Music and singing has always been a part of my life. As a child I was sung to, and I remember that car journeys were always an excuse for family sing-songs. My brother Ian and I used to drive Mum and Dad mad with “There’s a hole in my bucket”, and Dad used to teach us old wartime stuff like “Bless ‘em all”.

When we had our first record player I remember spending hours listening to LP soundtracks of musicals such as “My Fair Lady” and “Fiddler on the Roof”, which Mum and Dad loved so much.

When I got to the age of buying singles with saved-up pocket money, my first ever purchase was “Silence is Golden” by The Tremeloes. I loved The Monkees and The Beatles.

Those years were governed by the “Top Twenty”, Radio Caroline, and Radio Luxembourg, until I joined the school Folk Club. I used to sing, mostly with my friend, Christine Brady, and John Chapple on guitar. We did a mixture of old and new “folk” music, in a very wide sense of the word.  We even visited other folk clubs to perform, until a group of us sneaked “Threshing Machine” into the set, and after that we weren’t to be trusted outside of the confines of the school.

During my mid-teens Simon and Garfunkel, Moody Blues and Fleetwood Mac were my favourites of the time. I can still listen to S  & G and enjoy the music every bit as much as I did then, though I think that the memories that the songs bring back add to their attraction.

I love this one.

During the years since then, and there are LOTS, I have enjoyed so many different pieces of music from very different genres ranging from classical to heavy metal.

This Limp Bizkit track reminds me of the days when my daughter Jo and her friends used to be heavy metal fans, and used to congregate at our house on Friday evenings to “hang out” and listed to their music. I liked some – not all, I even bought a White Zombie cd and Metallica’s “Loaded”, but I really love this one. George Michael doesn’t even come close. This version is fun.

Two of my  all time favourite cd’s are Joshua Tree by U2 and Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morissette, though I have many all time favourites. I like this track.

The latest band I have added to my list of enjoying listening to is Snow Patrol. This is brilliant, despite being a little on the ”edited” side.

I could go on, but think I’d better save some for another day.