“Our Tune” for the middle classes.

I’m a big fan of Soul Music on Radio 4 where people explain their emotional connection to a particular piece of music. It can be fascinating but now and again, it descends into mawkishness. This week’s piece of music was Mr. Blue Sky. But as soon as a forlorn and dignified woman mentioned her husband Nigel, we knew what was coming and it was pure Simon Bates. Nigel was a lovely fun-loving man whose favourite band was ELO. His sore throat was in fact cancer of the oesophagus and poor Nige was cut down in the prime of life. His funeral took place on a crisp, clear sunny day, so no prizes for guessing the song they played at the crematorium. Though I’d bet that the very listeners who were genuinely moved by this are the same people who sneered at “Our Tune”.