Annie's Biography
“She was always the first on to the floor, last to slide under the table” Gillian Reynolds, Daily Telegraph
December 2008: Annie wins the PRS/John Peel Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music Radio from the Radio Academy. This award was first created in 1987, was re-named the John Peel Award in 2005, and Annie is the first female ever to win it.
April/March/May 2008: The first ever BBC Introducing Annie Nightingale British tour, appearing in major cities including London, Brighton, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Birmingham, Reading, Cardiff, Leeds, Nottingham, with major and upcoming acts The Plump DJs, Krafty Kuts, Adam Freeland, Alex Metric, Adsorb, Ils, Far Too Loud, J Mekka, and many more.
May - September 2008: Annie embarks on the longest festival season yet, beginning at Gatecrasher Summer Soundsystem in May through to Bestival Isle Of Wight in September, taking in Snowbombing Austria, a string of festival dates as part of Rizla's own stage within festival at Rockness, The Big Chill and Bestival, as well as Glastonbury, (maintaining the opening Breaks party vibe), Wickerman and Cumbria Calling.
February 2008: Annie's Radio One show makes a hat trick of three wins in a row for Best Radio Show at the International Breakspoll Awards in London.
June 2007: For the second consecutive event, Annie hosts her own stage at Glastonbury to open the festival. Her other appearances at festivals in summer 2007 include events in Romania, Hungary, Spain and Bestival at the Isle Of Wight.
May 2007: Annie nominated for Outstanding Contribution to Dance Music in the DJ Magazine Best Of British Awards.
April 2007: The British Radio Academy Sony Awards nominates Annie for the shortlist for a one-off award, celebrating the Academy’s 25th anniversary, entitled the Broadcasters’ Broadcaster. Other Nominees include John Humphreys, John Peel, and Kenny Everett.
March 2007: Annie releases her first compilation CD in 12 years entitled Y4K: Annie Nightingale Presents on Distinctive Records. This reaches no 12 in the i-Tunes Dance Chart.
February 2007: Annie wins Best Radio Show at The International Breakspoll Awards for second year running.
Background: Annie Nightingale is best known as Britain’s first female DJ on Radio 1. She is now the station’s longest serving broadcaster. She remains the only female DJ in the world to have been honoured with an MBE by The Queen.
Her career has been a fantastical musical journey beginning with hanging out with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Who, becoming a journalist and TV presenter, and being a co-owner of a chain of fashion boutiques. Having cracked the all male preserve of djs at Radio 1, she began a long career in broadcasting, always choosing her own music, and championing dozens of artists who later became world wide successes.
Then a second career in television began when she took over as solo presenter of BBC TV’s legendary series The Old Grey Whistle Test, recently voted top music programme in The 100 Best TV Shows of all time.
Annie brought her irreverent humour to the show at exactly the time of the punk revolution. She has always played and enthused about underground and new music, and through her championing of breakbeat, she is now known as Queen Of Breaks. She djs at clubs and festivals all over the world, with concomitant scrapes and adventures. She has been bugged in Russia, drugged in Iraq and mugged in Cuba, the last with nearly fatal consequences.
Annie has written two autobiograpical books:, 'Chase the Fade', and more recently 'Wicked Speed', of which the foreword was written by Trainspotting’s Irvine Welsh. She is known an an energetic party animal and claims to be most proud of winning Muzik Magazine’s 'Caner Of The Year', among other Awards which include being the first female DJ to be inducted in the Radio Academy Hall Of Fame.
She has travelled to some of the world’s hotspots including Russia, China, India and Chile, making radio programmes and documentary films, and djs in Paris, Los Angeles, New York, Barcelona, and has also appeared in Serbia and Poland as well as continuing to tour extensively around the UK. She has been on the road with some of the world’s most notorious rock bands such as Primal Scream, The Who and The Rolling Stones, was once ship’s DJ on the QE2, and motor raced at Silverstone and Brand’s Hatch as part of a Radio 1 racing team. She has broadcast from Ibiza,, Miami, Berlin, Bucharest, Prague, been a runway model at a Paris fashion show, and once appeared in a soft porn movie: “I kept my clothes on, though” she commented.
Her two compilation albums, Annie On One, and Y4K: Annie Nightingale Presents have both received critical acclaim.
She is currently working with BBC TV to make a series about her unique life though music, and all its inherent shenanigans. Its been quite a trip!
Her radio show can be heard 24/7 via the BBC’s radio player on www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/annienightingale
Get more on Annie through http://www.myspace.com/djannienightingale
© MMIX