George Palmer

This was something that I could do.

But I remember very vividly a conversation with my parents when I finished high school.

And we had the results, and fortunately I got a Commonwealth scholarship, meaning I could go to university.

Of course, they'd said to me, you don't get a Commonwealth scholarship, you're not going to university.

A, we can't afford it.

B, that means you haven't worked hard enough.

So we had this conversation in the back garden of our house, I can remember, and

What do you want to do, said my dad.

Well, I would like to go and study composition.

And to my astonishment and to my parents' credit, they didn't poo-poo the idea.

They didn't say, oh, rubbish, go and get a day job.

They approached it much more subtly.

Never say no to George.

Always approach it from the other direction.

So Dad said, look, that's fine.

That's fine.

But you'll have to bear in mind...

that the life of a musician and particularly a composer is very precarious, very precarious.

And if you want to eventually have a family, be able to educate your children, provide for them, you're going to find that very, very difficult if you're a full-time composer.

Now,