Kate Moss

Presenter0:01

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts. Hello, I'm Lauren Laverne, and this is the Desert Island Discs Podcast. Every week, I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book, and luxury they'd want to take with them if they were cast away to a desert island. And, for rights reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast. I hope you enjoy listening.

Presenter0:45

My castaway this week is the model, Kate Moss. In the beginning, fashion made her famous, but the stiletto was soon on the other foot. In an industry known for its constantly changing tastes, her longevity, over 30 years in the business to date, is a testament to her ability and willingness to adapt. In the early 90s, her slight, delicate build challenged the prevailing supermodel aesthetic of tall, curvaceous silhouettes, but as the decade progressed, she came to embody the cultural capital of cool Britannia in innumerable shoots, campaigns, and runway shows. She's been immortalised in works by artists including Lucian Freud, Tracy Emmin, and Mark Quinn. Yet despite her extraordinariness, a huge part of her success is her ability to bridge the gap between high fashion and the high street. In recent years, she's worked behind the camera too. She launched her own modelling agency in 2016. One of her first signings was her daughter Lila. She says, People think your success is just a matter of having a pretty face, but it's easy to be chewed up and spat out. You've got to stay ahead of the game to be able to stay in it. Kate Moss, welcome to Desert Island Discs. Thank you. So Kate, let's start about that ability to stay ahead of the game. How have you managed it, do you think, looking back? I think it's just instinct. It's not a plan. I just go with what I feel.

Presenter2:12

At the time.

Presenter2:14

I'm always ready for a new look.

Presenter2:18

And always poised for an adventure. You've said that you love every part of the process of creating an image. What does a dream shoot look like for you? The dream team, the dream hair and makeup, photographer, stylist, set design. It's kind of like a puzzle that gets put together with pieces of everybody. And then that puzzle comes to life on set. When I step on set, I always feel like it's my first shoot. And I always find myself on set in front of the camera thinking, what am I going to do? I've forgotten. I don't really know what I'm doing. And then as soon as the camera starts clicking, I...

Speaker 42:57

Uh

Kate Moss2:57

Maybe.

Presenter3:02

find myself in a character and once the first picture's done that's when I feel I know who I am in that story in that puzzle because I'm actually really shy in front of the camera I don't like having my picture taken when it's not at work really I don't like having selfies or snapshots I find it difficult to be myself in front of the camera I find it much easier to be somebody else And like so many people in the creative industry that you work in, you absolutely love music. Like if I could play in my next life, I always said, you know, I want to be in a band. I love singing. Chrissy Hind is always like, we could do a record. Let's do a record together. But I'm just too shy. I'm not confident enough to think of myself as a singer.

Presenter3:49

Let's get going then Kate. What's your first disc and why are you taking it with you today? This is a song that I've had specially mixed for today. I heard Kanye's Sunday service version of Back to Life and I was blown away. So this is Kanye West's Sunday service choir. So it's his gospel choir. Yeah, his gospel choir mixed with Jazzy Bee, Soul to Soul Original.

Speaker 24:11

Yeah.

Presenter4:17

And does this track take you back the original soul-to-soul version? Yeah, this is when I was.

Kate Moss4:19

Yeah.

Speaker 24:19

So to solve it.

Presenter4:23

14, my friend had a Escort Mark I with roll bars and you know and he had speakers in the back of the car. Oh pretty cool. Yeah and we would blast it down Coyden High Street and think we were the coolest people. Like it was all about blasting it as loud as we could.

Speaker 44:29

Oh

Presenter4:51

To live to reality to life and to reality

Presenter5:10

Back to Life, performed by the Sunday Service Choir and Soul to Soul, remixed especially for this programme. So Kate Moss, that track, the original version, bringing back memories of Croydon where you were born in 1974. So take me back there then. Tell me a little bit more about your early years. Did you think you'd be in Croydon forever? Were you happy growing up there? My dad worked for Pan American, so we used to go to America every summer.

Kate Moss5:27

Were you happy growing up there?

Presenter5:33

We go went to LA and drove from France to San Francisco. We went to Hawaii. So we travelled a lot when I was a kid. So I knew that there was a big world out there. And I loved. I remember coming home from a holiday once and it was raining and grey and we got in my dad's beetle and it was cold and and I remember thinking I like American cars. I like the way they smell those rental cars in America. I like the way they had those big seats at the front that you could sit across. So I already had like motivation to get out of Croydon.

Presenter6:10

And what about what the kind of games that you used to play when you were a little girl? You're known for your sense of style now. Did you often play dress up as a little kid?

Speaker 46:17

Is it okay?

Presenter6:18

I dressed my poor brother up.

Presenter6:20

As a girl and he was had like blue eyeshadow and a beauty spot and red lipstick and his name was Sylvia and I used to get him to like go outside, I'd dress him up and then go out, made him go outside, knock on my front door and let my mum answer or my dad and say is Kate coming out to play.

Presenter6:41

I must have been quite lonely.

Presenter6:43

How old were you at this point, do you think?

Presenter6:46

Ten. So you said what you must have been quite lonely? Or at least I mean, I didn't. I th I always remember saying, Mum, can somebody come over to play? And she'd be like, Why do you always have to have somebody to play with? So I just obviously needed a girlfriend to play with, so I just made my brother the girl.

Kate Moss6:48

I mean

Presenter7:04

Were you conscious of the way you looked as a kid? Was that something that you thought about? Did the family remark on it? No, definitely not. I mean, when I said to my mum that I'd met a model agent that wanted me to go to London, She was like, oh, I don't think you're very photogenic. And I was like, no, neither do I. And she was like, and I said, but you know, it might as well try. So we did. I definitely didn't think I was model material.

Presenter7:28

Kate, it's time to hear some more music. This is your second choice today. What's it going to be? A White Shade of Pale by King Curtis. My mum and dad got married in 1972. They walked down the aisle to White Shade of Pale on the organ and it's also the soundtrack to my favourite movie With Nail and I, which I've watched probably more than 100 times, I don't know. But it just is the most beautiful song.

Presenter8:25

King Curtis and a whiter shade of pale. So Kate Moss, you mentioned your mum Linda. She was a homemaker, also worked as a bar maid. What are your memories of her while you were growing up? When you think about her then? She was always quite glamorous. She was fun. And what about when you grew up? You know, you got interested in sneaking out to nightclubs as a teenager, as many teenagers do. Was she strict with you? How did she react? She tried to be. I used to go to this Wednesday night student night down at Cinderella Rockefeller's and she would say be home by midnight and one night I wasn't home and she came in her dressing gown and dragged me out.

Speaker 28:47

Yeah.

Presenter9:07

Shame. Traumatising. Off the dance floor at Cinderella Rockefeller's.

Kate Moss9:09

Tough.

Kate Moss9:11

Crafellas.

Presenter9:13

What about your dad, Peter? So he was working as a travel agent. Did that mean he was away a lot?

Presenter9:18

Yeah, he was away a lot, but he was quite, you know, he w kind they kind of let me do what I want. I w I think my thirteenth birthday I had a party and he was upstairs doing the ironing and it was carnage downstairs and he just they let me get on with it. So they were pretty relaxed. Yeah. Did they trust you then, do you think?

Speaker 49:33

I did.

Presenter9:35

No, I don't think they trusted me, but they didn't really they couldn't really control me, I don't think. I kind of did what I want. I just was very headstrong.

Presenter9:45

Your parents split when you were thirteen, I think. How did you deal with the disruption of that, the disruption to family life?

Presenter9:51

Um

Presenter9:54

I started smoking spliff.

Presenter9:56

and hanging out with a lot people a lot older than me, a lot of older boys that kind of took me under their wing and protected me. They would take me to London on the train. I would get changed from my school uniform into clothes and go to Fred's.

Speaker 410:11

Is that nice?

Presenter10:11

Is that a nightclub? It was a bar in Soho. I didn't even like the taste of alcohol. I drink Long Island iced teas'cause it didn't taste of alcohol, but then of course it's quite a strong drink. So Do you think that there was a a sadness there in the both your parents? Yeah. I was I was heartbroken.

Kate Moss10:23

In Europe about your parents.

Presenter10:29

And and what about school at that point? I mean, especially if you were going out and and partying and coming up to London? Yeah, I mean, school was just not featuring. I went and then get into class, muck about and then

Presenter10:43

Go home. And I just used to go to school to see my friends really. Where was home at that point? Who were you living with? I was living with my mum. I moved in my mum and dad split up and I lived with my mum. My brother went to live with my dad. So that was difficult as well. Yeah. And we went we would see each other at school, but um it was all a bit dark.

Kate Moss10:49

I was living with

Speaker 210:58

Ha ha ha.

Presenter11:04

Let's take a minute for some music. What's your next choice and why are you taking it with you today? Harvest Moon by Neil Young.

Presenter11:12

I started working with a photographer called David Sims when I was 15 and he introduced me to Neil Young and I used to think, oh god, this whiny old man. And then as I got older, I was with Johnny Depp and we went to Youngsville. I met Neil Young. I fell in love with the music and David Sims' son died tragically, really at a young age. He's the same age as my daughter. They were going to go into school together and they'd known each other since they were born and he sang it at his funeral and it reminds me of Kip and how amazing he was as a human and how I was so lucky to spend his 18th birthday with him for a week before he got sick again. So it's a really emotional song for me and brings up a lot of feelings.

Presenter12:07

Come a little bit closer Hear what I have to say

Speaker 412:24

Just like children sleeping

Presenter12:28

We could dream this night

Presenter12:35

Neil Young and Harvest Moon. Kate Moss, in 1988, when you were 14, you went on holiday to the Bahamas with your brother and your dad. You were on your way back home when life completely changed for you. What happened?

Presenter12:49

I was sitting in Economy somewhere, and Simon, who was Sarah Dukas's brother, came up to me on the plane and said, My sister owns a model agency. She'd like to meet you. So I went to meet her in her seat and I recognized her from the clothes show live. And so I knew she was a real model agent.

Presenter13:09

And they gave me their card and said, When you get home, come and see us. And what did you think in that moment? Did you think something would come of it?

Presenter13:18

Uh no. I would never ever have said to anybody I want to be a model because I just thought that was just vain and and somebody who said that just thinks they're beautiful and I never did. I just thought Oh my god, I've I've just gonna take a chance.

Presenter13:36

The agency started sending you off on castings. You were still 14. I mean, did anybody come with you?

Presenter13:43

My mum came with me one day and then she said, you're on your own because it was hard slog then. It was like, you know, you were given an A to Z and a list of addresses and there was eight a day from nine till six. And I was just like in awe of the everything that was in the office. It was just so busy and there were models everywhere and beautiful people and shouting and, you know, a lot of

Presenter14:07

Atmosphere. So I was, wow, this is so cool. And my mum said, You're on your own and I was like, Fine, I'll do it on my own then. So what about going from casting to casting, especially on your own? I mean, you must have ended up in some difficult situations. What kind of thing did you have to deal with?

Presenter14:23

I had a horrible experience for a bra catalogue and

Presenter14:28

I was only 15 probably and he said take your top off and I took my top off and I was really shy then and about my body and he said take your bra off and I could feel there was something wrong so I got my stuff and I ran away. How did that affect you, that experience? I think it sharpened my instincts. I was I'm very I can kind of tell a wrong and

Presenter14:55

A mile away.

Presenter14:56

Okay, it's time for some more music. Disc number four. What have you gone for? Life on Mars by David Bowe. I was living in New York. I just got to New York. My boyfriend at the time, Mario Sorrenti, he was from New York and luckily I got to live with his family. His mother, Francesca, took care of me. She was a photographer. She had a studio on Sixth Avenue with a dark room. And so when Mario was printing pictures, I would listen to Life on Mars and dance around the studio and think that in my fantasy that that song was about me, the girl with the mousy brown hair whose mummy is yelling no and her daddy has told her to go. That was like the soundtrack to my childhood at the time.

Presenter15:45

Oh man, look at those cavemen go!

Presenter15:50

It's the freaky shell host.

Presenter15:54

Take a look at her, oh ma'am, feeding up the wrong guy, oh ma'am, wonder if you'll ever know.

Presenter16:05

Who's on the best of the show?

Presenter16:09

Is their life on Mars?

Presenter16:14

David Bowie and Life on Mars. Kate Moss, the photographer Corin Day, shot a series of photographs of you on the beach at Canberra Sands in East Sussex in 1990. You were 16 and the shoot was for the Face magazine. Now those images went on to define that early part of the decade. The theme was the summer of love. What do you remember about the shoot? You know, that scrunched up nose that is on the cover. She would say, snort like a pig, to get that picture. And I would be like, I don't want to snort like a pig. And she'd be like, snort like a pig, that's when it looks good.

Presenter16:49

So she was happy to push your buttons and to push you. I cried a lot. Did you? Yeah. What did you cry about?

Speaker 216:51

But

Presenter16:55

Being naked.

Presenter16:57

I didn't want to take my top off and I didn't want I was really, really self-conscious about my body and she would say, If you don't take your top off, I'm not going to book you for L.

Presenter17:09

And I would cry.

Presenter17:11

I'm looking at you and listening to you talking about that and remembering that. And it sounds like in some ways it's quite difficult to take yourself back there. Yeah, it is quite.

Kate Moss17:16

Yeah.

Presenter17:20

It's painful, because she was my best friend.

Presenter17:24

And we and I really loved her.

Presenter17:27

But she was a very

Presenter17:29

tricky person to work with. But you know, the pictures are amazing. So she got what she wanted and I

Presenter17:39

suffered for them, but in the end they did me a world of good, really. I mean they they did change my career.

Kate Moss17:47

I mean

Presenter17:51

Kate, it's time for some more music. Number five, What Have You Gone For and Why?

Presenter17:55

O Sweet Nothing by Lou Reed in The Velvet Underground.

Presenter17:58

I love the Velvet Underground. Them hanging out at the, you know, CBGB's with Iggy Pop. That picture of Iggy and Lou and David is I've had in a frame for a long time since I was a kid. And O Sweet Nothing has got my best friends naming it. Jimmy B, Jimmy Brown. And I played it every day during the pandemic for some reason. It uplifted me.

Speaker 418:25

Say a word for Jimmy Brown

Speaker 418:31

You ain't got nothing at all

Speaker 418:38

Yeah.

Kate Moss18:38

Not the shirt right off his back.

Kate Moss18:44

Uh

Presenter18:44

Ain't got no

Presenter18:51

And say word for gingerbread

Presenter18:55

The Velvet Underground and Oh, Sweet Nothing. Kate Moss, the American designer Calvin Klein booked you on the strength of those Corinde photos, and you shot an underwear campaign for him with the actor Mark Wahlberg in nineteen ninety two. How do you remember that shoot?

Presenter19:12

Not very

Presenter19:13

Good memories. Right, why not?

Presenter19:16

Um

Presenter19:17

He was very macho and it was all about him and his he had a big entourage. So this is this is Mark, your co star in the campaign. Yeah. And I was just this kind of model.

Kate Moss19:25

So this is

Kate Moss19:26

Yeah.

Kate Moss19:28

Yeah.

Presenter19:34

So, what you felt objectified, it sounds like. Yeah, completely. And.

Kate Moss19:36

Yeah.

Kate Moss19:37

And

Presenter19:38

vulnerable and

Presenter19:41

Scared.

Presenter19:42

The images were went everywhere. The campaign i itself was a huge success, but it was it sounds like it was pretty traumatic for you, wasn't it? Yeah, and I think they played on my vulnerability.

Kate Moss19:49

Yeah, and I

Presenter19:52

And I was like quite young and innocent, so Galvin loved that.

Kate Moss19:55

Yeah.

Presenter19:58

Luckily, I was living with Mario's mum, Francesca, and she insisted that she come with me.

Presenter20:04

Because I did really didn't feel well at all before the shoot. For like a week or two, I couldn't get out of bed and I had severe anxiety and the doctor gave me Valium. And she said, You're not having those pills if you feel sick, because it would manifest as like nausea and I couldn't get off bed. So she would give me if I felt nauseous, she would give me like a quarter of a Valium or a half of a Valium or whatever. But she never gave me the actual bottle. And then after the shoot, it was fine. And it kind of wore off the anxiety.

Kate Moss20:33

But

Presenter20:41

You'd become a huge success by that point and like anybody in the public eye, that brought criticism with it at home. There was a backlash in particular in 1993 after you were 19 and Vogue ran the series of photographs that had been taken of you by Corinne Day. You were wearing your underwear in this flat, and I think some of those photos are now in the VA archive. But at the time, they were very controversial. Some commentators accusing you of glorifying thinness and drug use. The style was kind of dubbed heroin chic. What were your thoughts about the press reaction and what they were saying about you? I think.

Presenter21:20

I was a scapegoat for a lot of

Presenter21:24

People's problems. I was never anorexic. I never have been. I had never taken heroin.

Presenter21:32

I was thin because I didn't get fed at shoots or in shows and I'd always been thin.

Presenter21:39

And it was a fashion shoot. It was shot at my flat.

Presenter21:44

And, you know, that's how I could afford to live at the time. And I think it was a shock because I wasn't voluptuous and I wasn't.

Presenter21:51

I was just a normal girl. I wasn't a glamours and model, and I think that shocked them. People were writing things regardless. There is one quote that's attributed to you in two thousand nine, Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.

Speaker 222:05

Oh yeah.

Presenter22:06

So basically I was doing an interview and at the time I was living with Jimmy B and my friend and she was a bit of a snacker and she so on the fridge hi Jimmy B had written, Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.

Presenter22:22

And when the person asked me, I don't know why, it just came, just kept, because I was, that was what was happening at the time. We were talking, we were saying it, because it was funny.

Presenter22:31

But obviously.

Speaker 422:32

Anyway

Kate Moss22:32

Just taken out of context.

Presenter22:35

They were like sound bite and that was that.

Presenter22:38

Time for some more music. What's your next choice, and why are you taking it with you to the island? Sympathy for the Devil by The Rolling Stones.

Presenter22:47

I was with Marie Sorrenti, we were in New York, we had a quite volatile relationship, and we were going down the street and r he was we were having an argument, and we walked into this bar and they were playing Sympathy for the Devil, and I walked in and my mood

Presenter23:05

Changed.

Presenter23:06

And I was like, oh my God.

Presenter23:08

Music can change the way I feel.

Presenter23:11

And I'm very good friends with Marlon Richards, who's Keith's son. I'm godmother to his daughter Ella. And I was best friends with Anita Pallenberg and Marianne Faithful. So I've got very like my thread with the Rolling Stones is quite multi-layered. This song always brings me joy.

Presenter23:33

Please introduce myself. I'm a man of wealth and taste.

Presenter23:40

I need tracks for Juvenors

Presenter23:44

Who gets killed before they re-

Speaker 423:45

Fuck the man.

Speaker 423:51

Pleased to meet you. Hope you get my day.

Presenter23:55

Oh yeah, but what's puzzling you is a

Presenter24:02

The Rolling Stones and Sympathy for the Devil with

Speaker 224:05

To your uncle

Presenter24:05

Uh

Speaker 224:05

Case

Presenter24:05

in the mix there somewhere, I believe, Kate Moss.

Speaker 224:06

Is there someone

Presenter24:09

So Kate, you've always been an incredibly hard worker, hugely successful, but you've played hard too. Where does that fun loving streak in you come from, do you think? Well, my mum used to say you can't have fun all the time, and and I say, why not?

Presenter24:26

Why? Can't I? I wanted to go to work and do my job, and I wanted to have fun as well.

Presenter24:32

In 2005, a newspaper published photographs that appeared to show you taking cocaine. How did you react when you saw those pictures?

Presenter24:41

I felt sick and

Presenter24:44

and was quite angry because everybody I knew took drugs. So for me for them to focus on me and to try and take my daughter away I thought was really hypocritical.

Presenter24:57

No charges were brought against you at all. And you issued a statement apologizing to the people who'd who you'd let down by your behavior. Why did you want to make that statement and speak publicly?

Presenter25:11

I mean, I'd kind of had to apologize, really.

Presenter25:15

Because

Presenter25:16

If people were.

Presenter25:19

Looking up to me.

Presenter25:22

I had to apologize. Your friends in the industry supported you at the time, and you've done the same for them. In 2011, you backed your friend John Galiano after he was found guilty of racist abuse. You also testified on behalf of your former partner, Johnny Depp, in his recent libel trial. Those gestures could have backfired on you. What made you come out on their behalf?

Presenter25:44

I believe in the truth and I believe in fairness and justice. I know that John Galliano is not a bad person. He had an alcohol problem and people turn. People aren't themselves when they drink.

Presenter26:02

and they say things that they would never say if they were sober.

Presenter26:06

I know the truth about Donnie. I know he never kicked me down the stairs.

Presenter26:12

I had to say that truth.

Presenter26:15

Let's take a minute for some music. What's your next choice and why are you taking it with you today? Oh, My Sweet Lord by George Harrison.

Presenter26:24

I was shopping with Anita Pallenberg and Marianne Fayford, and we were buying last minute Christmas presents, and I went, Oh my God, is that George Harrison? And he came out of the shop and said, Is it you? and I said, What? And he went, When I'm not watching Formula One, I watch Fashion T V.

Presenter26:43

a UK moss and I went

Presenter26:46

Yeah, I am. Are you George Harrison? And he went, Yeah. And I was like, Oh my god. And he said, Come in, come in. I want to buy you a Christmas present. And he wanted, he tried to buy me this. Well, he, I wish I'd let him buy it for me, but I just couldn't let him because it was so disgusting, this jumper. But it would have been like my jumper from George Harrison. A Christmas jumper. I know, but it was cable knit. Cable knit batwing pink sweater. And I was like, you please, I can't let you buy that for me.

Kate Moss26:51

But I also

Speaker 227:09

I know, but it was tape on it.

Speaker 227:12

Wing

Speaker 227:12

Yeah.

Presenter27:18

But I loved him so much and my sweet lord was released the week he died and I couldn't stop crying. I cried, I was sobbing. I thought it's got to be what's wrong with me. I mean it's upsetting, but I mean I could not stop crying and I found out I was pregnant with Lila. So that's my song with her and for George.

Speaker 427:43

Uh

Kate Moss27:43

Yeah.

Speaker 427:43

Uh

Speaker 427:45

My sweet Lord.

Speaker 427:49

Mm hello.

Speaker 427:53

Mm, my Lord.

Speaker 427:57

I really wanna see you

Speaker 428:01

Really wanna believe in them?

Speaker 428:05

Really wanna see Lord, but it takes so long, my Lord.

Presenter28:12

Uh

Speaker 428:13

Uh

Presenter28:13

Uh

Speaker 428:13

Uh

Presenter28:15

George Harrison and My Sweet Lord. Kate Moss, you've collaborated with numerous artists in your career, but perhaps the most influential upon you was Lucian Freud. You sat for him in two thousand two and it took nine months for him to paint your portrait. Tell me about those sessions.

Presenter28:34

He's quite chatty, but he couldn't paint and talk at the same time. So when he got going and he was telling me like an amazing story, I would still be sitting in the position, but he wouldn't be painting any more and I'd be like, Oh, please put the paintbrush on the canvas.

Presenter28:50

He gave you a tattoo, is that right? Yeah. Did you choose the picture in advance or did he decide what he was gonna do? He said, Do you like the creatures of the animal kingdom? And I said, Yeah, I like.

Kate Moss28:56

Yeah.

Presenter29:01

Birds and he said, Oh, I've done a um bird and he got the book out of his painting said it was a chicken upside down in a bucket and I said no not really not really what I was thinking. I was thinking more kind of like, you know, the swallow in that book and he gave me a bottle of really good Rothschild wine and he got out his etching needle and scraped into my thigh a flock of birds, which now look like varicus veins, but you know.

Kate Moss29:11

No, not really.

Presenter29:32

I'm still probably the only living person with a Lucy Freud on my thighs. I mean, a living work of art. It's not bad.

Speaker 229:36

It's a minute.

Speaker 229:37

Yeah, it's not.

Presenter29:39

In twenty sixteen, Kate, you set up your own talent agency and your nineteen year old daughter, Lila, is on your books. What advice have you given to her about the industry?

Presenter29:50

I've said to her, You don't have to do anything you don't want to do.

Presenter29:57

If you don't want to do this shoot, if you don't feel comfortable, if you don't want to model, don't do it.

Presenter30:03

I take care of my models.

Presenter30:06

I make sure that they are with agents at Shoots. So when they are being taken advantage of, there's somebody there to say, I don't think that's appropriate. I don't know if that's across the board, but

Presenter30:21

That's what I can do. You're looking after your patch. Yeah.

Presenter30:25

You've got a home in the Cotswolds now and earlier this year you sold your house in London and you're based there full time now. How much has life changed for you since you moved?

Presenter30:34

Oh my God, I'm obsessed with gardening. I have got a membership to the garden centre and I go with my mum and we have the best time. And what about your your wild times and your partying days? Have you put them behind you?

Presenter30:48

Yeah.

Presenter30:50

It's boring to me now.

Presenter30:52

I love a dance, but I'm not really into being out of control anymore. Well, I'm definitely not into being out of control. I like to get to bed. I like to get up early and do my meditation before anyone's up. And I like to be

Presenter31:09

In control.

Presenter31:11

Well, Kate, I'm about to cast you away a little bit further than the Cotswolds, I'm afraid. Off to the island. Do you think you'd survive quite well? Would you be able to fend for yourself, build a shelter?

Kate Moss31:14

Yeah.

Kate Moss31:20

Build a shelter.

Presenter31:21

Spear a fish, all that stuff. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Kate Moss31:22

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Presenter31:23

I could definitely do challenge Annika.

Presenter31:26

What about being in your own company? How would you be with the solitude? Pottering around. I can find always find something to do. Well, one more tune before you go, Kate. One more track. What's it gonna be?

Kate Moss31:29

With the solitude.

Presenter31:38

A MADAM GEORGE by VAMORES.

Presenter31:41

It reminds me of every happy moment.

Presenter31:45

Holidays in Tuscany, Cypress Avenues, summer days driving my car through country lanes and the sun shining.

Presenter32:01

With a childlike vision sleeping into view

Presenter32:08

Clicking clacking of a high heel shoe

Presenter32:15

Fred and Fitzroy, Madam George

Presenter32:24

Marching with the s

Presenter32:26

Madam George by Van Morrison. So, Kate Moss, I'm going to send you away to the island now. Of course, I'll give you the books to keep you company, the Bible, the complete works of Shakespeare, and another selection of your own. What would you like?

Presenter32:39

The little prince.

Presenter32:42

I read it to my goddaughter and to my daughter, and I just think it's the most beautiful book. You can also have a luxury item. What will that be?

Presenter32:51

Cash my blanket.

Presenter32:53

In like a duck egg blue or pink.

Presenter32:56

Alright, it's yours. Finally, which one track of the eight that you've shared with us today would you rescue from the waves if you needed to? My sweet lord.

Presenter33:05

Why that one?

Presenter33:06

My daughter.

Presenter33:08

I'm going to take her with me everywhere.

Presenter33:10

Kate Moss, thank you very much for letting us hear your Desert Island discs. Thank you, Lauren, for having me.

Presenter33:35

Hello, I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Kate. Let's leave her snuggled up in a cashmere blanket. By the way, we've cast away Kate's friends Keith Richards and Stella McCartney, and her former agent, Sarah Ducas. You can find these episodes in our Desert Island Discs programme archive and through BBC Sounds. The studio manager for today's programme was Sarah Hockley, the assistant producer was Christine Pavlovsky, and the producer was Paula McGinley. Next time, my guest will be the chef, Claire Smith. I do hope you'll join us.

Speaker 434:13

Tell me this would you like to be a princess?

Presenter34:16

Yes. There was always talk about, oh my god, Prince Harry was in Mahiki last night, how exciting. And then we'd all go to Mahiki the next night because Prince Harry was there.

Speaker 434:23

Would it be liberating?

Speaker 234:26

I couldn't believe the ferociousness with which she just fought restlessly for inequality and always championed the underdog. Glamorous?

Kate Moss34:34

They all knew that Victoria Davis was a very special little girl. At the end of term, this royal coach would rock up at the school and take her away to wherever the Royal family were staying.

Speaker 434:47

Or perhaps just a bit sad. She was not cast in a vogue photo shoot because the people running the shoot decided that she was too large, she wasn't slim enough. I'm Anita Arnand, and for my new podcast on BBC Radio 4, I'll be exploring the complicated idea of the princess.

Speaker 435:06

I'll be sitting down with actors like Mira Sa'al, authors like Kate Moss, and TV presenters and comedians like Toff and Russell Kane to get their favourite princesses, historical or fictional. So from Princess Leia and Grace Kelly to Mongolian wrestler Kutalun and the little girl Queen Victoria fondly called her African princess.

Speaker 435:27

Do join me, Anita Arnand, for Princess on BBC Radio 4. Subscribe on BBC Sounds.