Desert Island Discs

But what about you guys?  What would be your DIDs and why?

Bryan Ferry - Virginia Plain.  I can't go into details or Mark will have to censor this post, but Virginia certainly wasn't plain!

I'll keep there really personal choices to myself, there are some tracks out there I can't hear without thinking of my wife and kids.  Music's weird like that, no other artistic medium can do it in my experience.

But some others:

People are Strange (cover) by Echo and the Bunnymen I think this summarises modern society so well.  The loss of community in favour of individual identity has many positives, but it can also make the world we live in a very lonely place for some people.  You're bound to get lonely stuck on a desert island, but that song would remind me that that feeling is not exclusive, and the whole experience would I think, fundamentally change the person who returns from isolation into a more caring and compassionate individual.   

If Ever I Stray by Frank Turner... I got into Frank in 2011 when I first heard this track on Kerrang! I was driving up to Boardwise to dump off a particularly uninspiring 'cool' windsurf board and pick up something with more volume and generally easier to sail, albeit with less top end speed and acceleration.   I believe in a mantra for my sailing life- keep moving on, keep looking, never settle for something that isn't right for you or you're not getting maximum enjoyment from it- you only live once and a wise man adapts to, and accepts, the limitations around them.  But with that comes some frustrations, as felt recently- despite my last dinghy being a very well built boat, nice to sail and providing plenty of others the same for racing, it's just not right for me for competitive sailing, I'm just too heavy for it sailing around here and it was bought for competitive sailing- not cruising.  At the end of the day this song brings some temperance to my approach- reminding me it's not really about the equipment, but the joy of getting on the water and getting the salt back in your veins.   All the rest of it, the racing, the technology, the infrastructure is all just b**locks to the fundamental enjoyment of being on the water.  Ainslie explained that freedom very well I thought- and was very candid about his early life at school and how sailing was a release.  I totally get that.     

And my luxury item- my Witchcraft Chakra... I know Kirsty would say I couldn't take it, but in the wise words of Bodhi:

Well he clearly spent a lot of time listening to Radio 2 on the drive up to Winter training.  I think we can forgive him for his bland music taste.  

Fortunately today's aspiring Ainslies will have their own iPod (probably playing RYA sports psychology mumbo jumbo rather than anything you'd hear on Zane Lowe... but that's another debate)