I spend many hours working, despite being retired for nearly two decades. I've done up several houses - in the UK, Luxembourg and Spain - and I love to work outside in my garden. While I am doing this physical labour I like to listen to my favourite music My tastes are quite catholic, ranging from American, British and European blues and rock classics to Spanish musicians of all genres.
Here, in alphabetical order, are my favourites:
Adele - simply amazing. What a voice!
The Beatles - enough said?
Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas - Great voice, Part of the Mersey sound back in the 60s.
Blind Faith - the best supergroup of all time? Sadly they only lasted a year and only made one album. Blind Faith were Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, Ric Grech and Steve Winwood.
Celine Dion - Canadian balladeer, but what a unique voice! Saw her live in Manchester in 2001, I think, and the support act was The Corrs (qv)
Cher (without Sonny) - What a career she had after splitting from the abusive Sonny Bono!
Claire Hamill - Quite famous in the 70s, Claire is a singer/songwriter and is still going strong. She recently released her 13th album. I know Claire well - she is the mother of my daughter-in-law Susannah Austin, also a great singer/songwriter (qv).
Coldplay - A unique sound. Chris Martin's brittle voice is the key to their appeal. They have just played at Glastonbury for the fifth time! - a record, by the way.
The Corrs - I loved this Irish family "group" from the moment they warmed up for Celine Dion in Manchester in 2001. I saw them live another three times. Magical.
Dave Gilmour - Pink Floyd improved from the moment he joined them to replace Syd Barrett who had gone AWOL. "Dark Side of the Moon" is a masterpiece. My favourite album of all time.
Diana Navarro - I first heard this malagueña on a Ronda neighbour's radio in 2007. On further investigation, I found out who she was and bought her CD, Rosas. I still play it regularly. I also saw her perform live in September 2008 in the plaza de toros in Carratraca (Malaga). After the concert, which was terrific, I managed to get backstage and got to meet her. One of the highlights of my life.
Dua Lipa - Armenian by birth, Dua Lipa pops up frequently on my Amazon Music app. What a great voice!
The Eagles - Their 1976 album Hotel California is in my top 5 albums of all-time. Don Felder's singing and guitar-playing together with Joe Walsh are stunning. The song was composed by Felder, Glenn Frey and Don Henley.
Ellie Goulding - I was listening to Women's Hour on Radio 4 back in 1980 while I was renovating the house I'd just bought in Latchford, Warrington, when up popped an interview with a young emerging singer/songwriter called Ellie Goulding. I think she was 17 at the time. She sounded very bright and together, so I set about finding out more about her. Now, some 16 years later, I am still a huge fan. I think I have all her albums. Sadly I've never seen her live in concert.
Emerson, Lake and Palmer - Informally known as ELP, Emerson, Lake & Palmer were an English progressive rock supergroup formed in London in 1970. The band consisted of Keith Emerson (keyboards) of the Nice, Greg Lake (vocals, bass, guitars, producer) of King Crimson, and Carl Palmer (drums, percussion) of Atomic Rooster.
With nine gold record albums in the USA, and an estimated 48 million records sold worldwide, they are one of the most popular and commercially successful progressive rock groups of the 1970s, with a musical sound including adaptations of classical music with jazz and symphonic rock elements, dominated by Emerson's flamboyant use of the Hammond organ, Moog synthesiser, and piano, although Lake wrote several acoustic songs for the group.
Both Emerson and Lake died in 2016, leaving Palmer as the only surviving member of the band.
I saw this unique supergroup live at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester in 1973, during my final year at university. My date that night was Jeryl, who was to become my wife two years later. So, my taste in music didn't put her off!
Enigma - Somewhat bizarrely I first heard this group from Rumania in a LADA car travelling in the Soviet Union in 1990, just before the unsuccessful coup d'etat which ultimately led to the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991. Our hosts were Sascha and Rita. Rita had been the "friend" allocated to my wife Jeryl when she visited the Sov U as part of her degree studies in Russian.
Another Rita, spelt PUMA in the Russian cyrillic alphabet, is also the name of my current wife of some 14 years, the Lovely Rita. I sometimes call her PUMA - as a change from the Meter Maid - but she is not amused.
Back to Enigma, I tracked down a copy of their sensational first album, MCMXC a.D. at a specialist music shop in Liverpool.
I was listening to this album only yesterday as I worked in the garden.
Enigma is a German musical project founded in 1990 by Romanian-German musician and producer Michael Cretu. Cretu conceived the idea of a new age, worldbeat project. He recorded the first Enigma studio album, MCMXC a.D. (1990), with contributions from David Fairstein and Frank Peterson. The album remains Enigma's most successful, helped by the international hit single "Sadeness (Part I)", which sold twelve million units alone. According to Cretu, the inspiration for the creation of the project came from his desire to make a kind of music that did not obey "the old rules and habits" and presented a new form of artistic expression with mystic and experimental components.
Enigma has sold over 8.5 million albums in the USA alone, and an estimated 70 million worldwide with over 100 gold and platinum certifications. The project has also received two Grammy Award nominations.
Enrique Iglesias - The younger son of Spanish crooner Julio Iglesias and Filipina socialite and magazine journalist Isabel Preysler, Enrique grew up in Miami, Florida, USA largely estranged from his father. He went his own way musically and records in both English and Spanish.
Enrique Iglesias has released 11 studio albums, five compilation albums, 62 singles (including 8 as a featured artist), and 80 music videos. Iglesias started his career in 1995 with his first Spanish album, called Enrique Iglesias, which produced five number-ones on the Hot Latin Tracks chart and won a Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Album in 1997.
He has sold over 70 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling Latin music artists. He has had five Billboard Hot 100 top five singles, including two number-ones and holds the record for producing 27 number-one Spanish-language singles on the Billboard's Hot Latin Tracks chart.[
I often play his album while I'm working.
Fleetwood Mac (Mark 1) - This blues-oriented group was formed by Peter Green, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, who had all been playing with John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers (qv). They didn't last long with Green as lead guitarist and singer, because he left after a drug.fuelled weekend in Germany which fried his brains. He disappeared for a decade, was in and out of mental institutions until he attempted a comeback. He had gone from a slim good-looking young man into a short, fat and ugly older man. The comeback failed. Green died in 2020.
The other members of Fleetwood Mac eventually went to the States, teamed up with Lindsey Buckingham, and Christine Perfect, by this time Mrs McVie. The style of the new Fleetwood Mac changed and they enjoyed great success until in-band fall-outs caused them to break up.
Gerry and the Pacemakers -
Gloria Estefan -
Joan Manuel Serrat -
John Mayall's Bluesbreakers -
Julio Iglesias -
Keane -
Pink Floyd -
Queen -
Radio Tarifa -
Santana -
The Shadows -
Susannah Austin -
Tom Jones -
Wings -
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