Greta the Great

Music is emotion incarnate. And sometimes it is almost too much to take in.

Despite the fact that I am no cricket aficionado, I found myself in The Long Room at Lord’s the other night for a Britain-Australia Society/South Australian Cricket Association dinner that marked not only the start of the Ashes matches but also the fact that some of the relics of Sir Don Bradman were on show in the MCC Museum.

I knew enough about The Don – as even we cricket non-aficionados call him – to get a buzz from seeing his bats and his blazer and his mum’s scrapbook of press cuttings.

But that was nothing to what was to come.

For The Don’s grand-daughter, Greta Bradman, was at the dinner. And she was there to sing. Which is something of an understatement. She is an accomplished operatic soprano with a voice whose power is such that one can scarcely believe it comes from her slight body.

The intensity of her voice stopped time in The Long Room, with the backdrop of the great cricket ground behind her, and a portrait of Sir Don looking down upon the scene.

And when she went from the classics to When You Wish Upon A Star without skipping a beat, the feeling that filled her and every one of us listening was electric.

Emotion. Music. Love. Greta Bradman exudes them all.

Friends Electric

I really love Brighton Electric studios.

I often hire a room there for solo drum practice. Because it's reasonably priced. The drum kits are good. And the staff know what they're talking about. It's a warren of studios, with bands of all sorts (but mainly young and loud) coming and going at all times.

The other day I did an early-morning session there before taking the train from Brighton into London for work, leaving my car near the studio.

I didn't get back until really late that night. And as I walked past the Electric, I could hear the sound of drums coming through the windows.

It was a great sound and produced a great feeling...

I'd done the morning shift and now someone was doing the night shift.

This is a music factory, where the music is a constant, and the people who come in for an hour or two hours or a day are the factor that is ever-changing.

A bit like the world...