Thank you for the music ... it’s been a real lifesaver

THE poet Robert Browning was spot on when he famously wrote: “Who hears music, feels his solitude peopled at once.”

As someone who lives alone, I could have found lockdown particularly lonely, but I didn’t. And that, in part, was down to music.

Music can be a great source of comfort and company.

Morning workouts and daily walks were done to uptempo playlists, anything from Britpop to Beyonce to get the heart pumping.

At night I’d unwind to calming, meditative music — the sound of rainfall against a window or ocean waves.

I joined in social media tagathons ‘list your favourite top 10 albums, singles, gigs’, and watched online performances staged in makeshift studios.

Radio 6 Music played in the background when I was working and weekend TV viewing always included Top Of The Pops throwbacks to the 1980s and 1990s. I lost track of the number of times I danced around my living room to Black Box’s Ride On Time.

That feeling of connection, of not being isolated from the rest of the world on a Friday night, was part of the appeal of Sophie Ellis-bextor’s Kitchen Discos or Facebook Live gigs.

And while nothing can replace the lure of live music — the buzz from standing shoulder-to-shoulder in a vast field, concert hall or intimate club — online gigs helped fill the void.

If truth be told, I’d started to take live music for granted.

Years of going to concerts for work as well as pleasure had left me somewhat unappreciative.

It’s only when something is taken away from you that you truly learn to be grateful.

Roll on the day when we can sing badly and loudly and dance with our friends in a mosh pit again, drinking overpriced beer.

It’s not at all surprising that music has helped people get through the pandemic.

Music has always had the power to heal and uplift.