This morning, while listening to an entirely unrelated podcast, I found out that Little Richard was dead. I went to Google and sure enough, he died on the 9th of May at the age of 87. The coronavirus has been such a distraction that the death of one of rock ‘n’ roll’s biggest attractions completely passed me by for two weeks.

Along with Elvis, Chuck Berry, and a little later on, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard was one of the founding fathers of what really was – in some capacity – the beginning of modern music. I grew up on that music. Those guys influenced everyone and everything, and without them the landscape woud be a whole lot different. You don’t have to like it, but you have to respect the reach those guys had.

It’s a sad loss for the musical world, and unfortunately one that took me a while to realise.

Rest in peace, Richard. You will be sadly missed.