“I like the idea of going back to a place so it becomes a deep-rooted tradition”
Radio 2 host Jo Whiley loves her garden. She tells Alex Reece how the natural world keeps her grounded during a busy summer schedule of festivals, DJing and family life
Last month, Jo Whiley’s family banned her from gardening at the weekend: “My son was like: ‘Can you do less in the garden?’ I had to go and actually interact with the family! So the whole time I was talking to them, I was looking – I kept seeing weeds...”
Time spent in her garden in the Northamptonshire countryside is one way the DJ finds headspace in her demanding schedule – including an evening show on Radio 2 and covering Glastonbury Festival for the BBC, plus four children, aged eight to 25. “The garden is a place I can escape to. It makes me feel restored,” she says. “Nature makes you feel great.” Such is Jo’s passion that when Radio 2 created five Feel Good Gardens at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in May – including a ‘Jo Whiley Scent Garden’ – it was a dream come true.
For someone who has logged so many up-there life experiences – from interviewing Madonna to watching Coldplay headline Glastonbury from the side of the stage – it is the natural world, family and friends, Jo says, that bring her the most happiness. “I don’t move in media circles. Even the musicians and people that I know are pretty grounded. Just having really great friends and family – that’s what it’s all about.”
FESTIVAL FEVER
Her enthusiasm for music remains undimmed, however, and the whole Whiley-Morton clan (Jo is married to music executive Steve Morton) are excited about this year’s Glastonbury, where Jo is working as usual. “We literally have separate experiences, and we meet up on Tuesday afterwards when we get home,” she says. “The kids just deposit all the muddy boots and clothes and [Steve and I] have to work our way through the laundry.”
On this year’s bill, Jo can’t wait to see The xx, Lorde, Katy Perry and Radiohead in particular. “I was there when they did Glastonbury last time round,” she remembers. “I think it was ’97, when it was the apocalyptic year of the rain. I did that with John Peel and I remember him giving me a piggy back at the end of the night because the mud was so deep. It really felt like it was the end of the world.”
BREAKING NEW GROUND
Dressed in black jeans and a sweatshirt, with brightyellow Vans trainers, Jo is as cool as ever, making it hard to believe she joined the BBC 24 years ago. One of the big changes is that there are now many more women in radio. When Jo started out, it was “very male”, she says: “Radio 1 was Simon Bates, Dave Lee Travis... I wasn’t part of that Radio 1 Roadshow, personality DJ sort of thing – I didn’t relate to that at all.”
A shining light in broadcasting while Jo was a student in Brighton (where she volunteered for BBC Radio Sussex) was Annie Nightingale, whose left-of-centre music taste and friendly attitude struck a chord. “You got to know the various listeners that she spoke to every single week, and it was like a club. I just wanted
to be part of Annie’s gang,” Jo says. When she got to know her at Radio 1, she would pick her brains – especially about having children and working at the station. “I don’t know whether she actually gave me any advice. I think it was just the way she lived her life,” she recalls. “It was all perfectly do-able.”
While presenting the Evening Session with Steve Lamacq, Jo was at the epicentre of the Britpop explosion in the mid-90s. “I was just lucky that I was in the right place at the right time,” she says. “Having Oasis in for their very first session – doing interviews with Blur or Pulp, Radiohead and the Manic Street Preachers – that was such an incredibly exciting time and a wonderful thing to be part of.”
When she moved to daytime, Jo established the Live Lounge, where Coldplay, Amy Winehouse and Adele all performed before hitting the big time. “It was fantastic to be there at the very beginning of their careers,” she says. (And clearly the feeling is mutual; Jo describes Chris Martin as “one of my greatest friends”.) Now at Radio 2, supporting new talent is still part of her remit; she was on stage to introduce the first
“Gardening is very grounding. After a lovely day in the garden I feel calmer – just an enormous sense of wellbeing”
session by Rag’n’Bone Man at the SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas, earlier this year. “He’s everywhere,” says Jo.
A love of music has passed on to her children – Jo’s sons, Cass, 16, and Jude, 18, are in a band together. “Cass just wants to be a musician; he loves Jimi Hendrix, Led Zep, Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac. And Jude loves anything and everything from Radiohead to Arctic Monkeys and Foo Fighters. So we’ve got similar music taste but they’re developing their own as well.” Meanwhile, Coco, her eight-year-old, likes music more than anyone else in the family. “I don’t know if it’s a generational change that’s happened in society, but she is so up on music. We’ve had a lot of Ed Sheeran and The Chainsmokers going on in the car.” Coco and elder sister India are Katy Perry fans and can’t wait to watch her at Glastonbury.
The family does loves a festival – Wilderness, Camp Bestival and The Big Feastival are among Jo’s favourites. The burgeoning number of such events is, she reckons, a consequence of Glastonbury’s off-thescale success: “It’s been necessary to invent other festivals. You can only have one Glastonbury but there are millions of people who want to go to it. And it was quite an obvious thing to do, for people to try to recreate the areas of Glastonbury that they really love.”
FAMILY TRADITIONS
Another family fixture is their summer caravan holiday in Cornwall, during which they play volleyball on the beach or go cliff jumping into the sea. “It’s a really fun week,” Jo says. “We share a boat with a friend of ours, so we go around the estuary between Rock and Padstow. About five years ago, we were out in the boat and all these dolphins appeared, about 30 of them, and they were swimming around us. It was just the greatest moment of my entire life.” These holidays – and the dolphin encounter – provided the inspiration for the charity shopping bag Jo designed for Cornish brand Seasalt this spring in aid of The Fishermen’s Mission.
Jo was introduced to Cornwall by her grandparents: “I like the idea of going back to places throughout your life so it becomes a deep-rooted tradition. I think that’s a healthy thing.” She also has them to thank for her love of gardening, and has fond memories of spending time at their allotment. “And then my mum used to run a village shop and she grew dahlias,” Jo says. “It’s just been something that we’ve always done in the family.”
In her garden today, there’s a vegetable patch where she grows carrots and potatoes with Coco. “We moved here when she was tiny so it became a thing for us to do together.” Jo also sows varieties of veg that her elder daughter, India, likes to cook: “I’m not a very good cook at all,” she admits. “Last year India persuaded me to grow chard and kale, things I wouldn’t normally go near, and she cooks it! It’s a good division of labour.”
Her favourite thing, though, is flowers, and in the garden’s deep herbaceous beds she likes to grow astrantias, roses and euphorbias. “I like discovering plants and getting the colours right. I’ve got lots of blacks and blues and pinks and interesting shapes that contrast together.” Although she often listens to Jeremy Vine while she’s digging and weeding during the day, Jo also enjoys gardening in silence. “I just think it’s very grounding. When I’ve had a lovely gardening day, I feel kind of cleansed and calmer – just that enormous sense of wellbeing.”
A down-to-earth state of mind has helped her to maintain a good balance between work and family over the years, and she credits the support of close friends and relatives (she lives near to her parents in Northamptonshire). While there’s a great deal of juggling involved (“There’s a lot of balls that get
dropped all the time!”), Jo has a refreshingly realistic approach to parenting: “I think perfection is completely unobtainable and will only drive you mad. Just don’t attempt it!” she advises. “Chaos is good; chaos is fine.”
Likewise, she embraces the ageing process in a positive way: “I think confidence is one of the main advantages of getting older,” Jo says. “When you’re younger there are things that you think matter that actually don’t at all – whether it’s your body/ body image, the thoughts of other people, achieving great success. When you’re older, you just think: “Thank God, I’m alive!”
In the autumn, she plans to run the Royal Parks Half Marathon in aid of Mencap. “The charity is close to my heart,” says Jo, whose younger sister, Frances, suffers from a rare chromosomal disorder called Cri du Chat. Growing up with Frances, who has severe learning difficulties, gave her many valuable life lessons early on: “I think it’s taught me to be aware and more caring, and that’s passed down to my kids as well. It’s important not to be prejudiced and to be more accepting of people who are a little bit different.” But Frances is in a good place at the moment, she adds: “That’s been one of the best things about the past five years, to see her being more independent.”
And so she looks forward to another busy year. After Glastonbury, Jo will be compering The Big Feastival, Alex James’ and Jamie Oliver’s celebration of food and music: “I end up DJing in the Cheese Hub with Alex and Jamie every year, which is always a lot of fun.” Then there’s Wilderness and Latitude, with the family joining her for all of the above, and Radio 2 Live in Hyde Park. With every month holding some new adventure, Jo is content with where she’s at right now. “Chelsea Flower Show was a big thing on the bucket list,” she smiles. “I’ve done a lot so far – I’ve never wanted to jump out of a plane or anything like that – maybe just to see a dolphin again, that would be enough.” Jo Whiley will be presenting coverage of Glastonbury 2017 on BBC TV, radio, online and iPlayer. Her BBC Radio 2 show runs from Monday to Thursday, 8–10pm.