the Holiday Inn. We loved Negril and all the... Monty... It was a very... What was the name of the place? Mum, I think we were...

Montego Bay. Montego Bay. The weirdest story of this. Okay, so we're in Montego Bay's Holiday Inn. Mum's got like a package deal and like an Easter holiday, school holiday. So we're there. It was cheap as chips and it was all inclusive.

But like we went out and we kind of did bits and bobs. Yeah, we went to different places and we went on, you know where you walk up, where's the waterfalls? Dunn's River. Yes. Oh yeah, I pretended I was the Destiny's Child survivor. And then I chummed up with some ladies who kind of I fitted

in with a bit chatting in the fake lagoon and they were chatting in the lagoon and they said oh we're here with our we're all here together for a wedding and our niece is over there and she is going to be so big you just wait

guess who it was? Who? Leona Lewis. Oh my God. Teenage Leona Lewis with her boyfriend come on holiday. It was very, and they were like, she is a star. I mean, she is. She is. And she looked like a star.

And that did happen. Yeah. That's crazy. I love that they were like, yes. But it was one of those places. You go outside the front of the hotel, and there'd be some white boys outside. Yeah.

And they say, you want some aloe? And I'd say, oh, yeah. Excuse me, aloe. Aloe vera. Yeah, aloe vera. Right. Or some kind of, right. Well, we think it was aloe vera.

And then they go, $5. And I said, you've just cut it off there. You've just offered it to me as well to me yeah you cut it off and he said yeah anyway it was great fun so so great food from Jamaica festival yes oh Achean salt fish yes the national dish absolutely were you eating that in your house I was I wasn't a big fan of saltfish if i'm honest i used to like chew it until it was dry and then i didn't know if i could swallow it it was weird um but we ate that we had a lot of uh rice and peas obviously um stewed chicken um i loved my great-grandmother's red pea soup. Oh, wow.

With dumplings and she did used to put like meat in there. I can't remember what kind of meat. It was probably chicken. Made with coconut milk, you know, loads of kidney beans, loads of thyme, scotch bonnet. Delicious. Do you like hot food? I love hot food.

I think I'm a bit addicted to hot food. Yeah, Jessie is. What's your, I'm not addicted, but what's your hot sauce that you go to? delicious do you like hot food i love hot food i think i'm a bit addicted to hot food yeah jesse what's your i'm not no i'm not addicted but what's your hot sauce that you go to i've got a few okay i've got a significant hot sauce shelf in the fridge uh my go-to one was this mexican one uh from the yucatan i think i forgot what it's called it's like in a small the color of it was brown with kind of black flex in it and is that the hot shit i want to google it like is yucatan or something okay i've never heard of it oh my god i only know like chalula and like there's chalula but that's mild but that's mild You need to try my mate's one

Cold sauce It's fermented It's really great He does it himself And it is so good Was your mum a good cook? She actually is She just doesn't cook very often

But she was an amazing cook. She was good at like, no, she could cook Jamaican stuff. I was going to say she was good at British cuisine, you know, like a roast. My mother is like amazing at potatoes and stuff like that. But she obviously got her knowledge from my grandparents as well. What was your lunchbox? Were you a school dinners or a lunchbox? I did a bit of both um

school dinners were kind of bleak to my memory uh school in norbury and then no my first school was actually in ballam um i went to primary school in ballam which one was it ravenstone oh yeah yeah and um that was cool yeah yeah yeah um i can't really remember the food there no i can there was one day where i had chocolate custard the best i what no i barfed oh my god no that's one of my greatest memories it was really cold by the time i got to it and then i like ate the whole thing really fast and it just all came back up. Oh, babe, I'm sorry. I know. That's my weird food memory from school.

Oh, Jesus. So chocolate custard is a no. So are you a good cook? I like to think so. So what's the Leanne dish that you're going to serve up to really, like, wow someone? Well, recently I did a thing that I was really proud of and it was a savoury pancake made with chickpea flour. Oh yeah. And in the batter I put like a little bit of chopped onion, garlic and some like powdered spice.

I can't remember. And then I served it, so you just, you know, fry it or whatever, and then I served on top of it like a mushroomy, tomatoey, sort of, I used vegan cream, creamy, like I guess mushroom filling, which was really nice, so I just sauteed sauteed the mushrooms added some tomatoes added some spinach at the end a bunch of herbs some vegan cream and it was banging so what is like in your fridge at all times you need it there um spinach and cucumber because i like smoothies and they just blend really well yeah um also a bit of vegan butter and gosh i don't know hot sauce and what i really miss what i need to get hold of is some vegan mayo but there's good vegan it's good vegan mayo but you've got to order it online

and i just want it to be in the shop near me but it isn't. I've had the Hellman's no egg. It's not as good, sorry Hellman's, love you. It's not as good as the Follow Your Heart. Oh, I haven't heard of Follow Your Heart. It tastes better than mayo. Do Whole Foods have it? They do have it.

Who's near a Whole Foods? There's a Whole Foods where Debenhams is, Jessie. In Clapham. In Clapham. And there's also, there's a whole foodie type place on Clapham High Street that sells, it's like a market selling vegetables and they have vegan stuff. I just don't make it down to those parts very often. But I know that they're there, but I'm an internet shopping kind of person.

Me too. Like for certain things. Yeah. I want to know about your Greek side. Yes. Because we love Greece. I will tell you. Hold on, let me just get my lip on.

I feel crusty. So tell me about your dad. My dad. What's his first name? Henry. So it me about your dad. My dad... What's his first name? Henry. So it's not like Stavros or anything. No, but in Greek it's Erykos. Erykos?

Yes. But his father translated all of their names to English. So where did he come from? Does he come from an island or the mainland? No, my grandfather was from corfu oh how fabulous and my grandmother my yaya she was from athens oh fantastic yeah so my dad was born in london and raised totally greek so his first language was greek uh and then he went to a boys school in West London Latimer boys and that's where he learned he was clever yes but that's but yeah he's very clever um but yeah it's that kind of

you know his accent is like quite posh my mum's like cockney so where did they meet leon um they met in hern hill oh a little south London romance they met in hern hill and i believe it was uh my mum's 19th birthday that's how the story goes and um yeah my dad just thought she was gorgeous she thought he was fit they just started dating um are they still together they're not but that's fine fine it's totally it's how i've grown up i didn't it wasn't it's not something that bothered me that they weren't together um and do you ever um do you ever go to greece i've been to greece when i was eight years old and my dad got the opportunity like you know he as soon as he got the opportunity he wanted to take me to Greece so I could um so I could experience that part of my life and um we went when I was eight years old I still remember it very vividly it was my first time on a plane

we stayed with my great aunt auntie Berta um and she had a beautiful apartment in athens i remember and it was like all like marble floors and they all are so philosophical yeah and there was like a massive fig tree outside and it was like my first time going to a beach um having freshly squeezed orange juice uh you know digging a big hole in sand my dad like burying me um eating souvlaki and spanakopita is my favorite uh greek dish we could have done that shit mom what now you're talking it's not vegan though you have to veganize it it has eggs and it has feta cheese but you can easily just but you could have put any cheese you don't actually have to have the cheese or the egg it's just a onion and dill yeah and mint yeah aquafab aquafaba i prefer aquafab but is it but um phyllo pastry is we is it vegan mom it is

yeah it's just water and flour i am and so baklava i can eat loads of perfect where does your dad live he is in um southwest also he's in pertney oh okay fine so it's kind of all your lot of south does it like so it feels good to be back south where do you love to eat in your area is there any good spots a good question i've been searching for a good spot you know what is good where i am is jamaican food really we've gotten a grill which is wonderful. And it's got awesome vegan options as well. They do like Ital stuff and amazing like pumpkin stew. It's just amazing. Also, not so vegan, but I hear good reports,

is Fish Wings and Things. Oh, yeah, yeah. Is it in the market? Yeah, it's in Brixton Village. And then There's another place Just up the road On Acre Lane

So if anyone is recording At Iguana Studios This is where you should eat What's it called? I think it's called New Tings You know where else Is really good

It's like a takeaway version But you know where else Is really good on Acre Lane And I think it's got Really good vegan options Because Yasmin Evans Who's One extra darling, she's vegan

and she goes to this place called Flank. Where's that? Oh, is it called Flank? No, Blank. It's called Blank and it's on A.K. Lane. It's a coffee place

that does really good vegan things. Ooh. Yeah. Okay. So what, are we talking vegan cake type? No, like vegan grape. Yeah, savoury.

Man. Like breakfast stuff stuff like really good really good they do on abbeville road a new coffee place called new ground and the food's terrific good name i love it yeah it was very good now i want to know how did it feel to put music out again was it did it feel good did it feel weird doing did it feel excuse the pun bittersweet putting it out in old um it was exactly bittersweet i before we knew about the pandemic before it spread and became you know the world topic obviously i was in talks about releasing and everything and i had a plan and for a second yeah it felt amazing to know that I was gonna release my album and it was all gonna be like this whole thing like after five years of the last you know since

the last one so yeah lots of things were in motion wheels were in motion and then obviously the news hit and we kind of took a pause you know me and the record label took a pause for a second. I weirdly felt like slightly relieved that we were pausing because it already felt like I had so much I needed to do. And then we decided if I wait longer, I don't want these songs to become stale I don't want to feel differently about this music than I feel now so that was the reason I went ahead with the release because I was ready I was just ready it was ready I was ready and looking back you know there's lots of things I wish I could have done like more videos and content and have it all artistically looking how I wanted it to look but the most

important thing was that the album came out and people loved it and yeah they seemed to love it and I loved it and they could tell that I loved it and they that I was proud we would yes please mum we were talking about um actually when we would yes please mum we were talking about um actually when we were doing the intro we were talking about that I'm sure everyone talks about this but that Jules Holland first performance was just like it was talking about it yeah but it was a game changer I remember my mum sending it to me and being like you need to watch this girl and I wow and it was it was for I I've done Jules Holland it's petrifying as a new artist yeah and then you were on your own without your band yeah and you did like beyond

amazing it was so I didn't have a band actually at the time I was just like okay I'll do that but you were so good and your your presence on stage you. I'm always so enamoured by the way that you use your voice and you're so in control of your voice and your guitar, like your instrument, both your instruments. But it's just, I love that about that. You look so at ease when you've got your guitar in your hand and you're singing and you smile the whole way through singing. And it's so lovely

to watch because thank you so much it's really oh my god if you guys could see what no no and like mum's amazing thank you she's got a separate grater so that we don't contaminate with the old cross contaminant okay so babe you've got this thank you if you want it that looks incredible oh you're sweet. It looks like a bolognese. No, and you know what? It's like the only vegan thing that I can do. It smells incredible. You know what? I end up doing a lot of pasta,

so it's fair enough. It's like an amazing food. You know, you can make it. You can do whatever you want with it. It's so versatile. Actually, I am quite pleased with this, mum. I think it's actually quite good and I'm quite pleased with myself. It's really flavourful. But the aubergine thing still, I need to like, it's like that sad bit when you get the ratatouille and it's like, the aubergine is just so sad. It's fine, it's kind of masked. I don't think the aubergine's sad at all. It's a bit sad.

I think it makes it kind of meaty in a way. Whatever, it's fine. Anyway. I'm gonna say something controversial. Go on. Has anyone ever had a really good ratatouille? No! It's fine Kind of meaty in a way Anyway I'm going to say something controversial Go on Has anyone ever had a really good ratatouille? No It's just vegetables No it's true The mutton on it Yeah but it's interesting isn't it because it's I think I make good ratatouille

I love you but I actually don't think you do I'm sure it's nice but I don't know You wouldn't be like God I really fancy a ratatouille It's not really a multi-layered textured dish. But the thing is it was so exciting when I was young I first tasted it

when I was 15 and I was in Mallorca and there was a French family in the next they had a house, a villa and I was mad about Jean-Louis who was the boy there and they had a house a villa and i was mad about jean-louis who was the boy there and they invited me for dinner and they did just grilled meat with ratatouille and i never tasted

anything more exotic in my life i mean up until then i think i'd had peas and carrots a bit of broccoli which is so it seems so exciting to have a vegetable stew. Also, it was called Ratatouille. It was so exciting. I don't think that's a very attractive name either. I do. I think I've watched too much Disney and Pixar. I'm just thinking about the little rat in Ratatouille now. Can I ask? Yeah.

I just want to know whether Prince ever gave you one piece of advice that has stuck with you. He gave me a few pieces of advice that have stuck with me. I don't know if it's going to be like that interesting, but... Everything about Prince is interesting. Everything is true. It's true. It's like he noticed if I wasn't being myself in, you know, in my decision or musically, he could tell, like if I was being influenced.

And he'd just sort of remind me to trust myself and, you know, be myself. And he's like, you know stuff. You already know. Just be you. That thing that you think is trendy right now, it's not going to be trendy in two or three years. So just do what you want to do. And has that been hard with him? Do you sometimes, do you just have to kind of remind yourself of that message

that he gave you and i'm sure many other things but it's particularly you know it's it's hard being a woman in music i don't know it is and for you to be a black woman in music in the uk as well you know it's another kettle of fish who plays an instrument as well yeah to be also another factor it's been it hit me late you know like obviously when he passed it was very untimely and very sudden so it took a while to actually set in and then I you know it's now that I'm like when I see him on tv or something I just I can't believe that I knew him I can't believe that he gave a shit about who I was or what I was doing or anything to do with me and like I'm just I don't know how I don't know how he even came to discover me or whatever, but I always think that his whole message, his existence on the planet was for many reasons. away is he taught us how to completely unapologetically be ourselves especially in music and if that's what you want to do just do that only and focus all your energy on that and

he just it was the best at being unique and not fitting in and into any any boxes and just encouraging that in other people. And when I remember that about him, I feel valid. And empowered. I feel empowered. I often am worried that I'm not something enough or I'm too much of something. And it's like, actually, it doesn't matter. What you are is valid.

I'll always want Prince stories and just moments of wisdom. I've got plenty. I bet you do. Okay, what did you eat with Prince? I need to know what the meal was that you ate, the most memorable meal. Okay, I'm going to tell you a story. Another story? Okay, come on then.

I cooked lunch for him one time is this in the vegan years or the uh it was i think it was before i was vegan or like a few months before actually it was 2014 and he flew me out to minneapolis to paisley park to just kind of hang out potentially work on music this is where i ended up being part of his album art official age but it wasn't presented to me that way it was just like hey come hang out um anyway i remember he picked me up from my hotel in a giant low black car that was like a batmobile of course and it had like all his it had the symbol like in the upholstery of the car it was so amazing and then he he was like do you want to

cook me lunch i was like okay and then he took me to the supermarket you went to supermarket prince fuck off what's that like going around the aisles with prince he didn't come in okay fine right so you did a supermarket sweep i did a supermarket it was literally like that i went in and i was like oh my god what do i need what do i get yeah he's like i'll just wait here oh jesus that is gave me some money as well. Gave me like a hundred dollar bill. And I put it in my pocket and I was wearing this skirt. And basically what happened, he gave me the money. I was like supermarket sweeping there. I'm like, what the hell do I cook for Prince?

He was vegetarian. So I knew that. That was all the information I had. I go there. It's like this really like a whole food C type one where you can get whatever grains you want dried mushrooms whatever so i was just like okay i don't know i'm gonna saute some mushrooms i'm gonna make him an avocado and tomato salad and um i'll make some like some chips or something

some sauteed potatoes i don't know so i go in and get everything I need and then I'm at the checkout and then I reach into my pocket and the money's gone oh shit and I was like oh no I've lost Prince's money what do I do and then someone tapped me on the shoulder hands me an envelope and they were like I think you dropped this and someone had picked up the money and put it in an envelope for me and returned it to me. Somehow they knew it was mine. And then I, by that point, I had paid on my card. And then I got back in the car and gave Prince back the money. And then we went to Pacey Park and I cooked him this sort of tapas-y lunch. And then we watched the World Cup final.

Did he eat your dinner? He didn't eat the mushrooms he has a thing about mushrooms and if only you'd known that he could have just said to you listen i have a thing about everything except mushrooms like cook what you want i'm like okay here's some mushrooms he's like no but that was fine he ate the salad he liked the salad that is it's just i mean you everyone hears these stories about there's all yeah i love the idea of you cooking him an avocado and tomato salad and watching the world cup the best thing really to discover about prince is that he was human i was like you know when i grew up i was thinking

he is an actual prince like character i used to think that when I was a kid. And you're wearing purple. I know. I know. Just coincidence. And was he very tall? No. He was like my height.

Maybe, I don't know, a tiny bit shorter. Because you know when we saw him on stage and he had the two girls next to him? They were a little shorter than him. Which two girls was it? And when did you see him? We saw him in... 2008. Which two girls was it? And when did you see him? We saw him in... 2008, I think, was it? It would have been either 2008 or 2009.

The O2, like, when he did, like, the... Oh, OK. Ridiculous amount of numbers. I didn't see any of those, like, secret shows that he did. No, but that was later. But we have a funny story about... Yes, do you want to share? So I got tickets on eBay.

It's not that funny. I thought it was funny. I got on ebay to go and see prince and i got them for how many how many did i get i got one two three so me jack so jack had just jack pinata just played a um best of all and i'd gone with him i just saw him by the way in the park with his mom what a sweet guy and his dog dog. Yeah, Bobby. Bobby the dog. Yeah. So I got tickets. And, you know, I knew he was coming. And I didn't know how to get them because they were sold out. So I bought them on eBay.

And I hadn't got a clue about what the O2 was like. Right. We get to the O2 and it's me, Claire, Jack, you and Hannah. Yeah. And we were so hungover from Bestival. Because it was like the Sunday we got back from Best of All. If I tell you, Leanne, we were at the top of the very top of the O2.

Right, like nosebleed seats. Super up in the thing. And we got there and I had the most terrible attack of vertigo and I thought, I'm actually going to die. But we didn't know she had vertigo. Right. I guess you don't know that until you have the worst seats in the O2. Right. The seats are banked like that like the north face of the Eiger. So we get to the very top and I say I'm sorry I

can't stay here. And I said I can't even look downwards. I can't sit here and look down. So we go all the way down and I'm like, I can't breathe. And they said, don't worry. She was making a real scene and it was quite embarrassing for my hungover self. No, they wanted to get St John's ambulance. Anyway, they said, don't worry, we've got, we'll sort you out. They find these seats and we go back inside. It's like three rows down.

I said, I can't do this. So there's Claire and I. Claire said, follow me, hold my hand and close your eyes. Just trust me. So I'm walking behind with my eyes closed. And I'm so embarrassed. Because I can't look down. You were embarrassed?

You were drunk. I was drunk. I felt so ill. So I got down and I said, I'm really sorry. You guys go back in. No, Mum. No, you said, take the tickets. You were so ill. So I got down and I said, I'm really sorry, you guys go back in. No, Mum, no, you said, take the tickets. You were so dramatic. I said, I can't stay here.

I'm so sorry. I could never go back inside again. And they said, look, let's see what we can do. And one of the boys that was helping, like Jack Pignati. I forgot that. Yeah, and so he said, don't't worry we'll sort you out we ended up five rows from the front i know we were almost next a lesson to everybody who has shit seats in the o2 feign a vertigo uh like moment and they said if you hadn't been genuine we would have known

so they i was starting to perspire it was incredibly stressful but it was an amazing gig yeah and what would be your desert island meal oh good question and would it be fully vegan or do you think you'd oh that's a good question too i'm gonna have to stick to my vegetables and trees well that's what i'm saying you'll have yeah you'll have an abundance of fruit yeah okay so dessert then let's work backwards dessert will probably be something with coconut some kind of coconut this is like before you this is before you get to the desert island right so like you are i've got to bring it yeah yeah no no you've got you can have whatever you want it's like your dream meals last supper like well then it's like it's like a coconut rice pudding for dessert i love rice

pudding so much so what do you put instead of milk coconut milk oh use coconut milk i find that making a dessert vegan is actually really satisfying because you have so many things like nutmeg and cinnamon and you know beautiful you know vanilla and all of these amazing aromatic flavor ginger like all these things I love to eat in general so I put all of that on like a porridge in the morning just because it's delicious but yeah I think a rice pudding type thing with some like dried fruit or something on there who did you what like is there a particular place or a particular person that made you fall in love with rice pudding just my grandma giving it to me as a kid probably the tin stuff ambrosia ambrosia

the texture the smell i love it but now I've got a more sophisticated palette I guess so I prefer the more adventurous versions of it but the comforting nature of it is amazing main course I don't know main? come on Leanne

you've got to tell me it she's not even got a starter going she's gone backwards which makes me think you've got quite a sweet tooth, maybe. No, I was going to say I've got a massive savoury tooth because I love potato. I was just thinking, you know the fish and chips, but the chips from fish and chip shops. Like a big plate of that with like just some vegan mayonnaise on it salt and vinegar yeah loads of salt and

vinegar it's desert island right so you're gonna have whatever you like heart disease no no no you're going on the desert island carbs then i just want delicious soft potato and delicious sauce to dip my potato i love this idea this idea of Leanne Le Havre's, this sophisticated shanty, is asking for a big bag of chips. Can I have some really soggy chips with some amazing mayonnaise? Yeah, that's very easy to do.

And then starter. It's going to be the spanakopita. So I can have that nostalgic, it reminds me of my grandma, the way she cooked it and because there's an iron I might have to have the traditional version I think we could have done that

it's okay this was incredible you can get it in the table man has cooked but actually I think the timings are a bit wrong you may have to cook the aubergine for a bit longer drink of choice Leanne what?

alcoholic or not alcoholic? whatever you want margarita oh yeah nice margarita is that from having time in LA? because I feel like they do marbs better they do it better

they do just drinking do you have a favourite tequila? I don't like the brown stuff. I like the clearer stuff. There's this incredible one that's got like a beautiful like textured glass bottle. It's not the agave one, is it? Like in the ceramic bottle. It's not a ceramic bottle.

It's like the texture of that bottle over there. But it's like a ceramic bottle it's like a like the texture of that bottle over there but it's like a tall oh centurio i don't know who else was into it james bay was into tequila was it or did i make that up i wouldn't say i'm a tequila connoisseur no but if you're having a margarita i like a frozen one too because i just think they're really funny more like slush puppy slushy one yeah i like the mango margarita that we when i was with hannah in mexico we i got absolutely rocked before i played in new orleans we had the best time the night before where we walked down like frenchman street and we got this massive like mardi gras plastic kind of i mean they were like the size of our bodies of drinks and you get them in the slushy yes yes that's what i'm thinking of when i say a frozen thing they serve them to you in a giant like it's a it's like a horn fruit bowl version of it you know like a whole thing so

if if we're on a desert island and i can handle my booze i I'd have a frozen mug with my chips. I love this. I want to know. Look, I love karaoke. Me too. Oh, I'm so serious. I take it way too seriously. People don't like doing it with me.

Oh, good. Which is your song? I'm so serious about it. I'm very interested by this. Go on then. Oh my god, Leanne. I take it so seriously. Everybody loves it. I love karaoke. And I've done it in japan too and it's just the best thing ever but i've got a few songs so one

of them is my go-to is seal kiss from a rose oh that's such a beautiful song yeah but i can hear you singing it because it's all kind of gentle breaking song right now yes okay legit cover because i just love that song i love seal and then the other one is um street life it's just so fun to sing do people get really annoyed doing karaoke with you they don't seem to like it they're like leanne come on. They're like, Leanne, come on, babe. They're like, it's not like funny, basically. You're not like rapping. And I think I'm being really funny, so they don't laugh.

But what is funny is when I do Eminem. I also love doing Eminem because I love rapping from the 90s. Who was the one that could rap, Jessie, that we had on? And he said he knew the middle of the rap. And no one expected him to rap when he sang. No, it was like a whole thing, wasn't it? No. No, it was Joe Lysip.

Didn't he used to do this whole thing where he'd be like, oh, I don't know it. And then he'd be like, rabbit in eight ma. And he'd be like, his palms are sweaty. Move them all, spaghetti. Yeah. Leanne, I bought dessert. Oh, that's fine.

I didn't know we were having dessert It's a winter summer pudding A winter pudding And it's vegan from cook So do you have good table manners? I think I do have good table manners Except I just said While you were gone

I just said that I've got bad table manners Because I was late And I'm 31 now. Is it a thing? It is a thing. You're just a late person. I've got to change. Well, sometimes I'm like, in my defense, I'm on time.

But it's just, I don't know. Sometimes I faff too much before leaving the house. I find it really difficult to leave the house without faffing and doing things that I don't really need to do that aren't a priority. Do you check that the stove is off five times? Yeah. Check that my door's locked because it's not a self-locking. So I have to go back sometimes. I don't know.

I'll forget something. I'm kind of like that. Leanna Havas, it's been a pleasure to have you it's yeah thank you for having me we forgive you for being late

because now we know it's an illness that you have it's a chronic illness that you have and it's okay and you're just so charming and wonderful

and you did give me my first support slot and I love you so it's fine we go way back and the last record was excellent and the record before that

was fucking great you have these songs that are such earworms well your voice I could listen to forever but they get in your head and they like to live in there it's just like

I want that you're a very clever songwriter thank you thank you for being here thank you so much for having me it's nice to see you back in South and congrats with the record thank you thank you for being here thank you so much for having me it's nice to see you back in and congrats with the record thank you

what a gorgeous girl darling dressed in purpleressed in purple, smelt delicious. And just, I have a lot of time for Leanna Havis. I love her a lot. She's a really kind human being who's always been a good egg. She's lovely. Thank you for listening. I'm going to go drive home now. Okay, darling.

Do you think we told our listeners that we like South London a bit tonight? Yeah. God, I'm such a Judas, though. I was so so east london about a year ago you're not anymore darling absolutely not i'm sorry to all those east londoners anyway take care everyone and we'll see you next week Thank you.