The amount of times I still regularly hear someone quote Eric Morecambe’s immortal line “I was playing all the right notes… just not necessarily in the right order” is a long lasting legacy to comic genius that once roamed this land. The sketch features the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of ’Andrew Preview’ (André Previn) with Morecambe about to tackle Grieg’s Piano Concerto (by Grieg) with Wise egging him on as his erstwhile friend and manager.

The sketch goes through an array of comedic permutations, losing the piano key, asking Mr Preview to jump up whilst conducting so Eric can see the downbeat… the whole thing is such a skilful observation of the workings of an orchestra that both non musicians AND musicians laughed heartily at the shenanigans.

Some of the maturer readers might groan having seen one too many reruns over Christmas turkey but perhaps you might indulge the younger audience as the sketch was performed in the Morecombe & Wise Christmas Special of 1971 and is four years older than I am.

As a child I remember the world being filled with comedic greatness, musical greatness and, my absolute favourite, musical comedy greatness. I’ve groaned, laughed and cried at Victor Borge who not only had all the amazing virtuosic skills of Liberace but had them melded with all the comedic skills of Charlie Chaplin to create nothing short of a genius. And as an adult, and a dad, I want to share this humour with my son.

But where to share it from? Thank goodness people like Brett Domino continue to pedal the art of musical comedy in an observational form, but music isn’t at the heart of our culture anymore. Only today I tried to find the cd section at the local supermarket to find they don’t have one any more. I understand that cars don’t have cd players these days but as technology progresses, perhaps we’re losing something very important as a trade off - choice.

There are radio stations dedicated to any given genre playing the same music ad infinitum. So a little challenge for you, try and find something new to listen to. Whether it’s a band or a singer, a YouTube clip or an obscure radio show… listen and let me know what you found please.

Andy