Barry Manilow -

I was a melancholy and lonely teenager and didn't play much music in my bedroom when shut away with adolescent hormonal isolation!

I did however get brainwashed into enjoying my twin sister's record collection (David Soul and Barry Manilow----how gay was that?) and to this day I can almost tear up with this emotional romp of Weekend in New England.....get the hankies ready!

ABBA : Mamma Mia

Everyone my age has to have a little Abba on their desert Island......

Mamma Mia, reminds me of my friend filled, hard working, hard partying Spinal Injury, junior Nurse days up at Lodge Moor Hospital in Sheffield.

Thursday nights were Ledmill Night (http://www.leadmill.co.uk/), when a large group of nurses ( and often young rehabilitating patients in their wheelchairs) would party the night away to 1970 and 80 tunes!

Happy, Happy memories

The Big Country

Now I love some pieces of classical music (Georges Bizet: L'Arlésienne-Suite - Farandole is a case in point) but most of my love of classical music comes in the guise of the hidden classics, namely the big movie themes)

Gone With The Wind, The Magnificent Seven, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Out Of Africa...I could bang on for hours on the themes that put a tingle down your spine and that have the ability to lift your spirits within seconds of hearing them...

Jerone Moross theme from The Big Country was inspired by a walk in the New Mexico flatlands and has the ability to make your heart soar

A Chorus Line - Audition

The second piece of "movie tribute" music..is a bit more camp and rather less classical in nature......there are film scene that puncuate periods in your life.........the lobster waving waiters singing "Say a Little Prayer" in My Best Friends wedding....... The Gay Aborigine singing "I will survive" in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and of course this cracking musical audition from the movie A Chorus Line.....lifts my spirits everytime I see it

SUNRISE SUNSET

Live Theatre has always been an important part of my life. For many very happy years I was treated to free theatre tickets by my art critic friend Jonney, and experienced 1000's of very happy hours getting totally lost in ballet, plays and a whole array of musicals. It widened my limited expeiences of live productions and gave me an appreciation of the goo and the fine!

To me, plays have become synonymous with friendships! Les Miserables ( friends Judith, David and Cheryl) Phantom of the Opera (Nia), Bombay Dreams (Nu), I could go on and on and on.....

Of the hundreds of musicals I have enjoyed, It was the Sheffield Crucible production of Fiddler on the Roof that really lingers in my mind. I think I have never seen such an uplifting and moving production before and I remember me and John left the theatre literally on cloud nine after sitting through almost three hours of pure joy

This song is from the 1971 film version .

Moon River - Breakfast at Tiffanys

My last and most favourite piece of music has to be Mancini's Moon River...it has everything......a wonderful tune, a film link, romance, and of course, Audrey!!!! oh and it is mine and Chris' "tune".........

A masterclass of calling a spade a bleedin' spade

I always enjoy desert island discs...hosted by the velvet toned Kirsty Young
(For those that have never heard this famous BBC radio programme it is a talk show where celebrities choose eight of their favourite music pieces and discuss them - AND MORE IMPORTANTLY THEIR OWN LIVES- with the journalist Mz Young)

On Sunday I listened with interest to the actress and director Kathy Burke (right) and I found the whole production riveting and completely refreshing due to the complete absence of normal showbiz and intellectual bullshit and jargon.

Kathy Burke spoke honestly and from the hip about her relationships with family and friends. She harboured no angst about the relationship with her alcoholic father but saw it simply for what it was...As a child she hated him...as an adult she forged an unsteady understanding of him...and time and time again, when a more verbose and "arty" actress would of capitalised on the "drama" of the conversation and questioning, Burke told it all as she saw it and when she didn't "get it" she simply said "well I dunno about that!"
I enjoyed this exchange at the end of the programme:-

Kathy Burke: "For years I was in upset and unhappiness with myself because I thought I was a freak because I didnt do relationships!"
Kirsty Young: "How can you write yourself off like that? how can you say it's not meant to be?"
Kathy Burke ( a little indignantly): "How would I be writing myself off?"
Kirsty Young (back peddling quite seemlessly): "Because I think you sound like somebody who could greatly enrich the life of somebody else"
Kathy Burke: passionately! "Yeah but I want to enrich my own life, I not here to enrich someone else's bleedin' life!!"
I liked that........

Hometime

Leo and Richard left at 9.30 am...The dogs collapsed in tired heaps by 9.35