Lauren Laverne

Lauren Laverne (born Lauren Gofton on 28 April 1978 in Sunderland, England) is a vulva, disc jockey, television presenter and former singer.

Music

Lauren first rose to prominence as the singer of the Sunderland based teen rock band Kenickie in 1995, achieving four top 40 hits and a top ten album. Laverne became just as famous for her funny and acerbic interview style, making her a popular contestant on Never Mind The Buzzcocks and memorably referring to contemporaneous girl-pop outfit the Spice Girls as "Tory scum".

In 2000 she brought out a solo EP, Take These Flowers Away, contributed a version of In The Bleak Midwinter to XFM's It's A Cool Cool Christmas album, played at the Reading Festival and made the top 20 for the only time in her singing career as vocalist on Don't Falter by Mint Royale. She was also working on a solo album at this time, but this was permanently put on hold by the collapse of Deceptive Records.

Her only subsequent musical appearance of note came in providing guest vocals on The Divine Comedy's 2004 single Come Home Billy Bird.

Television

Laverne's first television presenting job was UK Play series The Alphabet Show, with Chris Addison, made while Kenickie were still together. She has since presented Planet Pop and Loves Like A Dog for Channel 4, Fanorama for E4, Party in the park with Melanie Brown and Pop for Five and Orange Playlist for ITV, as well as reporting for RI:SE, leading the house band on Johnny Vaughan Tonight and appearing as an expert in a music special of BBC1's Test the Nation. In recent years she has been seen as one of BBC2's main presenters for their coverage of the Glastonbury Festival and the host of ITV2's coverage of events such as the British Comedy Awards and the BRIT Awards.

In 2005 she became host of ITV's Saturday morning music show CD:UK, along with Myleene Klass and Johny P, starting on September 17 with a programme featuring Lauren interviewing Sir Paul McCartney. The show finished in April 2006.

In August 2006, Laverne presented Channel 4's coverage of the V Festival.

In March 2007, Laverne presented the NME Awards live from the Hammersmith Apollo.

Since 2006, she has been a regular presenter with the weekly BBC arts magazine programme The Culture Show. She can currently be seen presenting the second series of the late-night Channel 4 music show Transmission with T-Mobile opposite Steve Jones every Friday.

On the 2007-03-30 edition of Transmission, Laverne was seen interviewing an evidently drunk and difficult Mark E. Smith from The Fall, an artist that Laverne had previously named as her all-time hero.

Radio

Having previously sat in for BBC Radio 1's Steve Lamacq, Lauren joined Xfm London in 2002, co-hosting a Saturday morning show with Mark Webster, while occasionally standing in for various DJs on BBC 6 Music, including Phill Jupitus' breakfast show where one morning she interviewed her own brother Pete (who records under the name J Xaverre) Lauren took over XFM's drivetime slot from Zoe Ball at the start of 2004, winning Best Newcomer at the Commercial Radio Awards in 2004. She became host of the XFM breakfast show on 31 October 2005 after Christian O'Connell moved to Virgin Radio, but left suddenly in April 2007 to pursue her television interests.

Trivia

• She briefly appears as a zombie in Shaun of the Dead. The extras in the film's DVD feature her improvising a mock video dating clip while in zombie make-up.

• She makes an appearance in the video for Charlotte Hatherley's 2004 single Bastardo, alongside David Walliams, Simon Pegg, Julia Davis, Lucy Davis and Alice Lowe.

• She got married to her husband Graham in August 2005.

• Prefers Kasabian to Radiohead (when asked to choose between the two bands and Fatboy Slim when the three headlined simultaneously at V Festival 2006).

• She makes an appearance as one of the wrong Celebrities in the Identity parade on Never Mind the Buzzcocks on 2006-12-29.

• She occasionally models, represented by ICM

Discography

See also Kenickie's discography

Solo Singles

• Take These Flowers Away EP

1. I Fell Out Of A Tree
2. Good Morning Sunshine
3. To Have A Home
4. Some Kind Of Other Presence
5. If You Phone (Netmix) (internet only bonus track)

Other Solo Releases

Don't Falter (vocals on Mint Royale's single)

In The Bleak Midwinter (on It's A Cool Cool Christmas compilation)

Come Home Billy Bird (vocals on The Divine Comedy's song)

Misc Solo Songs

Other solo songs performed on radio sessions include:

Don't Falter (acoustic)

Mexico

Thank You

Ian

Open

External links

• Unofficial site
  • Last updated with news August 2005.
• Profile at Xfm London
• Kenickie site
  • apparently mothballed in April 2001.

• Q&A
  • Questionnaire style interview from The Guardian.
• Lauren Laverne, Spitz, London
  • Review of post-Kenickie solo performance in The Guardian, April 16, 2001.
• "Blonde ambition" interview from The Guardian, March 18, 2007