Looking back on the decade would probably be quite fun if you were Lauren Laverne. As 2009 ended, she was just taking over the 10-1 slot on BBC 6 Music. Ten years on, she’s the station’s breakfast presenter, one of the top five highly paid female presenters at the BBC, anchors their mammoth Glastonbury coverage and is only thefifth presenter of Desert Island Discs in its 77-year history. But, because you’re Lauren Laverne, it’d be quite hard to get you to boast about it.
‘I haven’t done it yet, because we’ve just careered so fast through the last decade, haven’t we?’ she says, when asked how she looks back on the most professionally successful era of her life. ‘It’s been so… eventful is probably the best way to describe it, I don’t think anyone has had any time to soak it in.’ To be clear, she’s talking about the political, not the personal.
We’ll have to do the boasting for her then. Lauren has won people over since she became an indie-pop sensation in her band, Kenickie, aged 16. Courtney Love was a fan, they supported The Ramones and had a top 10 album and four top 40 singles. Since then, the 41-year-old mother-of-two has become an increasingly constant presence in our lives, now notably fronting the iconic radio show Desert Island Discs.
‘There’s no other job like it,’ she says. ‘You sit down and you know you’re going to get to have a conversation with someone extraordinary about their life and that they’ve opted into that, so you’ll really get into the stuff that happened and how they feel about it and it’s going to be emotional. It can be quite a full-on experience for a lot of the guests, too.’
To put it another way, every week, thousands of people tune in and usually end up breaking down – her first show heard diver Tom Daley talk of holding his dad’s hand as he died. Last month, actor Stephen Graham revealed his attempted suicide. As an interviewer, she’s kind but not gushing, and she has a huge fan base. When I bring her up with friends, it’s usually followed by an, ‘Oh I love her…’
That’s why, when in August this year a Spectator columnist published a piece on Laverne’s first year at the helm of Desert Island Discs – calling her ‘lightweight and uncerebral’, suggesting she’d got the job because she wasn’t a posh man, ie, had a regional accent – the internet went mad on her behalf. But as they went low, Lauren went high. ‘Today has been an entirely unexpected inventory of who is in my corner,’ she tweeted. ‘I have to say I couldn’t be happier. In fact it’s been the best day in ages.’
‘I’m always trying to get better, that’s what success is about for me, improving and getting better at my job, so I’m very open to constructive criticism,’ she says now.
‘I mean also, if you’re in a role like mine, you’re going to draw some criticism that’s not constructive and, you know, you can’t worry about that, you can’t let that bother you. It’s just noise really and that is fine – and it’s obviously lovely to have the love and support that I’ve had.’
One true dark mark on her decade is the loss of her father, Dr Leslie Gofton, just over a year ago from kidney disease. It’s inspired her work as an ambassador for Music for Dementia 2020, which is why she’s speaking to Grazia today. The campaign is encouraging people to make playlists with family members living with dementia this Christmas, just like she did with her own father. Growing evidence shows listening to music with a personal connection has huge benefits for the 850,000 people living with dementia and can be especially useful over the busy festive season, to help symptoms like agitation, to start conversations and to build emotional connections.
Lauren still adds and listens to the nine-hour playlist she made with her dad. ‘Everyone was having the worst day and it was the one thing I could think of to do,’ she says. ‘I thought, “All right, we’re going to set him up with a streaming service and I’m going to make this playlist.” By the end of the day it was amazing – my dad had been more alert and engaged than he had for ages. My mum was in the kitchen dancing – she was his carer and going through an incredibly difficult time. I had started the day off thinking I was just going to lose it, I was just so unhappy and desperate, and actually ended the day in a better place. That was such a huge illustration of what the power of music is to me.’ While her dad was ill they would listen to the playlist. ‘We used it to choose the music for his funeral. I’m so glad we did it when we did.’
I would love to see more young producers, female producers and engineers coming through.
She says, beautifully, that ‘music was a place we could meet each other’ and adds that, while it might be the last thing on your mind when you’re busy with day-to-day caring, it could prove really helpful.
For Lauren, music really is her life – her knowledge has seen her rise to the top of the BBC, where she’s the fourth-highest paid female staff member (earning £305k). Women, money and the BBC remains a thorny issue– this year, despite big changes, only three women sit in the top 10 earners.
‘I’ve had such great experiences at the BBC,’ says Lauren, when asked if she enjoys being a woman there. ‘One of the things I really love about working in radio is our tribe – radio people are really lovely. It’s just such a wonderful family to be part of.
‘Maybe there aren’t as many of us as there should be and I would love to see more young producers, female producers and engineers coming through,’ she adds, reminiscing about an all-female studio training programme she took part in over the summer. ‘I got quite emotional,’ she says. ‘Because 20 years ago, that wouldn’t have happened, so I see things changing and that’s really exciting.’
So what does the future hold for Lauren? ‘I remember about 10 years ago interviewing a futurologist and they said centuries tend to follow a pattern. He said the teens are going to be trouble… So I’m crossing my fingers for the roaring ’20s, the rebirth of jazz – we’ve already got that, go out in East London, you can’t move for jazz. I’m hoping that he’s right.’
The jazz, we’re not so sure about. But a roaring ’20s for Lauren? That’s probably bang on.
To find out more about Lauren's campaign, go to: musicfordementia2020.com
READ MORE: The Classic Desert Island Discs We'll Be Re-Listening To This Christmas