FEATURE:
Stay Where You Are: A Love Letter to Lauren Laverne…
PHOTO CREDIT: Jonty Davies for Good Housekeeping
Why I Have Been Affected Personally By the Broadcaster’s Recent News
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THIS is going to start out…
PHOTO CREDIT: Sarah Jeynes/BBC
somewhat downbeat and negatively. It is going to turn into a salute and love letter to one of the world’s greatest broadcasters and human beings. Whilst she may not have time or opportunity to read this, I did want to write about someone who shared some recent health news that led to an outpouring of support and love. Lauren Laverne broadcasts on BBC Radio 6 Music weekday mornings, and she captains BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs. I shall come to an article that writes about something that she recently posted to her Instagram. Even though our lives and paths are vastly different, I can identify with Charli xcx. She posted earlier in the year that she was in the worst mental state of her life. Even more recently, in response to a question as to how she is feeling right now, Charli xcx said she was tired. On Friday (24th July), she has the release party for her new album, Music, Fashion, Film. The album is released in five days and it will gather a load of acclaim. Though, I can identify with her. ‘Tired’ being an understatement! Also, though I am living in the city I want to (London) and have the freedom to run my own site, I too am in the worst psychological state of my life. She is a megastar, and one of the most prolific artists in the world. I can only imagine the pressure on her and how rigorous her life is. I do worry about her and whether she will burn out or there is too much expectation! Arguably the greatest artist of our times, I do hope that she gets a chance to decompress and rest for a couple of months – though this may be naïve optimism! I am different. I have said in a previous blog piece how I have this dread of going to work…
I get the same sort of reaction that I had on a Sunday evening before going to school in the morning. The horrifying chirpiness of the Antiques Roadshow theme could well have been a Bernard Herrmann score in terms of its psychological impact! Now, I get that anxiety and huge depression. Although I can quit a job in the same way I could not quit school, being an adult – especially one living in an expensive city – has a different set of economics and challenges. If a major artist like Charli xcx is drained because of the demands of modern music and a sense of churn, my situation is a little removed from that – though not completely. I guess anyone in a job they hate has to weight up so much and cannot just quit without a parachute. For me, I recently expressed the stress of being an independent music journalist. I struggle to get traction with a lot of my features. Though I have a dedicated (yet small) audience who reads my Kate Bush features (1,420 at this stage), most of what I publish on my site is not about Kate Bush. Even though I do not have the skill and popularity of Alexis Petridis and Laura Snapes (both of whom write for The Guardian and are considered among the most preeminent and prolific music journalists in the world), I am consistent. I am not sure how many journalists – I am guessing none? – have published at least one feature every day for over a decade. I do it, in part because of passion, but also that need to be seen and shared. And yet few artists I write about do. Aside from the odd artist who are very sweet and write me a thank you message (as Eaves Wilder did when I featured her), most of it does not get shared or liked. It is disheartening! You cannot force people to share stuff, though there is common sense and a politeness at least acknowledging someone for writing something very nice about your music. Yet, I can’t complain too much. Even if the six -or-so-thousand features have not received a tonne of interaction, I can afford to run my website solo and publish regularly. Though the fact I can never monetise it and it will never be a professional option saddens me.
Right now, as I write (on a Sunday afternoon), I am fearing getting up in the morning and going to work. It has been a bad day and I suspect the next week will be very tough. Though I have been given a shot of perspective lately. Back to the subject of this feature: the wonderful Lauren Laverne. Recent news she shared did lead to a wave of love and support on social media. The Guardian explains more:
“Lauren Laverne has announced she has been diagnosed with a blood and bone marrow disorder, less than two years after recovering from cancer.
The radio and TV presenter revealed she has smouldering myeloma, a condition characterised by an abnormal level of blood plasma cells in bone marrow, and said she made her diagnosis public out of a desire to help others. In August 2024, she announced she had been diagnosed with cancer, and received the all-clear three months later.
Laverne, 48, wrote on Instagram on Friday: “I’m quite a private person by nature, but am sharing this as one of the many things I’ve learned after going through health challenges in recent years is that talking about this stuff helps people.
“I’ve been diagnosed with something called smouldering myeloma (yes that is a weird name and no I’d never heard of it either). It’s an asymptomatic blood and bone marrow disorder that in some people can develop into blood cancer.
“Thankfully the risk of this happening in my case is pretty low.”
Laverne said she did not currently need treatment, adding the condition had “nothing to do” with her previous illness. She said: “Most people my age who have it have no idea – it tends to be cancer survivors like me who are diagnosed early, as we’re so carefully monitored.
“It is a chronic condition – no cure yet – and it does mean my immune system is a bit compromised, so I will need to take good care of myself and I will be carefully monitored with blood tests, MRIs and bone marrow biopsies (which I have recently discovered are even less fun than they sound).”
The broadcaster said she would take a “couple weeks holiday” before returning to work. Laverne, who was the lead singer of the alternative rock band Kenickie in the 90s, has been a BBC Radio 6 Music presenter since 2008 and has hosted Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs since 2018. She has also co-presented The One Show since 2023.
She wrote: “It’s been a lot, especially coming less than two years after my last diagnosis, but I know that seeing others in the public eye cope with comparable situations has helped me, so I thought I’d be upfront about it.
“I’ve had some difficult experiences in the last eight years, but I have learned more from them than some people do in a lifetime and that is helping me right now.
“I am so grateful for that.”
Laverne thanked her family, friends and colleagues along with her “wonderful” GP for detecting the condition early due to her low iron levels.
The charity Blood Cancer UK said in a statement: “There are more than 53,000 people across the UK on active monitoring for different blood cancers, including smouldering myeloma, so nobody should feel they are facing this alone.
“If Lauren’s story has prompted questions or concerns about smouldering myeloma or any type of blood cancer, we’re here for you. Our specialist nurses provide free, confidential support and information, helping people understand their diagnosis, make sense of active monitoring and find answers to any questions they may have”.
I am going to come to some interviews with Lauren Laverne, as this feature is a cross between a love letter to her importance and brilliance. But also my (somewhat long-winded) support. You can read her post of sharing the news here. Looking more relaxed and trying to respond to as many people’s message as possible, it has been a pretty shit last few weeks. After getting the cancer all-clear and now dealing with this, it has been challenging and distinctly unfair. I don’t believe that the universe throws things at people and has any impact over what happens in life – as it is too problematic and flawed if we scrutinise that idea -, but Laverne has received more than her fair share of bad vibes and crap the past few years or so. You do feel like she needs and deserves nothing but happiness going forward. I will write as to why I think that will be the case. Again, our situations are different, though my depression and dissatisfaction with the realities of being an independent music journalist is not as severe as other people’s live and issues. I have just listened to her Desert Island Discs interview with Shania Twain. Listening to Twain was another case of personal perspective. Her experiences of losing her parents in a crash and going through a divorce and health issues was sobering and remarkable. How she is this amazingly successful artist, yet she has had such a hard life. Her fortutiude, strength and resilience is inspiring! Other people have come to mind. One of her disc selections was Carpenters’ We’ve Only Just Begun. I recall when Shaun Keaveny played that song on his final BBC Radio 6 Music show on 10th September, 2021. Giving a teary send-off, I wondered what the future held and whether he would bounce back. Now, he is a staple on BBC Radio 2 (on Sounds of the 70s and The Rock Show), and he has broadcast across multiple stations. He also broadcasts on Community Garden Radio. Alongside Lauren Laverne, he is my favourite broadcaster (the two of them seriously need to co-host a radio show or do a podcast episode!). I guess things will work out in the end, even if they take time.
I did want to write about Lauren Laverne. I might write about her again in a couple of years but, given the news she has shared and what she has faced, I wanted to move to the positives and not make it a me-fest or something downbeat. I will find a way out of my struggles and depression, but I have naturally worried about Lauren Laverne. She has a loving family, close group of friends and the love of the 6 Music family behind her. I did want to cover off a couple of interviews, for anyone who may not know about her work. Or if you only know her in her past life as an artist (she was the lead of the ‘90s band, Kenickie). I want to drop in a Music Week interview from January last year:
“When Music Week encounters BBC Radio 6 Music star Lauren Laverne at the station’s HQ on a Friday morning in late May, she has just come off air, having delivered the last breakfast show of a busy week.
The night before we speak, she was in central London hosting the Ivors, taking a rare breather from the intense Glastonbury preparations that dominate her schedule at this time of year. Shortly before that, it was her own name in lights, as she triumphed in the Radio Show category at the Music Week Awards, reclaiming a trophy she won in 2019, when her breakfast show gig began.
It was a momentous victory and Laverne smiles as we start by reflecting on what it means to have won.
Congratulations on your latest Music Week Awards win! What do you think made your peers in the industry vote for you?
“Well, I still can’t quite believe it. The whole team works really, really hard to make sure that every day we are excited and we’re bringing a number of different elements together in a way that just feels easy, fun and accessible. It’s not a typical breakfast show, it’s not a conventional listen. But maybe that’s why people like it. I certainly hope so. I decided a long time ago that I just want to make programmes that feel like they’re doing something constructive in the world. That doesn’t always mean everything’s shiny and happy-clappy, it’s about hope, not optimism. It’s something positive in people’s day.”
How has the culture at 6 Music changed in your time there?
“As a station, it has always had a very positive outlook. If you think of the music that we play, that alternative space is very forward-looking and accepting. It’s a nice place to work with lovely people, and it always has been. In terms of direct cultural change, it’s always evolving, there’s always new voices coming in. There was a long, long time when I was one of the few women there and the only one on weekdays and I am glad that has evolved over time. There are wonderful people, Mary Anne Hobbs and Jamz Supernova doing such brilliant work. That’s nice because that’s your little group and you become friends and support each other. Sherelle [DJ and producer] was on my show, she was in covering for Mary Anne, she’s wonderful. There’s so much brilliant talent coming through. That’s great to see, culture-wise, but it has always been a great place to work. Then, in May, the boss [head of station Sam Moy] and a few others came up with Change The Tune [an initiative to raise awareness around the impact online abuse has on artists].”
What keeps you at 6 Music specifically?
“Well, I also love Radio 4 and The One Show. I only work with great teams and as you get older, that’s so important. I feel incredibly lucky for all of the places that I work, but 6 is my heart. It represents the kind of music fan I am. The life-long adventure of continuing to discover music and the frustration of knowing you will never get to the end of it. I mean, the ephemeral nature is what makes it special, and that is what 6 runs on, it’s all about that.”
Has doing Desert Island Discs changed your life? Or people’s perceptions of you?
“I don’t know. You don’t try and work out people’s perceptions of you, that’s their business. But I think it has, hopefully, changed me. There’s always opportunity to improve, but I think having those kinds of conversations week in, week out has made me more compassionate. It has made me a better listener and it has made me braver, I think, because it’s maybe the most high-profile thing I’ve done. I’m not a natural attention seeker, I always say radio is the place where people who like to show off in private go. So to be looking after something that is such a jewel in the crown is a big thing. But to know that we’re doing a good job, and continue to take care of something I loved so much as a listener, to take it up from Kirsty [Young, former host] who is my hero... It’s a real challenge, but it’s a joy to get there.”
Let’s move on to Glastonbury. The lack of veteran acts among the headliners has been criticised by some this year, but the ratio of women to men has improved markedly. Where do you stand on those arguments?
“It’s always going to generate conversation and that’s fine. That’s like any music event, you can’t really avoid it. With Glastonbury, you’re talking about how many acts? About 2,000? If you can’t find something that you like, among that, I think it might be you. But I think when you’ve got the biggest music and arts festival on the planet, if you’re just determined to moan about it and find fault, and you can’t find anything that you like, I think it might not be Glastonbury that is the problem. It’s all of the clichés, everybody has a different Glastonbury experience. You can go and never see a band and have an amazing Glastonbury. You can go and see music all weekend, none of which you have ever heard before in your life, and have an incredible time. It is so much more than the main headliners”.
There is a lot to take from that interview. How loved and amazing she is! I still bemoan the lack of established and legacy women booked as Glasto headliners. They have a massive gender issue and lack of credibility overlooking female headliners (was Kylie Minogue approached last year to headline?!), and only one woman over the age of forty has ever headlined Glastonbury (that was Shakespears Sister’s Marcella Detroit, who was a few days over forty when they headlined in 1992). I shall not rant again. What strikes me is how at home she is at BBC Radio 6 Music, and that she sound at her happiest and freest at the station!
Next March, BBC Radio 6 Music turns twenty-five. Lauren Laverne will be there, and I hope the station goes all-out to mark the quarter-century. I genuinely feel she will be at the station for decades more (horrifying to think the station was at threat of being cut at one point!). Whilst now might seem like an especially tough or bleak time because she cannot be on the air for a little while, you do know that she will be on BBC Radio 6 Music and BBC Radio 4 for a very long time. In a couple of years, she celebrates a big birthday. I am just looking ahead then because I feel it will be a time of personal reflection and a chance for all those who listen to her to show love and wish her the best. Though that is not until 2028. The rest of this year is going to see her return to the airwaves and, I hope, things being smooth and clear! Professional commitments such as hosting the Mercury Prize (I am posting my updated predictions ahead of the shortlist being announced on 30th July. The ceremony takes place Utilita Arena in Newcastle on Thursday, 22nd October. Before I bring in the second and final interview (again, from last year), I did want to give my personal support to Lauren Laverne. How she has helped put some things in my life in perspective, but also just wishing her the best. Just to finish off with her interview with Country & Town House. I like their quick-fire interview with a national treasure:
“What’s bringing you joy at the moment?
Music, which has always been a huge part of my life. Last year I had a period of illness and for a while couldn’t listen to it – it was just too much emotionally. When I found the joy in it again I knew I was getting better. Now I’m back on 6 Music every weekday 10am–1pm and discovering new music all the time. I love it more than ever.
What’s annoying you most right now?
That the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.
Advice you’d give to your 15-year-old self?
Keep going, you’re doing great. You’re capable of more than you know. Learn to sit with your feelings.
What keeps you awake at night?
Waiting for my 17-year-old son to get home.
Best life hack you can share with us?
If you’ve got something good to say, say it. Speak up for what you love, praise people when they deserve it, give compliments. It makes other people happy and it makes your own life better.
A moment that changed everything?
Meeting my husband. We worked together on a TV show. That day it was his job to throw a bread roll at my face (don’t ask) but for budgetary reasons the roll was stale. It cut my nose and we had to film the rest of the day in profile, but it did mean I noticed him.
Where do you go to escape?
Alexandra Park. Seven acres with the most beautiful views overlooking London. Having grown up with easy access to the beach I always loved the perspective sea views give you. This is my city equivalent.
What’s the best way to put a smile on your face?
Stick on some frightful oompty-boompty.
You wouldn’t know it but…
My private joy is HGTV. Give me Jasmine Roth remediating someone’s DIY plumbing disaster and I’m a happy woman.
What does sustainability mean to you?
In my own life it’s about keeping things simple, enjoying what I already have and understanding what ‘enough’ looks like.
PHOTO CREDIT: BBC/Ray Burmiston
How can we save the world?
By choosing to. When I interviewed the climate scientist Corinne Le Quéré for her episode of Desert Island Discs she told me that we already have the scientific innovations and means, what we lack is the will to implement them.
Your greatest failure?
I didn’t go to university. I was supposed to take up a place at Durham University to read Medieval Studies but signed a record deal instead. I still daydream about going back sometimes.
Your greatest triumph?
My children. They bring me more joy than I could ever have dared to imagine.
What does a life in balance mean to you?
Embracing imperfection, enjoying what I can, being where my feet are.
Lauren Laverne’s Quick Fire Favourites
Scent… Frederic Malle Portrait of a Lady
Box Set… Mad Men
Chocolate… Green & Black’s 70%
Song… Fela Kuti, ‘Let’s Start’
Dish… My husband’s Sunday roast
Gadget… Lakeland heated airer
Restaurant… J Sheekey.
Holiday… Puglia with my best friend’s family”.
Apologies to write for so long – which may, incidentally, explain why my blog might be a little hard-going or like an assignment at times! -, but I was stunned and a little shaken by Lauren Laverne’s recent post about a health setback. Though, in a way, she has helped me and it has made me think more deeply about my own situation and plans going forward. I am excited to see her back on the air when she is well enough and, fingers crossed, having a relatively setback-free time going forward. Lots to look forward to. That BBC Radio 6 Music twenty-five next year. More awards and perhaps some exciting new professional opportunities. There is no doubt how much love there is out there, as Lauren Laverne is one of our best broadcasters. A queen that we all…
ADMIRE so much.
