A director of the Royal Irish Academy of Music and a concert pianist, John O'Conor listens to more music that most of us have hot dinners.

So it's no surprise that his perfect gift for a music lover is "a set of noise exclusion headphones which would be useful in any lift or department store which insists on bombarding one with muzak. They could also be used to ensure that one is not driven insane by the latest craze of mobile phone users - changing the ringing tone to a classical music theme such as Beethoven's Fur Elise, designed to tempt music lovers to take the phone and bash its owner over the head with it." The cost, John says is "priceless" but unfortunately they are not yet available and the nearest alternative is a set of ear plugs (approximately 30p at most pharmacies).