Ailsa's Blog: Meet Our Members: Steve Machan

When I was young (though I was in Sheffield, so really it should be "when I was a lad…"), I remember having a wind-up gramophone with some spare needles and a few 78 records. The one I most enjoyed playing was Sparky’s Magic Piano. "Yes, I can talk, and I can play myself." It then burst out with Chopin’s Revolutionary Étude. I've never heard it played better - but it was a magic piano, after all.

I joined a church choir when I was eight and loved both the singing and the messing about during sermons. I liked the hymns and grew increasingly fond of psalms (I miss singing them now). They are wonderful once you get the hang of chanting. Above all, I loved the anthems. I usually got to sing the solo parts, and that suited me. "Love one another with a pure heart fervently" was my favourite bit of Charles Wesley's wonderful Blessed be the God and Father - still a work I enjoy listening to.

Although I don't have a single religious cell in my body (unless you count Humanism and awe of nature), I have always found God-inspired music uplifting. I sang in a church choir in Turvey, Bedfordshire—a small village with a lovely church (I love churches), an inspiring choir mistress, and a choir of over 40. Not bad for a small village. By then I was a bass soloist in a choir that punched well above its weight, and that kept me singing for another 30 years. I loved performing the bass part in Stainer's Crucifixion (though it's trendy to dismiss it as Victorian rubbish), Allegri's Miserere, and Fauré's Requiem, to name just a few. Singing Allegri's 16-part setting with its top Cs (though not for me!) in a village choir was certainly an example of punching above our weight.

It's very hard to pick out favourite music, but some pieces have stayed with me since university (I was chair of the choral society there - so what's new?). Works that have remained constant companions include Shostakovich's 5th and 10th symphonies, Simon & Garfunkel's Bookends, and Emerson, Lake & Palmer's Pictures at an Exhibition. With YouTube's help, I've recently rediscovered the joy of their astonishing Moog synthesiser work and Carl Palmer's drumming. He's my hero drummer.

Another, slightly later discovery was Julia Fordham - best remembered, I think, for Love Moves in Mysterious Ways, which made the charts. I'm a lower bass, but Julia Fordham can sing down there as well, and then suddenly she's three octaves higher. That's rare. She's one of the few artists whose albums I collected.

In the '60s I loved The Beatles. It took me longer to appreciate The Stones. My favourite Beatles song is Girl from the Rubber Soul album, alongside the B-side of Michelle. I think I'm drawn to melancholic or paradoxical songs. To illustrate the latter, one of my all-time favourites is I'm Not in Love by 10cc. Another track I often reach for is I Don't Like Mondays by the Boomtown Rats.

These days it's so easy to say, "Okay Google, play…" But in a way, that makes it harder-what do you choose? One of my favourite Russian composers? Mendelssohn? Haydn? Tears for Fears? Magpie Lane? Bellowhead? Wham? It was easier when you could just go to the CD collection and pick one.

I love a wide range of music, but I'm not keen on country-though I did love Billy Joe McAllister jumping off the Tallahatchie Bridge (Ode to Billie Joe), Bobbie Gentry's commentary on others' lack of empathy. I run when rap starts playing (if you can call it playing). Funk is just… well, funk. For me, the golden ages of music were the '60s and the '80s (during the latter I was DJing, so I got to know and love many great groups). I've been to a few concerts (including Julia Fordham's, of course), but I struggle with them because I just want to sing. At home, I can sing along-apologies to anyone nearby.

I joined Seaford Choral Society in 2013. It was a friendly choir, and I soon grew to love it. I'm one of those people who find it hard to say no (a sucker), so before long I was the concert manager, and then, when most of the committee jumped ship, I ended up as a reluctant chair. The reluctance evaporated quickly, though, and I've really enjoyed helping to steer such a lovely choir ever since.