FEATURE:
Stay Tuned/Stay Where You Are
PHOTO CREDIT: Rachell Smith for Red
An Early Happy Birthday Salute to the Mighty Lauren Laverne
_________
BECAUSE I have a big birthday coming…
IN THIS PHOTO: Lauren Laverne with PP Arnold/PHOTO CREDIT: BBC
up myself on 9th May, I have been thinking about a particular inspiration of mine who has a ‘big’-ish birthday approaching. I have written about Lauren Laverne a few times through the years. I know she probably will not welcome attention being brought to her age but, on 28th April, she turns forty-five. Given she is a broadcaster, D.J., musician and journalist, I like the fact forty-five is a music-based number. Not that she will be writing about her favourite about her 45 (RPM) records on the big day, but I did want to write about her one more time ahead of quite a big day. Another reason was that she has had quite a busy and eventful last year or two. There have been some downs and losses, but there has also been a lot of success and acclaim. Hosting the breakfast show on BBC Radio 6 Music weekdays, she has made this slot her own. Taking over from her erstwhile colleague Shaun Keaveny (who I hope joins her for a broadcast of some kind in the future), it is essential morning listening. I don’t think there is anyone like Laverne on the airwaves. I will come to it, but I think it is her experience as a musician that really helps drive her passion. Supporting new artists and displaying such a huge knowledge of many genres and deeper cuts, all of this comes together with a warmth, incredible wit and dedication that means we in the BBC Radio 6 Music family hopes she stays with them for years to come!
As the former lead of the band Kenickie, you have this former artist now supporting the next generation. The band’s second and final album, Get In, is twenty-five in August. Next year marks thirty since the band formed. Laverne has also recorded with the likes of Mint Royale, and The Divine Comedy. I and so many others have found amazing new artists thanks to her. I think I first heard Billie Marten on her former mid-morning BBC Radio 6 Music show. I know her schedules is mega-busy, but I can envisage Laverne presenting a podcast or series where she interviews new artists or puts together a selection of tracks from rising artists across the music map. There is so much to love about her BBC Radio 6 Music show; I would recommend it to anyone. There are great regular features and a combination of the playlist, unexpected selection and listener-chosen tracks.
“Laverne is effortlessly charming, and always so invested in everyone she speaks with”
From the 6 Music Salutes feature, where a special person, event or thing is soundtracked, to the daily Cloudbusting segment – where a series of listener-mixed uplifting tracks helps boost us after 8 a.m. -, the listeners are very much included and heard. I have written regularly about Laverne’s personality and professionalism. As an experienced and skilled broadcaster, she brings this energy, slickness and incredible command to every show. Such a safe pair of hands. There are a variety of features and sort of interviews done each week. Laverne is effortlessly charming, and always so invested in everyone she speaks with. It is no surprise she is so admired, trusted, loved and respected by her colleagues, those in the industry, and the ever-growing station family. In fact, I feel that Sunderland’s proud daughter is one of the major reasons why BBC Radio 6 Music is not only safe – at one stage, there was a threat and real possibility it was being scrapped -, but it is growing into an empire.
— Claire Blackmore (@MrsBhoney) March 16, 2023
I am going to move on to other things but, as I hit forty in May, I have been freaking out about it! Whether life would get worse or slow down. Whether the best days are behind me. As Laverne stated in an interview with Red in 2019: “Your 40s are bananas. Everything is happening. You know the sound of an orchestra tuning up, where it’s just bonkers? That’s what your 40s are like. It’s fascinating. You realise there are all sorts of different, brilliant ways to live your life. And hooray for that”. There is no doubting that the past five years have been among the most successful, satisfying and interesting in her career. I have known about her music since I was a teenager. I have known about her broadcasting talent since pre-BBC Radio 6 Music days, and I have followed her work on the station since, I think, about 2015. I think the past few years have seen her not only become the station’s most valuable and exceptional asset. It makes me believe she will join radio icons like Annie Nightingale. There is no doubting the fact Lauren Laverne is inspiring so many people to get into broadcasting and radio. So many young women in fact. There was a time when there were fewer women on BBC Radio 6 Music – and across the industry in fact -, and I think she is a pioneer in terms of opening doors and ensuring there is greater parity. I know forty-five is not really a ‘big birthday’ but, as it is kind of big and Laverne is five years into a decade that she has embraced wholly, I wanted to salute her and highlight her incredible work. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter. I have said before, but I wonder whether there will be an official Lauren Laverne website, as it will be a one-shop and central hub that archives her previous work and keeps people updated as to what is coming up.
Laverne is in demand as a presenter too. As someone who has hosted award shows (including the Mercury Prize), I hope that she gets to cover the Mercury Prize later in the year. She regularly co-hosts The One Show, and she has also regularly hosts the BBC’s coverage of Glastonbury. I also hope that, again, she gets to go to Worthy Farm and host this year. We are only in March, but I do think that this will be a really exciting and busy one for one of our most-loved and inspiring broadcasters! Apart from some awful interviews (not her fault!) and some ridiculous opinions when it comes to her presenting BBC Radio 4’s iconic Desert Island Discs, she is considered to be a magnificent host. She definitely is! You can listen and find that out yourself but, having taken over from Kirsty Young in 2018, Laverne has added her stamp to the decades-running series. Already, she has interviewed legends like Kate Moss, Ian Wright, and Steven Spielberg (and Kirsty Young herself, in a weird-but-delightful multiverse-cum-parent-teacher sort of radio event!). From helping put the mighty Lizzo on the map here in the U.K., to the way she has inspired so many artists and broadcasters, I thought it was appropriate to give Lauren Laverne a digital hug. Before wrapping up, I am going to do a bit of lazy journalism (which has never stopped me before!). It is a shame there are not many interviews with and features from Lauren Laverne, as I think that she has had one of the most eclectic and amazing careers!
I often bemoan the lack of really interesting British comedies that we see in the cinema. We can do charming, uplifting and warm, but the envelope is rarely pushed in terms of originality and themes. Doing something as bold as you might get from an American studio. I am not sure whether it has been done, but I would love to see a Britpop/’90s-set comedy that features central characters and them bonding through music and culture of the time. Musicians and figures of the day would be portrayed too. Maybe a Lauren Laverne-like actress to play a central role or, indeed, representing the pretty awesome lead from Kenickie! In terms of casting, as she revealed in a 2022 interview with The Guardian, Laverne had her actress cast:
“When were you happiest?
There are different flavours of happy, but I think my favourite is the quiet contentment when several generations of family are sitting together watching a crowd-pleaser like Harry Potter on the telly.
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Deflection – what about you?
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Unkindness, meanness. People who could make the world better and choose to make it worse.
Aside from a property, what’s the most expensive thing you’ve ever bought?
A caravan. I was brought up going on caravan holidays – but we quickly realised that a double-axle caravan was too much of a commitment and sold it.
Describe yourself in three words
Hopeful, curious and thoughtful, in the sense that I am always thinking about things.
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If you could bring something extinct back to life, what would you choose?
The concept of polite disagreement.
What makes you unhappy?
I find it very difficult when the people I care about are unhappy.
Who would play you in the film of your life?
Evanna Lynch who plays Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter films”.
I have probably not done full justice to everything awesome about Lauren Laverne. This wasn’t, as I have said in various features about her before, a chance to blow smoke or praise her for no reason. It seems, with every passing year, she sets the bar higher. She would just say she’s doing her job and it is no big deal, but I see the love out there for her. She has this ear and eye for great new music that means artists who might not have otherwise been discovered get this big platform. One of the all-time great broadcasters, the soon-to-be-forty-five-year-old has at least several more decades of broadcasting in her. It is scary just what she can achieve in that time – whether it is with BBC Radio 6 Music, BBC Radio 2, Greatest Hits Radio or, if life plans change, a station in America or somewhere else. Maybe there will be a novel or autobiography. Perhaps she will front a music T.V. show akin to The Old Grey Whistle Test that could accompany BBC’s Later… with Jools Holland (and, Lord, do we need one!). Perhaps podcasts, music documentaries or anything she wants. I think it is music and its universal and remarkable power that gives her that desire and passion. As a musician and someone who found music very young, she knows how it can affect your life. Last year for Stylist, the Music For Dementia ambassador wrote about the power of music and what it means to her:
“But music doesn’t just take you back, it can take you forward too – into a new mood or a new frame of mind. It can soothe or revive, offer celebration or catharsis. Music can change your day, and if it does that often enough, it will change your life. Even better, music can connect us with other people – friends, family, and lovers of course, but also strangers. In 1912, French sociologist Émile Durkheim coined the term “collective effervescence” to describe the powerful human ability to come together as a group and share the euphoric experience of (temporarily) forsaking our individuality to become part of something “sacred”. At the time, he was looking at the role of religion in society. He saw collective effervescence as a valuable escape from the drudgery of day-to-day life, and as a vital means of bonding a community”.
I am feeling a little less worried and cliché about turning forty soon. That said, I feel positively inadequate when someone five years older than me has achieved so, so much! I have creative ambitions I am desperate to fulfil and have not yet done. They include music journalism/interview dreams (including interviewing Kate Bush; something Lauren Laverne did beautifully in 2011), and film/script writing-related. She gives me that push and inspiration because, as she has said and proven, entering your forties is not something to be feared or seen as a time to reign things in. Because one of broadcasting’s very best queens and finest humans has a semi-big birthday that I know so many people will celebrate, I wanted to mark it early. I am a classic French exit guy when I do go to parties and events, but I do turn up early and put the effort it. When it comes to Lauren Laverne, I will definitely raise a glass on 28th April.
“I think the next five or so years will be among her most successful, fulfilling, and (hopefully) happiest in broadcasting”
It is more than that. I have a platform where I can write stuff like this. Offering thanks to someone who is an amazing talent and enormously respected human. We love our Loz! I shall leave it there. A (very early) happy birthday to Lauren Laverne. For anyone who has not heard her shows on BBC Radio 6 Music and BBC Radio 4, then go and investigate. From the way she was at the station helping us get through the pandemic, to the amazing job she is doing right now, her indefatigable bond with her listeners has been reciprocated with so much love and gratitude. I think her next five or so years will be among her most successful, fulfilling, and (hopefully) happiest in broadcasting. This week, Lizzo shouted out BBC Radio 6 Music (and Laverne) for getting her name and music heard in the U.K. Here on tour at present, that is just one of the many artists she has brought to wider attention. Our very own Lauren Laverne is…
GOOD as Hell!