The last time you went to an organ club or keyboard show, did the musician you go to see surprise you with a completely earth shatteringly different programme?

Did you sit in your seat thinking, ooh I haven’t heard this one in years! or did you sit there thinking, not this one AGAIN? Well it seems that the latter is quite common. We spoke a handful of organ secretaries who told us that they are getting tired of hearing the same songs time and time again. Here are just a few of those songs that everyone plays and seems to be common on the organ circuit:

Memories
Dam Busters March
In The Mood
No matter what
Any dream will do
Tico Tico
Moonlight Serenade (this one is really played to death)
Crazy (another one played time and time again)
Somewhere over the rainbow

It seems to be a case that cheesy songs and old standards are the most popular and most of these songs are only played because the audiences seem to want this sort of music (or do they). Organ club secretaries seem to like playing things safe and keep booking concert artists who play music from a certain era and hardly ever take a gamble on new music.

In a way the choice of music is down to the organist and this is where the responsibility lies. So when will keyboard players out there mix their programme up to a level where the audience has no idea what to expect?

Would you prefer to hear the same thing time and time again or would you prefer to hear something from the 60’s, 70’s or 80’s - there is so much music to choose from, it seems that artists do not look beyond the war era.