Monty’s Music
Colin Montgomerie’s musical tastes are as colourful as his love life. “My first crushes were on Debbie Harry from Blondie and the blonde one out of Abba [Agnetha, in case you bump into her – Ed.],” he confessed to Jack magazine in 2003. “The Police, Dire Straits and Queen were my favourite groups. My brother and I were far too regimented to like anything as outlandish as punk music,” he continued. In the spring of 2000, Monty selected his Desert Island Discs for Sue Lawley on Radio 4, as follows: 1. I’LL FIND MY WAY HOME - JON AND VANGELIS (1981) I’m away from home too much – I probably spend only 100 days at home a year. I’m always trying to get the first flight home. 2. WATERLOO – ABBA (1974) I watched Abba win the Eurovision Song Contest when I was 11. I think everyone’s a closet Abba fan without admitting it. 3. HAKUNA MATATA (FROM THE LION KING, 1994) It’s often the last song I play in the car before going to a tournament. It keeps me relaxed. I won the 1996 Swiss Open because of it! 4. FLOWER OF SCOTLAND (SCOTTISH NATIONAL ANTHEM) It brings back memories of winning the Dunhill Cup with Sam Torrance and Andrew Coltart, and pipe band walked up the 18th fairway at St Andrews. 5. THE GREAT ESCAPE (THEME TO THE 1963 FILM) I now take my own DVD player to hotels. I sleep better at night after a good film – and this is definitely one of them. 6. ANGELS – ROBBIE WILLIAMS (1997) TWI would produce a highlights video of my Order of Merit victories and, in 1998, they played this song over footage of my [now ex-] wife. 7. CHARIOTS OF FIRE – TITLES - VANGELIS (1981) They played this at the official dinner before the 1999 Ryder Cup at Valderrama. The lights were dimmed as we walked in…it sent a chill up my spine. 8. SAILING - ROD STEWART (1975) It was a favourite of my mother Elizabeth, who passed away in 1991. It always reminds me of her. And let’s not forget that Monty was party to one of golf’s most rock n’n roll moments, last September, when he chartered a private jet from Munich to Glasgow to attend a Robbie Williams concert at Hampden Park. “ It was great night. I went along with my girlfriend and her children and we went backstage to chat with Robbie and show him the Ryder Cup,” said Monty when we told him about our feature. “I had to make sure I got the trophy back to Munich the next day for Woosie’s team announcement.” Monty took some flak given that this was the night before the last round of the BMW International in which he was contending. But then given his love of Angels (and a new angel in tow) it was presumably too tempting an opportunity. GETTYIMAGES.COM
ing Sky’s 2006 Ryder Cup coverage. “He’s Swedish and his first record he ever bought was by Rod Stewart – what about Abba?!”. We won’t remind Nick that, back in the mid-’90s, he chose Dire Straits’ On Every Street (the pedestrian followup to Brothers In Arms) as his all-time favourite album when polled by our editor. Nick’s not the first commentator to bring music into play. Peter Alliss, for example, admits a surprising liking for Robbie Williams. “You know – the one with the tattoos,” was how he described the Stoke on Trent star to viewers during the BMW Championship last May, before later citing Williams’ Escapology as “one of my favourites,” on the Friday of the Open. “I’m more into the Kaiser Chiefs,” chipped in co-commentator, Mark James. As for Fred Funk and Robert Rock, well that’s anyone’s guess. Even managers are getting into some serious golf-andmusic multi-tasking, with Danish fixer Søren Brombjerg Johansen responsible for both rising European Tour pro, Søren Kjeldsen, and colourful Danish dance duo, Junior Senior, who enjoyed a worthy UK top-10 hit with the catchy disco pastiche, Move Your Feet, back in 2003 (resurrected recently for a Nokia advert). Back with dedicated golf music, it seems strange that the genre is almost entirely dominated by offerings from the other side of the Atlantic. Presumably there were golfing knees-ups in the bars around St Andrews, several centuries ago, but there’s little evidence of it in the archives of the Golf Museum. Worthy of inclusion, nonetheless, are the memories of St Andrews in 1958 when a wheelchair-bound Bobby Jones was granted the Freedom of the City while the University’s Younger Hall burst spontaneously into the old Scottish standard, Will Ye No’ Come Back Again? Among the throng was Herbert Warren Wind who wrote: “it was ten minutes before many who attended were able to speak again in a tranquil voice.” Rather less poignantly, British golf music contributions include Songs For Swinging Golfers – essentially Christmas carols done to golf lyrics penned by a member of Ashridge Golf Club (as plugged by Peter Alliss on TV dur-
US Open champion Geoff Ogilvy, “a 20-handicapper on guitar”, delivers a single-figure rendition of Led Zeppelin’s Stairway To Heaven for Sky Sports.
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Golf-themed albums date back to the 1950s with these offerings from Oscar Brand & The Sandtrappers and Larry Clinton.
www.golfinternationalmag.com March 2007
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