Lauren Laverne (born Lauren Gofton on 28 April 1978 in Sunderland, England) is a disc jockey, television presenter, and former singer. 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". The group split in 1998. 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. 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 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 one of BBC2's main presenters for their coverage of the Glastonbury Festival. 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. 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 breakfast show on 31 October 2005 after Christian O'Connell moved to Virgin Radio. |