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Los Gigantes Desert Island Discs |
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Desert Island Discs |
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DESERT ISLAND DISCS is a long running BBC Radio 4 programme. It was first broadcast on January 29th 1942 and is said by the Guinness Book of Records to be the longest running music programme in the history of radio.
Guests are asked to choose the eight pieces of music they would take with them to a desert island, discussion of their choices permitting a review of their life. They also choose one book (excluding the Bible and the works of Shakespeare which are already deemed present on the island) and one luxury item which must be inanimate and have no practical use. |
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While not quite a Desert Island , Tenerife does lay claim to having many castaways from the UK . In this feature we put the Desert Island Discs theme to those who have made Los Gigantes their home , frequent returning visitors and also those people who have come to Los Gigantes for the first time .
In the Los Gigantes version of Desert Island Discs , Castaways choose their all time top ten favourite music recordings on CD , one choice from the world of literature , a magazine subscription - delivered by message in a bottle post - and one luxury item they could not envisage living without . |
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Owner, editor and chief tea boy of The Tenerife Sun newspaper based in Alcala near to Los Gigantes , is how our latest Castaway Roger Diss describes himself . It is fast becoming the tradition on Desert Island Discs to refuse to divulge ones age , but , Roger admits to being ' Far too old to be still doing what I'm doing but grateful that I still have the energy to keep up with the demands after 50 years in the business.' So at least we have a clue there .
Originally from Edmonton, London, but, after living in Australia for eight years, settled in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, where he spent the longest period of his life before coming to live in Los Gigantes, where ' I expect to finish up stuck in a wall … maybe soon ! '
Roger is
married to Heather, partner in the artificial plants and flower shop ForEverGreen in Los Gigantes and invaluable (unpaid!) helper on The Tenerife Sun. |
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TITLE
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ARTIST |
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John Stainer's Crucifixion
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The York Cathedral Choir
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| Concerts I and II
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The Three Tenors
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La Boheme
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(
performed by anybody competent )
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Anything by
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Celine Dion
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| ( sung by anybody competent
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Burt Bacharach numbers |
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Beatles Arias
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Cathy Berberian
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Why God Why?
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( from Miss Saigon ) by Simon Bowman
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| There is a Balm in Gilead
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The Leigh Orpheus Male Voice Choir
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| What special significance does track No1 hold for you ? |
| Favourite songs? Don't really have any, preferring instead to concentrate on genres, composers and artistes. The important things is, music should move me to tears – of laughter or otherwise – and it's generally choral work that does it. Special significance of choice number one : It takes me back to my days as a choirboy when it was a regular Easter event – before fags behind the lav wrecked what was a promising voice. Though essentially aetheistic, I retain a Christian outlook and it still moves me immensely when I play it on Good Friday. Don't know if I'm crying over its emotional content or for my lost voice. |
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| Which work of literature would you take to your desert island ? |
As with music, I don't have any favourite books but authors, yes. For the last many years, ever since spy-mania came up and bit me, it has been John Le Carré, who takes the genre to areas undreamt of by other writers in the field. I have everything of his - as far as I can tell - that he ever published and re-read them all in rotation. How could I ever pick a favourite from that lot? |
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| Which magazine subscription would you take out ? |
Playboy because, apart from subjects that, strangely, no longer seem to excite me so much, it remains cynical, aspirational and desperately revolutionary – even though it did its job so well in the 1960s that there seems to be little left to rebel against. Oh, yes … it also carries some good short stories and interviews. |
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| What luxury item would be indispensable to you ? |
A toothpick – for as long as my teeth remain in my head. |
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| What first brought you to Los Gigantes ? What special appeal does it hold for you ? |
My brother spent five years insisting we should use his apartment here for holidays. When we finally (and graciously) accepted we wondered why we had held out for so long. After years of holidaying in his apartment (we started paying after a while) we decided it could be a good place to live – provided we had something to do to keep us from descending into a bottle. The opportunity arose after people we met here got tired of hearing me moaning about the low standard of journalism in the English-speaking press here and challenged me to come over and do better. It seemed like a good idea at the time … |
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Los Gigantes next Castaway will be washed ashore on 10 December |
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Previous Castaways |
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Best viewed with a really really good computer
This web site was designed and created with the authorization and collaboration of the Los Gigantes
Marina Authorities :
Nautica Los Gigantes SL . Tel Tenerife 0034 922 868002
Site Terms : Enter at your own risk
Conceived and Produced by Sites-in-the-Sun © 2005 |
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