Losing musicians affects me in different ways. Sometimes I can play the music in celebration of all that they were and other times I need to avoid hearing them for a little while as it makes me feel far too sad.

At the moment parts of my music collection are still laying low from 2016. I was just about beginning to listen to ELP again after losing Emerson when we lost Lake. I have become so emotionally attached to some of the tracks that hearing them becomes difficult when you realise the artist has gone.

I know it’s something that I will need to get used to, after all my tastes err towards classic rock and nobody is getting any younger but still it kind of hit me hard today as I was listening to one of my favourite tunes by a favourite living artist and I realised that the day I won’t be able to listen to it for a while is going to come along sooner rather than later. It’s not going to stop me listening or being a fan. I know that the feelings will pass. I could listen to Yes and appreciate the lovely bass work of Chris Squires again after a short while.

I thought delving back into Quo would take longer but a weekend of over indulging in the band in the company of a good friend pretty much sorted that.

So, for now, some of my music collection remains untouched until I can listen again without realising that I won’t be entertained by tweets by John Wetton when I’m online, that there’s a finite amount of things left to see the light of day. There’s no set time limit to when it becomes less sad, but the music always comes through in the end, because it’s all we need to remember.