Chris' Spotify Playlist
We're on Spotify! To celebrate the launch of our new profile we've been creating our own playlists and inviting our Arts Council members to do the same. Here we are featuring Chris Williamson who is our Culture Vannin representative on the Isle of Man Arts Council.
Q. Why is music important to you?
Who isn’t drawn to the sound of uplifting live music playing outdoors? Why do certain compositions so quickly bring a particular film to mind, or a catchy tune remind us of an ad on the TV? Who doesn’t have a favourite piece that very strongly brings back the memory of a time, place or event? Certainly music does great things for my mood. It also brings us together – a universal language that transcends linguistic barriers. You don’t necessarily have to understand the native language of the composer or the singer to feel, sometimes with some force, what the tune or the song is telling you and that’s something that has always moved me.
Q. What can we expect to hear in your playlist?
There’s quite a mix of my favourites here. A good few examples of tracks ‘borrowed’ for films. Can you name them all? Traditional and modern Trad is well represented; with a bit of Manx Trad in the modern idiom for good measure. There’s some Blues and a handful of tracks from big selling LPs of years past. Languages other than English feature heavily. And on the theme of memories of time and place, there’s a handful of tracks from Marillion albums to remind me of years spent working in Manchester punctuated by Friday nights hurtling over Drumochter or Rannoch Moor at close to Mach 2 in a car full of friends bent on last orders at the start of a weekend winter climbing on Cairngorm, Creag Meagaidh, Ben Nevis or somewhere in Glen Coe.
Q. What is your favourite song right now?
I wouldn’t say I have a favourite as such, but I’ve always loved Dave Brubeck’s Take Five.
James Harrison’s programme Jamys Jeheiney, on Manx Radio AM, is a continual source of music from ‘off the beaten track’. A few weeks back he played Five Elise – a Take Five/Für Elise ‘mashup’. I loved it. Here’s a link if you’d like to hear it too:
