We are thinking about doing a desert island discs to be posted on a sunday on RST ( rostoskys serious thread) for any piano world member that is interested in taking part.

If you are unfamiliar with Desert island discs, let me explain.

It is a long running bbc radio program, and here is the premise:

You are castaway on a desert island, you are allowed to take Eight pieces of music, your all time top eight.

You are allowed to take a book ,this can be anything even a collection like the encyclopedia brittanica.

You are allowed one "luxery" item, but nothing to help you escape.
You are given the complete works of shakespeare and a bible or other book specific to your faith should you wish it.

You will also have to decide, should the unthinkable happen and you can only save one piece of music which one it will be.

In between your selections of music, you will be asked about your life, what these pieces of music mean to you, and general questions to inform folk more about yourself.

How this will work?

Well, by pm in advance, your choices of music, and questions, this way if there are any questions you dont want to answer, they can be changed to ones you are completely comfortable with.

Then your music and questions and replies can be posted up on a sunday...

Its not easy picking just eight, and even harder picking just "the one" you would save in an emergency.

If anyone is interested in being an interviewee, please put your name down here and I will contact you by PM.

This could be fun, and we could get to know each other a lot more.
Any additional ideas to the provisional plan are welcome.

If you want to familiarise yourself more with how the bbc prgramme works here is Roger waters from Pink floyd doing his desert island discs.

Reality TV?

Not quite Joe, that would requre cameras in your home.
This is just an idea for folk to share and appreciate each others choices.
I have the best intentions of community spirit, but it is only an idea.

Count me in Rossy! I'll wait to get your PM.

Hey, Thanks for this Rostosky, I never saw it before. In my selection of music, you can bet at least half the songs I would take with me would come from the Pink Floyd / Gilmour repertoire

John

Magic Griffin, your in! John, is that a yes then? can we count you in?
(Also John, if you check youtube there is a desert island discs done for dave gilmour.)

Sure, I'm in. I'm a sucker for this kind of thing.

Oh goody, Rossy, thanks, I'll give it a listen later on.

As for being in, hum... I gotta think about that one but I'm leaning toward the "yes" side at the moment

John

Well, I will participate. But only on the following conditions:

1) The Island is just a small barren rock (i.e. there is no chance of obtaining food or water).

2) There is no possibility of escape or rescue (e.g. you are presumed dead among the wreckage of the downed plane that was lost at some unknown point in its trip across the Atlantic ocean).

3) There is some way to actually listen to the music you bring (e.g. your iPod contains just enough battery life to get you through the music you select).

It is only when placed in such a situation that I would know which music and what item to bring; any other scenario makes the question too difficult.

yes in desert island discs there is no chance of escape or rescue.
It is just assumed there is something to play the records/discs on.

Okay PPP I will put your name on the list and will contact you soon via PM.

I think Griffin will start us off not this sunday but next, I will be pMing him to put it together, so his desert island discs can be put up the following sunday, we have a week to prepare.

try and have a think about this in the meantime: should the unthinkable happen and you can only save one record out of the eight, you have to name that.
Also a Book of choice, and your Luxery item. ( nothing to help escape is allowed)

you have a couple of weeks to think your choices. It is a tough one, but interesting.

this sounds really cool. I think the hardest part for me is that my "favorites" vary. So what is my favorite one day might not be the next. But then may be my favorite again another day.

Question: can the cd's include compilations that you made?

A book could be tough because I'm not a big reader and again depends on my mood at the time.

but I think it would be really interesting to have to decide this. I always say, in regards to "stuff", I could probably live without most of it except for my music and piano.

Kymber, it is difficult indeed, and believe me it will be for anyone trying to pick their own favourite top eight tracks...

You do not get eight cds!!!! You get eight pieces of music.
You also have to imagine the nightmare scenario where a catastrophy occurs and you can only save one!!!

Which one? AARRRggh !! lol.

You will be asked what the pieces mean to you, maybe they are pieces you accumalated some at college, maybe a favourite partner love song thats allways stuck with you etc.


I also am not the greatest of readers, Mrs R is incredibly well read, I get bored quickly!!

I will contact everyone that is in well in advance to
compile their choices then Interview them by PM, then send them the finished interview so they can see if its correct and to make sure they are happy and are comfortable with it then each person will get their "spot" , one each sunday!!
I should not be giving anything away, but my choice of book may be by RAy mears say, a survival handbook!!

Curiosly enough, Bear grylis chose "Robinson crusoe" as his book.!!

It will be different for everybody concerned and everyone will agonise over their choices I guess.

Hopefully We will kick off a week this sunday with griffins desert island discs, He will be the first "castaway"

Let me know if you want to, anytime will do, love to hear your choices.

w-w-whaaaaaat!!!??? Oh boy that's tough. But count me in. I think it will be a very interesting challenge. I already know of one for sure and have a couple others in mind.

Hmmm I wonder if there's a book called "how to craft anything from coconuts and palm leaves".

w-w-whaaaaaat!!!??? Oh boy that's tough. But count me in. I think it will be a very interesting challenge. I already know of one for sure and have a couple others in mind.

Hmmm I wonder if there's a book called "how to craft anything from coconuts and palm leaves".

Can my book be a Kindle? And does the island have WiFi?

Oooh this sounds fun! Me too, Me too!!!!

I would never, ever kiss Bear Gryllis (sp?). I've seen what strange things he's put in his mouth- gross!

Okay Folks, Griffin will be the first castaway on RST next sunday ( a week tommorrow) so you will be able to enjoy his selections of music and see his reasons for picking them.

AS a little aside, Bear grylis often takes silly risks that could leave him injured in exactly the sort of enviroment that you need to avoid injury in. He has been known to kill an animal and then be unable to eat it, and generally he is a poor subsistute for Ray mears.

Ray on the other hand, will allways make excellent food, keep a good fire going and have shelter, and be a million smiles per hour, and have time left over to carve you a spoon.

Anyways, next sunday will be Griffins Desert island discs, and knowing Griffins diverse love of music, promises to be a most excellent read and listen.

I shall do my best not to disappoint! I'm looking forward to it.

I think I misunderstood. Does the luxury item have to be a book? I thought it could be anything, as long as it does not allow you to escape or be rescued off the island.

PPP for some reason you get given the complete works of shakespeare, and a bible or other religeous book that suits your faith.

You get to choose one book of your own, AND a luxery item.. in the past some folks have chosen a piano and then asked the presenter if they can have sheet music to go with it, the answer has been yes.

The luxery item can not be one that lets you escape, so no yachts, life rafts or dinghys!!! or private jets etc.

Ahhh, I see. Though I can't imagine what anyone would do with a Bible. Use it for kindling I suppose. Or maybe just read it for a good laugh before you pass out and die of dehydration.

PPP, its just the rules that the BBC made up! there is nothing at all that says the desert island wouldnt have fresh water on it or food that you could forage or hunt!
Its presumed you could survive indefinately. ( well only untill your numbers up anyway that is) lol.

That is why I included those conditions in my first post. Any other scenario (such as being able to forage for food and find fresh water) makes the choice of which 8 pieces of music to select simply a mute one for me. I thought initially that it would make the choice too difficult, but now that I think about it more I realize that it would actually make my choice mute. So tell you what Rossy, if you want, you can in your questioning present me with both scenarios (i.e. my "imminent death" scenario and the BBC's "living on a island until the end of my days" scenario) and I will answer them both.

OK, I feel confident that I can tailor my questions to suit.
I will go the extra mile, but also will impose a condition.
My condition is I never ever, ever, not even once, want to hear that "Hungarian rock" played on what amounts to a "Blackpool ballroom wurlitzter organ" ever again.

It made my ears bleed, it made Mrs R deny me matrimonial pleasures, and my dog had spontaneous ruptured heamerrhoids, and that was all with the volume on only 23 percent.

It was the singular most horrid noise that has ever eminated from my almost new laptop, and has voided the garauntee.

Interesting, but I don't understand the limits. What does an "all time top eight" reveal other than a favorites list? In real life the best loved aren't necessarily the most useful or desired under adverse circumstances.

You are presuming adverse conditions.
To some folk the City is an adverse condition.
To others a desert island would be paradise.
This is all part of finding out about the castaway.

The choice of eight pieces of music therfore would be dependant on the individuals realisation that there is no chance of rescue, and their own particular feelings about being on a desert island.

If you are not familiar with the BBC4 long running program, you could do a quick search on youtube for "desert island discs"

There are quite a few folk featured to choose from..

Then there is a choice of book, and a choice of luxery item, again this illuminates a little of the character of the person concerned.

Then the hard part, "the one" In a catastrophic emergency, which leaves you only able to save one piece of music out of the eight, which will you save?

Its for fun and entertainment, and Griffin has agreed to go first , not tommorrow, but next sunday.

Griffin, has a large, diverse and multi-cultured love of music in general,It spans a multitude of genres, I know he will agonise over his choices, and it will be very interesting choices he makes to be sure.

Well, I don't think being limited to eight pieces of music would ever be a considered a paradise to anyone here. If any do find it so, why not imagine them a complete heaven by eliminating all music?

I'm just saying that "which eight would you take" would probably uncover more interesting tidbits about the castaway than "your top eight" might. I know my lists for answering these two questions would be completely different from one another. Heck, now that I think about it my "only one" wouldn't even be on the original list of eight, so I'd be left picking one at random during the final emergency.

But if these are the parameters of the show then I guess you're stuck.

ARRgh! Lol It is the "which eight would you take" !! for most folk this will probably be their top eight.. but thats semantics. But i may be proved wrong, someone may pick their worst eight.( ?)


I didnt invent the show or the premise, It has been running without a break since 1942 on BBC radio4.

It is considered a privalage in the UK for anyone to be invited on to be the weeks castaway, the "castaways" do not start quibbling over the format!

One interesting factoid, if you want to check with wiki, is that the most chosen "luxery" has allways been a PIANO, you are allowed sheet music as part of this choice of luxery.

Please if you have any more issues with the "rules", may i respectfully ask you to aquire a Ouija board and contact Roy Plomley ,the shows original devisor.

He currently resides "on the other side of the veil"

Lovely. A piano, sheet music, but no TUNER? Hah! Talk about h311 on earth!