Classical music has been my first love since I departed from teendom. But it's taken me over forty years to appreciate Sibelius and Stravinsky. Having now arrived at those two (and a few others to boot), I now see what towering masters they were. Mahler leaves me stone cold, though once, when in my twenties, staying at Ratagan youth hostel one Easter when there was hardly anyone else there, the warden got us all pissed and I remember (hazily I admit) hearing the Kathleen Ferrier version of Das Lied Von Der Erde on his record player and being transfixed. Could've been the booze, but, treasured memories...

The warden and his missus were John and Jan Fisher. They have an art gallery in Scotland now, I believe. We still have two of her paintings on our wall.

I'll never agree about Sinatra, but I have some lovely recordings of Peter Dawson singing lighter songs and I'm also rather fond of Count John McCormack, even though his dad once had a fist fight with my great-grandad over the factory foreman's job. We lost.