*Desert Island Discs
‌Or playlists about life
* This assembly came about for three very important reasons…to me anyway…
* I lost my old but loved 60 gb ipod with 11934 tracks on…! And wondered what I would put back on my new one…hmmm…
* I love it…reason enough on a Thursday * It is a good way to think about the person we are at any point in time…
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Imagine being ship wrecked on a desert island And washed ashore are 8 records to be your Sole companion whilst you wait to be rescued‌
* * And yes you cleverly get a mechanical machine to play them on‌
In 1941 Roy Plumley was in his pyjamas and this wonderful idea for a radio programme – guests would chose 8 records and he would gently ask them the reasons why they had selected them and the memories associated with their choice. The Radio channel was called the Home Service now it is Radio 4.
And your parents probably have it on right now!
What was fantastically clever about Roy Plomley’s idea was that the guests reaction to their music often revealed sides of them not previous known especially in the days before twitter, the web and b list celebrities… sorry MIC fans.
Mr Thould’s selection
1. Bert Jansch 2. Kate Rusby 3. Penguin Café Orchestra
Avocet Underneath the Stars Perpetuum Mobile
As you might know by now us Arty types are rather emotional and I often find myself crying as over the years I have listened to castaways telling the stories behind their selection. Its not because I’m unstable but there are often universal truths about the world wrapped up in the stories. “I love the relationship that anyone has with music ... because there's something in us that is beyond the reach of words, something that eludes and defies our best attempts to spit it out. ... It's the best part of us probably ...” Nick Hornby
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Mr Thould’s playlist cont. 4. The Wailin’ Jennys 5. Dick Gaughan 6. Loudon Wainright III 7. Keith Jarrett 8. Prisme
The Parting Glass Workers’ Song Grey in LA The Koln Concert Annbjorg Lien
* The radio is still a wonderful instrument and it
is that connection between voices that one relates to –as if you were in the studio opposite the microphone. I sense that element of the show is as poignant now as it was in the dark days of World War 2 when it was first broadcast.
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Choosing just 8 tracks to be washed up on your desert islands is really, really difficult…
And it gets harder the older you get because hopefully you will keep on hearing more music you like and maybe in different genres which makes it even harder… Mr Courtney’s Desert Island Discs 1.Adam Ant 2.The Smashing Pumpkins 3.The Damned 4.XTC 5.Bombay Bicycle Club 6.Duke Special 7.Kenny Wayne Shepherd 8.Soko
Goody Two Shoes Bullet with Butterfly Wings New Rose Making Plans for Nigel Flaws No Cover Up Never Looking Back I’ll Kill Her
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Book Josef Freiherr von Eichendorff – Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts Luxury My 1960s Yamaha FG 180 acoustic guitar
As an added spin the programme requires you to chose just one of those 8 if you could actually only save 1… this is where the castaway usually picks the disc that represents something really special – it could be a reminder of family or of friends…it could be music their parents played…or of a place… It is often a classical piece. Miss Smith’s Choices I’ve got a feeling Shiny Happy People Burning Ring of Fire Book Luxury
Black Eyed Peas REM Jonny Cash
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen A pillow
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* The last request is perhaps more of a reminder of the time the programme was created…the castaways are given The Bible and the Complete works of Shakespeare.
* They can chose one book and one luxury…
* Mr Jones’s wistful choices 1.Eleanor Rigby – Beatles –but image of her picking up the rice after the wedding is enough to move a big soft Welshman to tears. 2.Helplessness Blues – Fleet Foxes 3.Daughter – Landfill Book – possibly Lord of the Flies, but only after I’d checked the rest of my desert island… Luxury – an iPad. Next question – is this a desert Island with WiFi ????
I always find this really hard…what one book could you keep re-reading ? What Luxury – guitar, piano, sketchbooks, books to write the novel we all have in us? Or the bar of the Ritz Hotel like last weeks guest actor Dustin Hoffman…hmmm
* The
luxuries chosen by castaways have been as as they have been
Bizarre
* — from curling tongs (Dame Vera Lynn) to a pot of stew and two dumplings (Norman Wisdom), * a lifetime’s supply of Frosties (Ian Hislop) and sunblock (Nicole Kidman, Annie Lennox, Joan Collins and Sue MacGregor). * John Peel wanted a football and a wall to kick it against; * Kristin Scott Thomas, a pair of Christian Louboutin mules; * and Cilla Black, a manicure set. * Simon Cowell and Graham Norton each requested a mirror.
John Cleese asked for Michael Palin, stuffed.
J K ROWLING 1.The Beatles - Come Together 2. The Smiths - Bigmouth Strikes Again 3. Ludwig van Beethoven - Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57 ‘Appassionata’ 4. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Violin Concerto in D major - 1st movement 5. R.E.M. - Everybody Hurts 6. Marianne Faithfull - Guilty 7. Jimi Hendrix - All Along The Watchtower 8. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Requiem in D minor Book - SAS Survival Guide Luxury item - Pen and unlimited paper
Colin Firth 1.Curtis Mayfield - We People Who are Darker Than Blue 2.Fela Kuti - Odoo 3. Tom Waits - Heart Attack and Vine 4. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Mass No. 18 in C minor 5. Beck - Lost Cause 6. Free - The Stealer 7. Little Feat - Willin’ 8. Gustav Mahler - Symphony No. 3 in D minor - 4th movement Book - Stories by Woody Allen Luxury item - His guitar
George Clooney 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Hank Williams - I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry Pink Floyd - Another Brick in the Wall Dinah Washington - Destination Moon Frank Sinatra - Nice and Easy Bobby Darin - Artificial Flowers Bill Withers - Who Is He (And What Is He To You?) Van Morrison - Moondance William Shatner - Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds*
Book - War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy Luxury item - An anchored yacht
Top 8 non-classical selections (chosen by castaways) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Edith Piaf - Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien Frank Sinatra - My Way Noel Coward - Mad Dogs and Englishmen Edith Piaf - La Vie en Rose Flanagan and Allen - Underneath the Arches 6. Judy Garland - Over the Rainbow 7. Louis Armstrong - What a Wonderful World 8. John Lennon - Imagine
Top 8 all-music selections (chosen by listeners) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Vaughan Williams - The Lark Ascending Elgar - Enigma Variations Beethoven Symphony No.9 (Choral) Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb Elgar Cello Concerto in E Minor Handel - Messiah Holst - The Planets
* Four people have presented Desert Island Discs since 1942
* Roy Plomley * Michael Parkinson * Sue Lawley * And now Kirsty Young
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The iconic title and end music is titled By the sleepy lagoon‌ And was written by composer Eric Coates who also famous for the theme to the WW2 film The Dambusters
WHAT WILL YOUR 8 TRACKS BE ? And maybe onenday I will be listening to Your choices…I hope so…