EYE CANDY

I have been a fan, or should I say 'appreciative observer' of Lauren Laverne since she first strummed her way into the limelight in the mid 90's with band Kenickie. Back then, I was brimming with notions of girl power, obsessed with coloured hair gels and lived my life through Smash Hits and J-17, so appreciated a strong female Feist figure as much as my weekly pocket money. Top of my tree of respect were: Republica's Saffron, Alisha's Attic and the youthfully anthemic Shampoo, who were always a raucous hit at the local mobile disco.

Courtney Love, who I was aware of then, but through reputation and antics aplenty flew a little out of my radar, said this:

"They're a big bunch of sex, that band Kenickie. They're a big, raw-boned bunch of fucking sex — all three of them and the boy. I hope they get good. I hope we're a good example to them, I hope this record's huge and then the big labels will start sniffing around and then those big fucking raw-boned sexy Newcastle [sic] girls will be huge and have Number Ones and there will be an Amazon planet the way I want it."

Well now, Laverne has added Author to her string of career ad-libs which include: TV Presenter, Journalist, DJ and Musician - phew. Candy Pop is her debut novel, and follows a 15 year old girl as she embarks on a journey into the pop industry... wonder how she came up with that? I am totally going to read this as I suspect it will take me right back to the days of recording my own tapes to listen to on my Boots fluoro personal cassette player, whilst probably on a trip to Longleat.

BookArmy are giving away 5 signed copies of the book, put your name down HERE to be in with a chance. I have.