Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Rock and roll legend who survived industry changes to remain a star for nearly 20 years, and is the only chairman of Watford FC to have sold 80 million records.
On the island
Eight records
I went to Barbados in 1976 and I'd been really successful from 1970 to 76 in America and all over the world and I was really quite shattered physically and mentally ... there was a Pink Floyd album called Wish You Were Here and I always remember one day we were sitting on the beach and this lady came down in tears and said, listen, my son's dying of cancer. Can he come down and and say hello to you? ... He came down every day and at that particular time the track from this album that we used to play was Shine on You Crazy Diamond and one night at sunset we all held hands, put the track on and I'm not particularly religious thing but we said okay let's just hope he gets better ... then three years later ... this guy said hi it's Steve ... and it was the same boy who was muscular like a Sylvester Salone-soft person completely healthy ... so I always remember this track and it's a wonderful track and it brings back happy memory.
Well, I've always loved black music, good soul singers, R and B singers. And Nina Simone is one of my favourite singers of all time. And this is an old record of hers, but a classic, classic record, I've Put a Spell on You.
Nimrod (from Enigma Variations)Favourite
I love English sort of classical music, and I'm a great Elgar and Vaughan Williams fan. And the Enigma variations I take everywhere in the world. If I go somewhere, I've always got a cassette of the Nimrod variations. And I just like to sit there, especially in the West Indies ... and sit there at sunset and play with headphones on, I just look out to see and I start crying and think that I'm terribly emotional.
I originally chose eight of the saddest pieces of music. I thought, no, I've really got to choose some uptempo ones. And I do love good rock and roll music. This is the Rolling Stones. They write great um rock and roll songs. This is called Let It Rock. And that's just me on the beach going crazy after getting up from Nimrod.
The Choir of the Royal Military School of Music, Kneller Hall
And Buy With Me, which is of course the I suppose the anthem, isn't it, of soccer? Yeah, it's a lovely song.
This one is extraordinary piece of music by a jazz musician called Theolonius Monk, who has a of all the jazz musicians, has the most wonderful sense of humour in his music. ... And it's a track called Mysteriosa, performed by Carl LeBlay with an array of great musicians, including a piano solo, which I think for me is one of the most beautiful piano solos I've ever heard ... By a guy called Kenny Kirkland playing the piano ... This always cheers me up and makes me think, well, perhaps one day I'll be able to play like that.
Well, I didn't want to sit there and hear one of his songs because they were all such personal songs of his, and the lyrics were very, very personal. So I thought, right, I'm going to choose a learning track for someone else. So this is Stand By Me.
I just happen to love this record, Wake Me Up Before I Go, Go, because it sounds like an old Motown record. ... And the bass player, and the musicianship on this record, is quite astonishing. The bass player, Dion Estes, on this record, who I got to play on my new record, because I'd heard this record. So to hell with everybody else. George Michael will be around a long time.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:30When did you first start taking piano lessons?
Well, I first started taking lessons when I was about six or seven. I can't remember exactly, but I originally started playing piano by ear because I grew up being looked after by my grandmother and mother because my father was in the Air Force. ... And so when I was about five or six, my parents thought it might be a good idea that I should have some formal education in music, which of course I didn't particularly like.
Presenter asks
3:41Were you bright academically as a child?
Yes, I was pretty much so. But by the time I'd reached thirteen, I actually knew that I wanted to do something in music. And so I didn't really bother that much. And I was always a child that could just about do enough works to scrape through an O level or to scrape through maybe an A level. In fact, I didn't stay long enough to take my A levels, but I got five O levels.
Presenter asks
4:27What was your first job [after leaving school]?
I was offered a job as a T-boy and sort of general runaround. I forget what wages for, but I I mean I was really excited to get the chance. ... And I went to see my headmaster ... and he said, Are you definitely sure this is what you want to do? and I said, Yeah. And he said, Well, you have my blessing ... and there I tripped off to Mills Music and started packing up parcels, taking the tea and everything like that. And it that was a very happy time.
The keepsakes
Presenter asks
10:10Did you always want to be a star?
No, this was again going back to when I left the band Blizzology and started writing songs. ... And I had to make the demos of the records, so I had to sing. And then he made me sort of make records, which I didn't ever think I would do. ... And the last thing I wanted to do after leaving the band was go back on the rope. Why? Because I'd been on the road for three years with a band and I just I found it completely unglamorous and still to this day I don't like travelling at all.
Presenter asks
25:33What particularly about John [Lennon] was it that you liked?
Well, obviously his music, but ... John had the wonderful ability to go into a room full of people. That he didn't know or had nothing to do with music and could come from any background in the world and be nice to everybody and just take a general interest and be genuine about it. And I thought, oh my god, I wish I could be like that. ... There was something about him which was incredibly kind. I've only ever seen his kindness.
“My success happened in my 20s, and I lived my teenage years through my 20s. I'd do exactly what I wanted to do for the first time in my life. And consequently, if I wanted to wear an outrageous piece of clothing, I did.”
“I love performing, but if you go on stage and you perform and you suddenly start thinking, Well, what time's the plane tomorrow? What am I gonna wear? And you're halfway through a song and then you panic think, Oh, what's the next word? Then it's time for you to stop because you can't cheat on a live performance.”
“I grew up with inanimate objects. And so I I always treated things very well, always looked after things, books and stuff like that. And so I suppose that's carried on. But I do collect things, especially things that are old and twenties and thirties and forties or even fifties ... because I think they should be preserved.”