Nothing shocks funeral director Adrian Pink, writes FIONA TARRANT. Not even when the family of a recently departed person asked if they could have Status Quo's Rocking all over the World played as the coffin entered church.

"People seem to be a lot more relaxed about asking for a favourite song," he said. "There's definitely been an increase in requests since the death of Diana, Princess of Wales."

Once people realise they needn't be embarrassed about requests for tunes which mean something, all they have to do is tell the funeral organiser and provide the music.

"CDs are definitely the best because you just select the track number and the tune is played. Things get complicated when relatives thrust a tape in your hand when you arrive at the house half an hour before the funeral.

"It might not be wound back to the correct place and we can't listen to it in the hearse on the way to the church to check," he said.

Adrian, 40, and his colleagues at Reeves & Pain, brief people at all their branches properly and ask for the music beforehand, so they can play it and make sure it all goes smoothly on the day. "We try to make things as personal for people as possible and that includes the music they want," said Adrian, who's been a funeral director for 18 years and is based at the company's Kidlington office.

"We put in a lot of hard work and if the music isn't timed just right, it lets the whole service down."

That can involve a bit of juggling. If there are 200 people to be seated, then it'll take longer than the four and a half minutes for Tina Turner to belt out Simply the Best or the Monty Python team to hum and sing their way through Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. And you can't play it over and over, then stop it half-way through once the coffin and the mourners are in place.

"We try to start the music as we bring the coffin into church or the crematorium, so it's just the immediate family who have to be seated before the service begins," he said.

The general tone of funerals has changed over the past ten years, and the Co-Operative Funeral Service regularly releases its 'top ten' of people's favourite funeral tunes. And they're all ones Adrian knows well.

"People have realised that it doesn't have to be two hymns and a reading. Funeral directors are now offering a far wider choice," said Adrian.

That has something to do with younger people coming into the undertaking industry and also a fall in the number of church funerals. "A lot of people have a secular service, with a humanist reading. That makes a lot of difference.

"A lot of people would far rather have tunes that everyone knows, and that meant something to the deceased person, than a hymn which not many of the congregation can sing," said Adrian.

Mourners' top ten tunes

The 1998 top ten, according to the Co-Operative Funeral Service:

1. Candle in the Wind, Elton John

2. Simply the Best, Tina Turner

3. My Way, Frank Sinatra

4. Knockin' on Heaven's Door, Bob Dylan

5. Every Breath You Take, The Police

6. Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, Monty Python

7. Stairway to Heaven, Led Zeppelin 8. Always on my Mind, Elvis Presley

9. Tears in Heaven, Eric Clapton

10. Seasons in the Sun, Terry Jacks

And the 1999 line-up:

1. My Heart will Go on, Celine Dion

2. Candle in the Wind, Elton John

3. Wind Beneath My Wings, Bette Midler

4. Search for the Hero, -eople

5. My Way, Frank Sinatra

6. You'll Never Walk Alone, Gerry and the Pacemakers

7. Please Release Me, Englebert Humperdinck

8. Memories, Elaine Paige

9. Strangers in the Night, Frank Sinatra

10. Bright Eyes, Art Garfunkel

Story date: Monday 01 March

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.