Speaker John Barrow - Inheritance Tracks

John started his talk with a foghorn. He had managed to link his laptop to the large screen that the golf club use so we were treated to both sound and pictures as part of the talk. His introduction to Inheritance Tracks was slightly different to that on radio.

He started with his own memories. The first being Fergal Keane playing Seamus Heaney from 1966 called Arrows of Desire. This was followed by Marc Cohn’s The Things We're Handed Down from his album The Rainy Season.

Barrie Birch’s choice was The Umbrella Man by Flanagan & Allen . He said that the first music he engaged with during WWII would settle him down and ground him. The next phase in his life was 1940 when Disney brought out Fantasia with 8 classic pieces of music. The one that stuck out most was The Sorcerer’s Apprentice composed by Paul Dukas. The drama that built up by the music as Mickey takes control was what got him into graphic design.

Alan Arthur's record had been in his possession a long time. He said that his father was a farm labourer ploughing with horses. Alan was born in 1949, his brother in 1950 and his sister in 1951. His dad had a low wage and his mum said that he needed to change his job. He got a job at Goonhilly Downs in Cornwall repairing railway wagons at the pit head. The family did not have much money but had grand gramophone in a radiogram. They didn’t have much in the way of records but one record came free with the gramophone. This was the soundtrack from Oklahoma! and Alan chose the last track.

John Barrow then went back to his memories playing Stranger on the Shore by Acker Bilk which brought back memories from his teens. Later on he started bell ringing St Peters Cathedral in Bradford and then joined Idle Musical Union where he used to frequently sing Linden Lea by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

John Waterhouse’s first track was Buddy Holly Rave On in 1959 he was 15 and sang in the choir. One time the girl guides came and he saw Judith and this song reminds him of that time. He then chose Rita MacNeil’s Working Man about life of man underground in the pits. He first heard song driving up A1 after seeing a friend’s dying wife for last time. His final song was from a time when he was working for a waste disposal company - Only Remembered by John Tams from War Horse.