On Tuesday 22 April 2025, two members gave us their selection of music that they would hope to take with them if they were to find themselves alone on an island. Our u3a had developed its own rules on the selection of music and it met very much with the approval of the large number of people present.

We started with Peter who talked about his first experience in a theatre watching Carousel, his early career in hospitality management and the performers he had seen live. We had music from The Beatles and Jethro Tull before Peter took us to his exchange visit to France where he learned about Georges Moustaki. We were then back to the stage for some Stephen Sondheim followed by Elton John and Ralph McTell. There then came a new influence in his life which led to a visit to the Liverpool Empire to see Tosca, and an interest in Joni Mitchell. His final choice was the Gloria by Antonio Vivaldi.

We had time for a second presenter Diana who talked about the history of her family and the effects that had had on her musical preferences. In particular, a Dansette record player featured strongly in her youth even though she was too young to afford any records. Her parents helped out by buying the records that they liked for their dancing. We had a tango for openers before listening to the Drifters dancing the night away. Diana then took us through to Christmas in St Paul’s Cathedral for two pieces of music. Following Christmas we moved on the New Year’s Day and the concert in the Musikverein with the Radetzky March. At that stage, Diana moved on to popular music and we had Sir Cliff Richard, Elton John, the Allman Brothers Band, the Flying Pickets, Simon and Garfunkel, the Mavericks and finishing with Doris Day.

This was a most enjoyable session, and the next will take place on 24 June 2025 at 2:00pm.