Yesterday I went into town to meet Norman Motion who was kindly acting as delivery man for my Estey organ which Alistair Edmondson has been rebuilding. And it sounds great. You can even play fast on it and the notes all speak, a consequence of the wind supply now being 'tight as a drum', to quote Mr Edmondson. I also discovered last night that the cheap PZM mic I bought in Tandy in 1991 to experiment with inside my harpsichord, is quite effective laid inside it. It will get its first public airing next weekend in Gateshead.

But Norman also brought the news of Kevin McCrae's death on Thursday. Until last year, Kevin was sub-principal cello of the SCO and I have too many entertaining memories of him to recount here. He wore his considerable talent and versatility lightly: as well as being a seriously fine cellist, he was a great continuo player, he could improvise complex harmonic and rhythmic accompaniments to fiddle tunes with jaw-dropping fluency, and recently he was becoming just as well known as an arranger and conductor than as a player: Eddi Reader, Dougie Maclean and Brian McNeill have all benefited from his skill. In the early 90s when I started playing in the orchestra regularly, he was one of the few fellow Scots in the band, and his attitude was an inspiration: he always applied himself to the job in hand with complete professionalism, but he never let go of the idea that it should be fun too. We would habitually share jokes throughout rehearsals, one line at a time in the windows of opportunity when we weren't playing; when necessary, he would keep track of the Aberdeen football scores on a pocket television resting on his music stand; and he made the work a good social experience: it was always a pleasure to show up for an SCO rehearsal and be greeted with 'Oi! It's Slasher! Great, this should be a laugh', and watch Ursula Smith's smiling exasperation. Working with him was a joy even when recently his life's battles led him to be less rumbustuous. He was such a valuable person to have around; that he has finally lost his fight is profoundly sad.