With incredible rapidity CD are becoming obsolete - well players anyway.

We are planning a really long-haul flight soon and I wanted to replace both of my 'Walkman'-type CD players which have gone u/s.

I thought I'd get one in 'Duty Free' at T5 Heathrow - but NO - "there's no call for them now" - I was told.

Then over the weekend I tried the full length of Tottenham Court Road including the Sony Centre, and places like John Lewis, HMV, Maplins, Dixons, Currys, etc.

But No - "they don't make them any more" I was told every time I asked.

So I said "look - HMV are FULL of CDs of all types of music etc., how do I transfer any CDs I buy onto an MP3 player." "Er with a CD player I guess - but we don't sell them any more."

All I could find were boom-buster CD / MP3 music centres - 100 times the size of a Walkman. There's no way I'd even be allowed on an aircraft with one of those.

So guys and guyesses - folk singers, musicians and storytellers - oh and indeed archivists - beware that CDs (or players) like the proverbial Monty Python parrot - are gone, deceased, exist no more.

As a corollary I ask what's the point in financing, recording and trying to sell a CD any more if the customers can't play them?