I REMEMBER...Annie Nightingale

She's the queen of British radio-with a reign almost as long as that of Her Majesty. Annie Nightingale was the very first female DJ on BBC Radio One back in 1970. Fifty-two years later, she's still on air on the same station and still fearlessly promoting new music

- Rob Crossan

I GREW UP IN TWICKENHAM and I remember the moment when I realised the power of music for the first time. There used to be a fairground in the 1950s that would come to the rugby stadium and I have such a vivid memory of going there and being so thrilled by the lights, the noise, and the rides. What made it spectacular to me, though, was hearing a song called "Rock And Roll Waltz" by a singer called Kay Starr being blasted out over these primitive speakers. It all felt so dangerous and loud and intoxicating to me.

PARIS IS A PLACE THAT WILL ALWAYS BE DEAR TO ME. I feel very lucky that I went there when I was about 14 in the late 1950s to stay with a friend I'd made at school who moved there with her family. I must have only been there for about ten days, but I was already obsessed with Brigitte Bardot, Juliette Gréco, and all those new wave films. We were so broke we didn't even have money to ride the metro. I remember just how sealed Paris was from the outside world then. It wasn't commercial at all. There was a bleak severity to the place where being intellectual seemed to be such a pre-requisite. I shared a single camp bed with my friend and could make one coffee last an entire day in a café on the Left Bank. It was my first introduction to how different life away from West London could be and I've never forgotten it.