Annie Nightingale, DJ

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 19 July 2020

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Annie Nightingale was BBC Radio 1’s first female presenter and is its longest-serving DJ, celebrating her 50th anniversary at the station this year. Born and brought up in south west London, she fell in love with the romance and mystery of radio through her father’s meticulous tuning of their home set to broadcasts from exotic places like Prague and Hilversum. On leaving school at 17, she spent a year on a journalism course in central London. After relocating to Brighton, she worked her way up through local newspapers to the national press and magazines and eventually, by the mid-1960s, to TV. She interviewed the Beatles as a young journalist, and gave early support to artists including David Bowie, Ian Dury, Eminem and Primal Scream. In 1970, she was the first woman DJ to join Radio 1 with a Sunday evening show. From 1978 to 1982, Annie was the sole female presenter on the BBC TV music show The Old Grey Whistle Test, the only woman to have held the job. Her excitement for new music and musical genres from acid house to grime, hasn’t wavered. She currently hosts a weekly Radio 1 show called Annie Nightingale Presents… (on air on Wednesdays between 1 and 3 am) and has received countless awards from Caner of the Year to Commander of the Order of the British Empire, which she received this year for services to radio. Annie has a son and a daughter from her first marriage. She is twice divorced and lives in London. DISC ONE: Bury a Friend by Billie Eilish DISC TWO: Some People by Ethel Merman DISC THREE: Instant Karma! by John Lennon DISC FOUR: Too Many Fish in the Sea by Marvelettes DISC FIVE: Space Oddity by David Bowie DISC SIX: Freedom by Beyoncé Featuring Kendrick Lamar DISC SEVEN: Gymnopédies No. 1, composed by Erik Satie, conducted by Peter Breiner, performed by Gerald Garcia (guitar) and Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra, Košice DISC EIGHT: My Way by Sid Vicious BOOK CHOICE: Catch 22 by Joseph Heller LUXURY ITEM: A saxophone CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Space Oddity by David Bowie Presenter: Lauren Laverne Producer: Cathy Drysdale

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts
0:04.6	Hello, I'm Lauren LeVern and this is the Desert Island Disks podcast.
0:08.3	Every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take
0:13.0	with them if they were cast away to a desert island.
0:16.4	For right reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast.
0:20.2	I hope you enjoy listening.
0:30.0	Music Music
0:43.1	My cast away this week is the broadcaster Annie Nightingale.
0:46.8	Always forward-facing, she's remained at the sharp end of popular culture for over half
0:51.4	a century, searching for new music, spearheading, new movements and supporting emerging artists.
0:57.6	From David Bowie and Ian Dury to acid house, breakbeat and beyond.
1:02.2	As well as breaking artists, she's known for breaking boundaries.
1:05.7	She was a music journalist when the BBC created Radio One.
1:08.9	Their all-male response to the hugely popular pirate radio stations of the 60s.
1:14.4	She called them out on their sexism in print and they finally gave her a show, becoming
1:18.6	Radio One's first female DJ in 1970.
1:22.6	50 years later, she remains their longest serving presenter and has won a host of accolades,
1:28.2	including a CBA in this year's New Year's Honours List, which she describes as the coolest
1:33.3	big-up ever.
1:35.0	She says, I didn't get on the radio to be famous.
1:37.4	I only wanted it as a medium to get the music out there.
1:40.6	It's like calling someone up on the phone and playing the record for them to say, hey,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.