Tracks of My Life with Gary Moritz

Tracks of My Life is a show on RNIB Connect Radio presented and produced by Toby Davey where he invites a guest to take us on a journey through their life, sharing the tracks that mark important moments which bring back memories to them.

Their chosen tracks of their life might include the first track they can remember hearing, the first track they bought, a number of tracks that mark moments in their life and the final track, a track that they would like to pass on which might give people hope for the future.

 In this trimmed down podcast version of Tracks of My Life Toby is joined by easy listening music fan and presenter of Connect Radio’s Sunset Melodies show, Gary Moritz.

Gary’s Tracks of My Life journey will start with his preschool days and time spent round at his Grand Parents home.  Garry’s grandmother had a profound influence over the years on his musical taste and feeding his fascination with nostalgia which would later form the foundation for his Connect Radio show Sunset Melodies.

We will then move to teenage years for Gary and his discovery of the music of Elvis Presley which then lead Gary to appreciate his  mum’s record collection and introducing Gary to easy listening vocalists.  Then later to the discovery of Frank Sinatra which started with a track from what might be the very first concept album.  With fond memories also of spending many hours in a local record shop collecting rock n roll records and later of course Frank Sinatra records too.

At the age of 16 Gary  was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) which came as a shock to Gary and his Mum at the time.  Being diagnosed at an early age and knowing that he wouldn’t be able to drive Gary decided to travel and at the age of 19 Gary along with a close friend went on an Elvis inspired trip to Hawaii.  Sadly towards the end of their time in Hawaii a hurricane hit which forced them to stay in their hotel watching old films on the TV and seeing the musical An American In Paris really started Gary’s love of old movies.

Gary will then reflect on his time playing cricket at Stanmore Cricket Club under the captaincy of his Dad who was a pretty good Cricketer.  Garry even played alongside a famous England Cricketer and he has fond memories of great times in the club bar after the games listening to engaging stories from some of the older members of the club.  Due to the deterioration of his sight there came a time for Gary when he had to give up playing Club Cricket which gave him the opportunity to spend his free weekends painting in his art studio which included painting portraits of Rock ’n’ Roll and Pop stars while listening to the Des Carrington show on the radio which furthered Gary’s love of easy listening music.

Gary will then reflect on the time when he started out as a mobile DJ with 15 years of Disco work which expanded his musical tastes further into 70s and 80s music and recalling how a certain disco track which was always a good floor filler!

Before we come to his final track Gary will talk about the time when he decided to take medical retirement from his office job to bring up his children  at home.  With very fond memories of fun times with the kids and playing at full volume one of his easy listening tracks  that his kids would also sing along to.

You can catch the hour-long version of Tracks of My Life with Toby’s guest’s music tracks in full by tuning in to RNIB Connect Radio every Tuesday at 7pm, repeated on Thursday at 1pm and Sunday at 8pm.