Strangers & Aliens

Unexpected deaths always make me sit up and take notice. It's a crisis moment that all of us will come to, but we all probably convince ourselves it is further away than we think.

As a young boy I sang in a well-known boys choir which performed all over Europe. I probably did 50 or so London concerts, proms etc. We got to know and love certain conductors and dislike others. I'm afraid Richard Hickox fell into the latter category (though, ironically, the only CD I still have of me singing is with him conducting). At the time he was a choir and rehearsal conductor who mostly made way for the big guns (Abaddo etc) on the night.

More recently he has made it to the big time, but also to the pages of Private Eye because of some rather bizarre and erratic comments (infamous "sounds like a goat quote") with the Australia Opera. Nevertheless, his death at 60 is sudden and shocking. And it is levelling too. He may have had something of a privleged life, but.."man is destined to die once and after that to face judgement."

Don Carson once told me that the job of a pastor is to prepare people for death. I hope someone prepared Hickox.