I was definitely born in the wrong era.

When Nirvana and Guns N Roses were rocking the airwaves on ‘Atlantic 252’ in the Largs Academy Common Room in 1993, I was more interested in The Beatles, Elvis Presley, and Tom Jones!

As anyone who has seen me ‘perform’ on a Friday night at The Waterside or Macaulays knows, ‘Viva Largs Vegas’ and ‘It’s Not Unusual’ are two of my favourite hits to ‘sing’ along to!

My favourite Dr Who is Patrick Troughton who battled the yeti in the London Underground, and the gruesomely titled ‘Macra Terror’ - massive crabs who invaded a holiday colony, thanks to an element of Orwellian mind control. It certainly had a grip on me - while many episodes of his era were wiped by the BBC, thanks to dedicated fans who had tape recorders at the time, the audio has survived, and so Troughton’s great and zany adventures are now on my iPod along with other great musical hits of the 60s. Other favourite tv shows of the era include ‘Lost in Space’, ‘The Fugitive’, and of course, to my mind the original and the best ‘Batman’ starring Adam West and Burt Ward. If you haven’t seen the original 1960s movie, you are missing out on one of the funniest films ever made.

And even in modern TV, my favourite television drama is about a 1960s advertising agency ‘Mad Men’, which has opened up a whole feast of musical magic to me, with a range of fantastic deep, moving and poignant songs which cover a whole range of emotions, and mini-stories in themselves.

Every episode finishes with a different tune from the era, from Sony and Cher’s ‘I’ve got you babe’ to the wonderful and alluring Judy Collins ‘Both Sides Now’, and Peggy Lee’s ‘Is that all there is?’ which is in the style of a monologue about memories of her own childhood, and is haunting and remarkable, and still resonates many years later.

At the advent of digital tv and radio in 2006, I ‘tuned in’ to a London’s Big L radio station, and a show presented by Opal Bonfante. Yes, that is her real name! Opal, who was in her 20s, spoke to musical legends on her show including the late Davy Jones of The Monkees fame, and Peter Townsend of The Who. (The shows are still available on podcast tinyurl.com/qanuuqg - it is unmissable stuff) And it was during Opal’s show that I heard another classic 60s song which still sits on my iPod today ‘Step Inside Love’ - when I first heard the song, I thought - wow - now that is a cracking tune, but I couldn’t work out who the singer was.

When Opal revealed it was Cilla Black, I couldn’t quite believe it! Cilla of ‘Blind Date’ and ‘Surprise Surprise’ fame was a singing diva in the swinging 60s. I was aware of her musical background, but wasn’t actually aware of some of her great hits.

So it was with great sadness when Cilla’s death was announced on Sunday. I was on Wee Cumbrae of all places when somebody sent me a text, and of course, some of her famous songs were once again being broadcast on our national airwaves, some 50 years later - a television and musical legend.

And now thousands of Cilla Black fans have joined a campaign to get her hit ‘Anyone who had a heart’ back to Number 1.

The Facebook group, called ‘Get Cilla Black Anyone Who Had A Heart to UK No 1’ was created on Sunday soon after the news of her sudden death broke. Wouldn’t that be so fitting?