Desert Island Discs host Lauren Laverne, 43, shares the stories behind her favourite snaps

Desert Island Discs host Lauren Laverne, 43, (pictured) shared the stories behind a selection of her favourite photographs

1979: Here I am aged 18 months, leaning on a speaker in the living room of the house where I was born in Sunderland. There would have been Bob Dylan, The Beatles or reggae playing. I was bald until I was three, so family legend has it. My mam Celia was a teacher and went on to manage colleges. My late dad Les was an academic. He was a sociologist but taught courses on pop music later in his career

1982: This is my dad, older brother Pete and me. Pete called our house the ‘culture Tardis’ because it looked ordinary outside but inside it was full of music, books and people arguing about ideas. Dad was always buying old instruments – the other day I found a gold saxophone in the attic that I have no memory of

1994: My dad took this photo on my first trip to London, aged 16, to do a session for John Peel’s Radio 1 show with my band Kenickie. My brother Pete [left] had a four-track recording device and when me and my school friends Marie [in pink skirt] and Emma [standing] decided to form a band, he recorded us – he also played drums. We released a single, John Peel picked it up and, barely after finishing our GCSEs, we were touring and being offered record deals

1995: Marie, me and Emma were on tour in New York when this picture was taken. I’d never even been on a plane before, so to go to America to play gigs with our band was bonkers. We went to LA first and then New York, where I remember seeing Quentin Crisp in the street, wearing a white suit, as we drove to our hotel. We stayed out all night after our gig and on the way back to the hotel I bought my first-ever bagel. Everything about that night seemed like a dream

2005: We did our last gig as Kenickie in 1998 and decided we wanted to see what else life had to offer. I started presenting on small cable TV shows and then joined radio station XFM – this is me doing the breakfast show. I loved radio instantly, it was perfect for me – you can show off but in private. In those days there were some fantastic people working at XFM like Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, Dermot O’Leary, Shaun Keaveny and Zane Lowe – all brilliant and funny

2013: I’ve got so many wonderful memories of Glastonbury. I played there a couple of times and remember watching Bowie in 2000. I started covering the festival for the BBC in 2002 as the out-in-the-field person, covered in mud and reporting back to Jo Whiley and John Peel. Now I also broadcast there for Radio 6 Music – this is me with DJ Mark Radcliffe. If I’m working I’ll stay off-site so I can shower, but I’ve also camped at Glastonbury with my family – husband Graeme [Fisher] and sons Fergus and Mack, now 14 and 11

2018: Diver Tom Daley was my first guest when I began hosting Desert Island Discs on Radio 4. I was terrified – I’d been a long-time listener and superfan. Tom [pictured] was a dream guest, open and positive. Another favourite was ex-footballer Ian Wright, who was so emotional about his struggles as a kid living in a family where there was violence. When he wrote a book for kids going through experiences like his, he sent me a copy and wrote in the front, ‘Thanks Lozza, Desert Island Discs started this project off’

2021: Graeme and I have been together for 20 years. He chooses music for brands, shops and hotels but we met while working on the same cable TV show. One night he invited me to a gig and we both thought other people would come, but nobody did. We realised it was Valentine’s Day and ended up getting together. We married in 2005 in Durham, in the same church as my parents