Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Candy and the Broken Biscuits (Candypop #1) by Lauren Laverne: 'Let's face it, TV's not brain surgery' F or the last couple of hours, Lauren Laverne has been ensconced in a photoshoot in the penthouse of the Sanderson hotel in London, and when she emerges into the bar, six months pregnant in a purple leopard-print top and still in full make-up and false eyelashes, she is holding a half-eaten apple. "It's, like, a really weird thing to bring down," she says, and laughs, placing the apple core self-consciously on the corner of the table. "But you know when you can't tell what's a bin and what's not? This is one of those places, isn't it?" Irreverence is Laverne's calling card. She's smart as a whip, bright as a button, with a sense of humour that seems to bubble up through the gaps of her conversation. She found fame early, in 1994, as the lead singer of teen punk band – four A-level students from who wrote brilliant, brittle songs about the joys of youth, nights out and lo-fi punk. When the band ended four years later she moved seamlessly into television, hosting music programmes, appearing on and (where she famously labelled the "Tory scum") and later becoming a presenter on , before moving to host one of the most popular shows on 6 Music radio. She was the face of the BBC's coverage this year, writes a weekly column for Grazia magazine, and has just published her first book – a teen novel called Candypop – Candy and the Broken Biscuits. Just as her songs with Kenickie distilled the adolescent experience, Candypop returns her to the world of the teenager; her heroine is 15-year-old Candy Caine, who dreams of being a rockstar playing the world's biggest music festival with her band, The Broken Biscuits, and along the way hopes to stop her man re-marrying, and track down her real father. Laverne's voice is instantly recognisable on the page. "When I was a teenager I wasn't really into teen fiction," she recalls. "At the time I suppose it would have been Nancy Drew and Sweet Valley High that was around, and that wasn't something that I was ever going to be into. I suppose writing this I wanted to write something that I would've liked to read when I was that age. And also now, having god-daughters and stuff, you look at the choices that are around — you look at your Hannah Montanas and everything, and that's OK, but I believe there's another thing, something that is funny and enjoyable to read, makes people laugh, and is also reasonably smart as well. Because I think a lot of stuff that gets written for teen girls now has this tone of sugar." Certainly, Candypop is uncompromisingly smart. There are references to Stalin and medieval manuscripts as well as a host of satisfyingly knowledgeable musical nods, from Ginger Baker to Twisted Sister, via the Television Marquee Moon and Andy Williams's Can't Take My Eyes Off You. "I suppose when they took me on, they knew what I was all about, I don't think they would expect anything really vanilla," Laverne explains. Still, for all her publisher's conviction, she was a little daunted by the challenge. "You hope that you can do it, and everybody seems to think you can," she says, "but then you get all the way to the end, and it's like, 'Oh! I seem to have written a book!'" She pulls a surprised expression. "The whole way through I didn't tell anyone I was writing it, not until I got to the end. Partly because I didn't know if I'd get to the end, and partly because I didn't want to be the person who says, 'Well actually, I'm writing a book . . .' And I still have to say it's 'a story' rather than 'a novel' in case I sound like I think I'm Nabokov." Laverne is now 32, and the world of the teenager has of course changed immeasurably since she was the same age as her characters. One of the most amusing sections of the book sees Candy looking through a set of photographs posted on Facebook by Kylie, one of the most popular girls at her school; the photographic descriptions and teen-speak are impressively perfect. "That bit was easy to write," Laverne admits. "It was just ripped off my little cousins' Facebook pages." But she believes that, technological advances and fashions aside, the essential teenage experience remains the same. "Being a teenager is one of those weird things, because you're very much of your time – every teenager is not going to be the Molly Ringwald archetype. But the thing I found out when I hung out with my cousins, which I did when I started writing the book, was that actually the essential issues never change. And that every teenager is different. Candy is quite a serious, wise 15-year-old, which is what I was like." Even at 15, Laverne stood out. "I think I was different, you know? I was always funny and I was always confident. I had plenty of friends and I would never have been bullied – because I was quicker than everybody else, if you got into an argument with me I would usually win." But for all her friends and back-chat, she never really fitted in. "I was really tall, and there's a bit in the book about Candy getting dressed, and how the things that she wears make her even more of a freak than she is already, and she's trying not to be herself, but it's like holding your breath – you can only last so long. And I remember being like that: going to school and desperately wanting to be one of the quiet people in my class. But I could never stop myself from spilling out. My school wasn't a great environment for that." How does she mean? "Erm . . ." she says, and hovers diplomatically. "I went to a convent school, very strict, and the time I was growing up it wasn't cool to be an indie kid. I was a bit of an outsider, a slightly different personality than was allowed at the time." She skived off quite often, yet still managed to stay in the top stream for everything and, as she puts it, "got plenty of GCSEs, but left as soon as I could". Which explains why she was a touch amused recently to receive an invitation to open her old school's new building. "I can't go anyway because it's September and I'm having my baby, but I wrote back to the headmistress – who wasn't there when I was there – and said I was extremely flattered but also surprised because one of my keenest memories of my last year [there] was when the bishop came to open our new swimming pool, and being specifically told not to come in that day, because they thought I looked a bit weird." She laughs. "I said I was taking it as a sign that at last I was doing something right." It was in music, and later in broadcasting, that Laverne found the place she fitted in. She talks passionately of her work on 6 Music. "It feels like home, like the place I should have been put a long time ago; I think there's still that element of not being able to keep myself in, of spilling out. And partly that's because I'm in my element; the listeners, I feel like I know them, I feel like I get what they're all about and what they want to hear." But the station is currently in a precarious position; earlier this year the BBC announced that, following a review by the BBC Trust, it might well cease broadcasting in 2011. There has been a considerable outcry from listeners, musicians and, of course, the station's DJs – Laverne herself has been a vociferous objector to its closure. It was, she says, shows such as John Peel and the Evening Session, then on Radio 1, which opened the world of music to her as a teenager, and later supported Kenickie. There are few places now, beyond 6 Music, that share the same commitment to new music. "We get sent a lot of listener demos," she says. "There was a great band from Glasgow called We're Only Afraid of NYC, and we gave away one of their tracks as a free download. I think they were quite surprised, but we listened to it in the office and said, 'What is this? It's amazing! Let's give it away today!' Other stations would probably stop and say, 'Should we? We should probably make a feature about that and run it next week . . .'" Her first presenting job was a show for Play UK that she did largely for fun, but she enjoyed it so much that with the end of Kenickie in 1998 she took more opportunities in TV. "I was still making records," she recalls, "and I was with a very indie set, and they didn't like the TV presenting, they thought it was quite uncool. But I reached a point where I realised I only had myself to please, and I thought, I'll give it a crack and see what happens, and it just worked." There weren't, she notes, very many people like her on television at that time. "If you were a girl in your early 20s on TV, you were smiley, sparkly top, Saturday morning, reading off an autocue. You'd be in Loaded, and you'd be really shiny and fake-tanned and laugh at some shit band's attempts to cop off with you." Any attempts to force Laverne into this mould failed miserably; she dismissed offers of ladmag shoots and rejected invitations to recast herself as a ladette and appear on football shows. Time has not changed the world of female presenters dramatically; Laverne is still one of a handful of broadcasters to display more wit than cleavage. "I don't want to say that situation's all right," she says cautiously. "But I do think that looking nice is a talent in its own right. And if that's a kind of gift that you've got and it's working then that's OK." She blinks those giant fake lashes. "So while I don't want to completely condone the fact that it's only about what you look like, there's room for that, and let's face it, TV's not brain surgery. Anyone who can read can pretty much get away with it. So you've got a sofa that looks nice, and a girl that looks nice on it, and next to her a boy who's probably not that much brighter. Fair enough, that's a programme, you go and enjoy it, and I'm sure if that's your demographic it will work. "But I think that it's important that there are also people who do something other than that, and offer an alternative. And there are plenty of those – unfortunately at the moment the only examples I can think of also look really amazing: Mariella Frostrup, Claudia Winkleman, Joan Bakewell. And then you've got someone like Alexa [Chung] who, frustratingly for the rest of us, can do everything." Arguably, Laverne is one of the few who can do everything too. And certainly she does a great deal; she only relinquished her role on The Culture Show with the start of her 6 Music show and the birth of her first child, Fergus (with her husband, DJ and TV producer Graeme Fisher). But still, her workload seems fairly unrelenting. "Well it's really hard," she admits. "I've sacrificed sleep for the last couple of years; that seems to be my bargain. It's like any other mam that works: you are bottom of your own list, and that's really hard sometimes. And you have to make difficult choices – when amazing work opportunities come in you have to say, 'No, I can't do that.' I get to stages where I take too much on and have to step back a bit. But I'm self- employed, and I only have to do what I think is the right thing. If you have quite a clear idea of your trajectory and where you want to be, and if you know yourself, then it's OK." She pauses. "And I feel excited. If you're lucky enough to able to do what you love then you should devote yourself to that, so I do." Laverne has one further role, as an ambassador for her native Sunderland. "I got given an honorary degree by Sunderland University last year," she says, "and I said in my speech how people think because I'm from Sunderland I must be this incredibly grounded, feet on the ground, not get above myself, that I'm going to be real-er because I'm regional. But actually there's a real romance about it that people miss, a real embracing escapism that's massive up there." She says her grandad, a miner and the handsomest man she ever saw, spent his entire life underground: "a mile out to sea and a mile under the sea, every day. And then in the evenings he sang. It's a big part of club-singer culture, something about escaping, not keeping your feet on the ground, and reaching, imagining and having a fantasy life." You wonder if the apple has fallen so very far from the tree, if Laverne is so very different to her coal-mining, club-singing grandad: hers has been a career built on reaching, imagining, on living the fantasy; her feet always firmly off the ground. Candypop – Candy and the Broken Biscuits is published by HarperCollins. Candy and the Broken Biscuits. A fabulously funny Rock Chick -lit series for teens from uber-cool celeb Lauren Laverne. Tune in for a hyper-real rollercoaster ride to Glasto and beyond! Candy Caine is fifteen years old and she's on a mission: to escape dullsville! Candy knows she's destined for bigger things and is determined to leave boring small town Bishopspool and make it big in the music business. Oh - and find BioDad, her real dad, who will most definitely be cool and, of course, will verify her very own specialness (of which she is secretly convinced).With the help of a battered old guitar and her Fairy Godbrother, Candy and her band mates will attempt to make it in the star-studded, crazy world of rock and roll! Hilarious adventures from the witty pen of cooler-than-cool debut author Lauren Laverne. Genre: Children's Fiction. Lauren Laverne Biography. Lauren Cecilia Fisher, better known as Lauren Fisher, is a Britain radio DJ who is currently hosting the BBC Radio 6 Music. She is one of the multi-talented personality who is a professional model and also a singer in the rock band Kenickie. She is married to DJ Graeme Fisher. The husband and wife are blessed with two children, Fergus James and Mark. Early Life. Lauren Laverne was born on 28th April 1978, Sunderland, , in a joint family. Her father was a sociology lecturer at , where as her mother was a teacher. She joined St. Mary’s R.C. Primary School during 1982. There she became friends with Marie Nixon and guitarist Kenickie . Later, she moved to St. Anthony’s Girls’ School from 1989-1994 where she met Emma Jackson . In 1996, she passed her degree from College. She also formed a teen punk band, Kenickie along with Laverne’s brother Peter, Marie du Santiago, Emmy-Kate Montrose and Johnny X . Career. Lauren started her career as a singer. She was famous for her funny and acerbic interview style in her music on comedy panel shows including Never Mind the Buzzcocks and Have I Got News for You . Her solo EP, Take These Flower Away , played at the Reading Festival made her top 20 for the only time in her singing career in 2000. Apart from this, she has provided guest vocals on the Divine Comedy’s 2004 single Come Home Billy Bird . After rising as a singer, she also made her appearance in TV series. Her first television presenting job was Play UK’s series, The Alphabet Show, along with . She also presented Planet Pop and Loves Like A Dog for , Fanorama for E4, Party in the Park and Pop for Five and Orange Playlist for ITV. She is also a reporter of RI: SE. Besides reporting, she also presented a documentary for on the famous US hit TV show Buffy the Vampire Salary , called Buffy: Television with Bite . On 6th May 2010, she co-hosted the Alternative Election night of Channel 4’s with , David Mitchelle , and Charlie Booker . Likewise, she also rejoined Channel 4’s satirical news program called 10 O’s Clock Live as a co-host in the same year. Moreover, she has published her own first novel Candypop- Candy and the Broken Biscuits on her journey in the world’s biggest musical festival, Glastonbury , in 2010. Currently, she has been hosting a radio show on BBC 6 Music . Personal Life. Firstly, Lauren was in a love affair with a music journalist Taylor Parkes while in Kenickie. Later, she was linked with Malcolm Middleton , a Scottish musician. Lauren married DJ Graeme Fisher in Country Durham. The husband-wife dated few year and tied the knot in August 2005 and are residing in the city of Muswell Hill London. In 2007, she became a mother at the age of 29 with the birth of her child Fergus James . She also announced that she was pregnant with their second child on her BBC Radio 6 Music . And on 20th September 2010, she gave birth to her second child, Mark . Net Worth. Lauren is one of the successful British celebrity who has earned name and fame from her career as a singing, television presenter, author, and comedian. Though there is no exact figure regarding her net worth, looking at her lavish lifestyle she probably has a net worth in seven figures. She with her husband also owns a flat located in Sunderland. Lauren Laverne. auren Cecilia Fisher (née Gofton ) (born 28 April 1978), known professionally as Lauren Laverne , is an English radio DJ, television presenter, author, singer and comedienne. She presents a radio show on BBC Radio 6 Music, and has presented television programmes including 10 O'Clock Live for Channel 4, and The Culture Show and coverage of the for the BBC. Laverne has written a published novel entitled Candypop: Candy and the Broken Biscuits . In her previous career as a musician, Laverne was best known for being lead singer and sometime guitarist in pop band Kenickie, although her greatest chart success came when she performed vocals on Mint Royale's single "Don't Falter". Contents. Contents [ edit | edit source ] Early years [edit] [ edit | edit source ] Laverne was born and brought up in Sunderland in a large family. [1] [2] One grandfather had been a shipbuilder, another a coalminer. [2] Her father was an academicand her mother was a teacher. [2] She first attended St. Mary's R.C. Primary School in 1982, where she befriended Marie Nixon, later to become a fellow Kenickieguitarist, and then St. Anthony's Girls' School between 1989 and 1994, where she and Nixon met Emma Jackson. Laverne went on to study at City of from 1994 to 1996. [ citation needed ] Music [edit] [ edit | edit source ] During her time at college, Laverne, Nixon and Jackson formed a teen punk band called Kenickie with Laverne's brother Peter, taking the stage names Lauren Laverne, Marie du Santiago, Emmy-Kate Montrose and Johnny X. As their popularity grew, Laverne had to alternate between studying for A-levels and touring with the band. Despite this strain, Laverne won a place at nearby Durham University to study Medieval History, but her entry was deferred in order to concentrate on the band in 1996-97. The band's rise to prominence in 1997 coincided with moving from Sunderland to London, as the thrice-weekly commute was proving too costly and tiring, which meant she never took up the place. In all, Kenickie achieved four top 40 hits and a top ten album. Laverne became as famous for her funny and acerbic interview style as for her music, making her a popular contestant on comedy panel shows such as Never Mind the Buzzcocks and Have I Got News for You , memorably referring to contemporaneous girl group the Spice Girls as "Tory scum". [3] In 2000, she brought out a solo EP, Take These Flowers Away , contributed a version of "In the Bleak Midwinter" to Xfm London'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. She subsequently provided guest vocals on the Divine Comedy's 2004 single "Come Home Billy Bird". [4] Television [edit] [ edit | edit source ] Laverne's first television presenting job was Play UK's series The Alphabet Show , with Chris Addison, made while Kenickie were still together. She has since presented Planet Pop and Loves Like A Dog forChannel 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 Tonight and appearing as an expert in a music special of BBC One'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 and the BRIT Awards. She also presented a documentary for Sky One on the rise of popularity of the US hit TV Show , called Buffy: Television With Bite . This was done when the show was returning for its sixth season in 2001. In 2004 she was a regular guest on the quiz show HeadJam . She could also be seen (uncredited) briefly in the film Shaun of the Dead , where she was "zombie outside flat" (more obvious in the bonus content). In 2005, she became host of ITV's Saturday morning music show CD:UK , along with and Johny Pitts, starting on 17 September with a programme featuring Laverne interviewing Sir Paul McCartney. The show finished in April 2006. in April 2006, she appeared as guest host of Never Mind the Buzzcocks . In August, Laverne presented Channel 4's coverage of the . In March 2007, she presented the NME Awards live from theHammersmith Palais. In July 2007, Laverne appeared on the satirical comedy show Mock the Week , and on Have I Got News for You on 14 December of the same year. She appeared on Never Mind the Buzzcocks on 10 January 2008, this time as a guest. In September 2008, Laverne appeared again on Mock the Week . In March 2008, Laverne appeared on the and Friends show with fellow Sunderland musicians , and on Would I Lie to You? . From 2006 to 2010, she was a regular presenter with the weekly BBC arts magazine programme The Culture Show , alongside . She also presented the second series of the late-night Channel 4 music show Transmission with T-Mobile opposite Steve Jones. Laverne replaced radio DJ on the talent show Orange Mobile Act Unsigned , which searches for the top unsigned acts in the country. Laverne became a regular presenter in the new 'magazine' format third series of It's Not Easy Being Green , first broadcast on BBC Two in January 2009. She also narrated Tough Guy or Chicken? on BBC Three in August 2009. On 6 May 2010, she was a co-host of Channel 4's Alternative Election Night , along with Jimmy Carr, David Mitchell and . Starting 20 January 2011, she re-joined her co-hosts on Channel 4's satirical news programme 10 O'Clock Live . [5] Her position on 10 O'Clock Live has been controversial, with literary and television critic Ed Cumming of The Telegraph asking [6] "What is the point of her? It was like watching your dumbo big sister die at a talent show." Radio [edit] [ edit | edit source ] Having previously sat in for BBC Radio 1's , Laverne joined Xfm London in 2002, co-hosting a Saturday morning show with Mark Webster, while occasionally standing in for various DJs on BBC Radio 6 Music, including ' breakfast show where one morning she interviewed her own brother Pete (who records under the name J Xaverre) Laverne took over XFM's drivetime slot from Zoë Ball at the start of 2004, winning Best Newcomer at the Commercial Radio Awards in 2004. [7] 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. However, Laverne has recently guest presented on BBC Radio 2. On 9 February 2008, she stood in for Russell Brand on Radio 2, whilst he was taking a break. She presents her own Monday–Friday 6 Music show, 10am–1pm. [8] Laverne was widely quoted by mass media in early March 2010 when her emotional reaction to proposals to close 6 Music captured the attention of her listeners and the press. Following the BBC Director General's announcement that the station would be recommended for closure as part of cost-cutting plans, she started her show saying "This is probably not the easiest of day for us, probably not the easiest day to be on the radio, to be honest with you, especially not this station, which I love with all my heart. So thank you very much for all your kind words." [9] In May 2012 [10] fellow 6 Music DJ Huey Morgan accused Laverne of not programming her own radio shows. On Twitter he tweeted "She just shows up and plays on Twitter." Writing [edit] [ edit | edit source ] In 2010, she published her first novel Candypop – Candy and the Broken Biscuits , about rock chick Candy Caine, 15, on her journey to the world's biggest music festival, Glastonbury. The book is published byHarperCollins. Personal life [edit] [ edit | edit source ] Laverne dated music journalist Taylor Parkes while in the band Kenickie and later Malcolm Middleton, from the band Arab Strap. She married television producer and DJ Graeme Fisher in [11] in August 2005, [12] and the couple live in Muswell Hill, London. [13] Laverne also retains a flat in Sunderland. The couple had their first child, a boy named Fergus James, in October 2007. [14] On 30 March 2010, Laverne revealed on her BBC Radio 6 Music show that she was pregnant with their second child. Lauren gave birth to the couple's second son, Mack, on 20 September 2010. She is a vegetarian. [15] In 2005, Laverne's passion for her home city resulted in her becoming an ambassador promoting and raising awareness of Sunderland. She received an honorary fellowship from the in July 2009. [16] Laverne is a supporter of the Labour Party, she called the Spice Girls "Tory scum" for their support for the Conservatives in the 1997 general election. [17] Laverne's mother, Celia Gofton, was elected a councillor for the Pallion ward in the City of Sunderland in 2006, and sought nomination as Labour candidate in 2008 in the Sunderland Central constituency but was defeated by Julie Elliott, who went on to win the seat for Labour in the 2010 general election. [18] Laverne identifies herself as Roman Catholic, although she compares them to the Mafia and remains "incredibly angry" at them. [19] Lauren Laverne. Born 28 April 1978, known professionally as Lauren Laverne, is an English radio DJ, television presenter, author, singer and comedienne. She presents a radio show on BBC Radio 6 Music, and has presented television programmes including 10 O'Clock Live for Channel 4, and The Culture Show and coverage of the Glastonbury Festival for the BBC. Laverne has written a published novel entitled Candypop: Candy and the Broken Biscuits. Considers that the 60's were pivotal in the current geo-political situation. In her previous career as a musician, Laverne was best known for being lead singer and sometime guitarist in pop band Kenickie, although her greatest chart success came when she performed vocals on Mint Royale's single "Don't Falter".