On 26 August 2025 we had another pair of members deliver their choice of records if they were to be abandoned on a desert island. This time it was Mike and Herbie.

We started with Mike who had had an interesting career in collecting records and collecting advertising jingles. Some of his contributions were particularly rare and included tracks that had been played on television when the Test Card was being shown. With a wide range of musical types, we heard Rodgers and Hart, Adam Faith and Candido. As his school career progressed, so did his taste in music towards Jimmy McGriff, the Buckaroos and the Beatles. We then had a selection of Moog synthesiser music, Stabat Mater with Antonio Caldara, Entangled by Genesis and even a long lost jingle for WSPD (a radio station in Toledo, Ohio!). The Classical Repertoire was not overlooked with Mascagni, Leoncavallo and Wagner. He finished with a composition by Bernhard Herrman, being the main theme to the television series The Twilight Zone.

Herbie started by describing some of the history of his family, and how it had affected the music he heard as a child. His first choice for the desert island was Schubert Piano Trio No:1. As his tastes changed, this was reflected with two excerpts from Don Giovanni sung by Ezio Pinza and the Three Bells sung by Les Compagnons de la chanson. With the acquisition of a crystal radio, his tastes developed further with The Creed from the Greczaninow Mass. We then heard The Sound of Silence as the file The Graduate had influenced Herbie strongly. He then returned to Schubert and The Mass No 6 in E flat. That was followed by an excerpt from The Song of the Earth by Gustav Mahler, and concluded with “I Have a Song to Sing You” from Yeomen of the Guard by Gilbert and Sullivan. As his luxury item, Herbie chose a disconnected laptop, but for his book he chose the full set of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians – all 29 Volumes!!

This was an enjoyable and diverting afternoon visiting many musical traditions. Our next castaways will be Marsaili and Ken on 16 September 2025 at 2pm.