This afternoon we were live from the Villa Marina Arcade.
This is the home to the Isle of Man Wurlitzer and over the next couple of weeks it will be the setting for a number of festive concerts so you can come down and hear the piece of musical history in action. Margaret Cubbon was the first woman to play it on the Island – and she played several numbers for us over the course of the hour, while Peter Jordan told us the history of the beautiful instrument. The free concerts start tomorrow at 1pm, with donations collected for the Manx Stroke Foundation; call 600555 for more information.
- we were also joined by an ensemble from Manx Voices Choir, who sang two Christmas carols for us, beautifully amplified by the acoustics of the lovely venue - you can see them perform as part of the Manannan's Winterfest concert at the Gaiety Theatre on Friday and find out more about their Christmas concert here;
- we also met the new Chair of the Manx Music, Dance and Speech Festival, Eric Quirk and also spoke with Vice Chair Anne Clarke; they told us about the developments for 2019 including two brand new classes; the 2019 syllabus is now out, with applications due by February - find out more here
- Sarah Hendy and Howard Caine popped in to tell us about a special festive programme of poetry and readings they are putting together, looking for contributions from listeners - if you have something, email sarahhendy@manxradio.com
- and Cleo the Elf popped in to bring a little Christmas joy and sang a special festive song all about the Women Today! If you'd like Cleo and her merry elves to come visit your family this Christmas, find out more at the Isle of Characters Facebook page here.
If you missed any part of today's programme you can listen again at this link for the next 7 days, and there are plenty of videos over on our Facebook page.
