Hi, I’m Andy Wood and I present the Classic Rock Show every Wednesday night from 9–11pm.
My earliest memories of music is having Radio 1 on all day in the house, listening to Tony Prince on Radio Luxembourg in the evening and in my teens I would record the top twenty every Sunday night from the radio.
I love all kinds of rock and blues music – in the mid-1970s I first heard ‘Queen’ and I loved their multi-tracked vocals and guitars, a sound I still love today. Over the years I have been lucky enough to see Queen live many times before Freddie Mercury died. Queen came to my home town of Leeds in 1982 at Elland Road football ground. To ensure I was at the very front of the stage I had to be in the stadium 8 hours before Queen arrived on stage. This involved no toilet or water and severe sunburn for over 10 hours, but well worth it in the end. My other favourite classic rock bands include Pink Floyd, Yes and Def Leppard.
My wife Tracey and I came to live on Lanzarote in 2015 with our cat Sita.
Monster Radio had just started and we always felt a close affinity with Monster. In July 2018, I was lucky enough to be given an opportunity to present a Rock show on the radio. After a sleepless week I presented my first show on Sunday night assisted by Steve (Wells). Steve then went on holiday for four weeks and left me to it, it was a steep learning curve being in the studio by myself….but I survived. I love presenting the Classic Rock show, as I get to play some fantastic tracks by some of the greatest bands ever. I do ask for
requests during the show, but only rock tracks (sorry no Kylie). Since starting the show I have discovered many new bands I’d never heard of and I love to present these tracks as well as playing rock classics.
Now we are retired we love to make the most of this fantastic island. We drive out to the volcanoes and will spend all day walking. This blends very nicely with one of my other pastimes, photography. The skies and views here are fantastic and the scenery constantly changes and is very dramatic. The clear skies are also great for my interest in astronomy, I still need to buy a telescope…
I also dabble in playing the guitar, one of the most precious items I brought from the UK (after Tracey and Sita) is my Brian May guitar. I did think after retirement I would have hours to practice, but I just don’t seem to find the time. We have no idea how we ever found the time to work before we came to live here, but we wouldn’t swap our life here for anything.
