I saw a ghost...

I saw a ghost the other night at the Proms, standing in the arena, neck craned to look around. It was just myself of course, twenty years younger, a little windswept from a hurried bike ride, in the hall for the first time and amazed that then as now you could just turn up and queue for a cheap ticket and suddenly you were in at the very heart of it. The city was new, my job too. Arriving alone, on a whim, and tired at the end of a working day I remember so clearly standing, a little uncertain at first about the whole idea, but then feeling that surge of energy a live orchestra lets rip around the auditorium and a sudden sense of extraordinary good fortune.

Years later a colleague told me of her first visit to the Royal Albert Hall. She was fresh from music college in Ireland, over in London for the first time and looking for a job. One afternoon she and a friend made their way to the Royal Albert Hall with no other plan than finally to see it for real. It was closed to the public but some kindly member of the hall's staff let them in just for a few minutes just to gaze like musical pilgrims at the physical home of the Proms.

I was talking to someone in the audience this week who was there for his first Prom. I hope that in twenty years time he can remember that first night, whether it's seeing ghosts back in the hall or hundreds of miles away listening to a broadcast.

Of course musical memories like this become a way of mapping your life. We'd love to hear your stories.