Appeared on Resonance FM this morning, having just returned from a gig in Monaco knackered after no sleep. Nerves combined with hangover meant my hands were shaking like Elvis’s pelvis during the live track. The interview was fun though, and a listener phoned in to get details, which is rare apparently – so this promotion lark works then. On the subject of publicity, the first few album reviews have come in, all positive so far. It feels really awkward to read them, and especially strange when I end up agreeing with the critical bits!

Last week I produced some tracks at Toerag for my friend James Wolfe (who I routinely describe as ‘the genius in my life’). It was so refreshing to record straight to tape and have the option-woven safety net of the computer taken away. Having said that, when I transferred one of the recordings to my laptop I neglected to check it so I’ll be spending many shitty hours repairing loads of distorted bits. Nearly cried when I realized. Still, all the tracks are amazing and I hope James makes his mark soon.

Apart from that I’ve mainly been working on new music and preparing for future concerts – my own, and some with Petra-Jean Phillipson and Peter Schwalm. I played with Ed Harcourt too at the Hackney Empire in circumstances so chaotic (no equipment, crew who hated each other, etc) that the music took on a wonderfully surreal floating quality. I knocked Ed’s acoustic over in the first song and he gave me an ‘I will kill you’ look, before spending the rest of the show behind his fringe. But he played incredibly and was very satisfied afterwards. Hurrah.

By complete contrast I have also been doing a few festivals with Herr Keating. Everyone in the band is so nice, the big R is utterly charming and genuine, and as an East Dubliner disconcertingly says fuck every third word, but with such little emphasis that you hardly notice. Of course it isn’t great art or anything, but the interesting thing is how satisfying it feels to play to absolutely ecstatic audiences. They’re only interested in Ro and I could be anybody, but they’re really having a good time – much more so than a lot of the ‘respectful’ audiences I’m privileged enough to play to under normal circumstances – and it’s rather nice. Not that one is ‘better’ than the other, but I’m enjoying being part of something different. Temporarily.

I just got back from a crazy charity event organised by Rosetta Life in collaboration with Brian Eno And Jarvis Cocker: a live internet jam session between children at Great Ormond Street Hospital, a hospice in Portobello, and a home for children suffering from AIDS in South Africa. It was extremely moving and terrifyingly chaotic at the same time. Still, by some miracle the temperamental internet connection finally managed to crank into life just in time for our big song, and everyone had fun. Then a little boy with Teurets Syndrome started setting off all the samples at once and turning every knob in sight up full and hell broke loose. Next time I’m making the keyboard monophonic!

Other than that, there have been lots of little things going on. There was a short acoustic tour with Nik Kershaw – it was so great stripping the synths away and playing those beautiful songs the way they were probably written – on an acoustic guitar. Nik really is an incredible songwriter. Hopefully a proper tour will follow. I’ve also been putting finishing touches to ‘Scene Memory’, my album of textural guitar pieces which is sounding very moody, and working on the tracks I started in New York. I wish there was more time to do my own stuff at the moment, but I’m grabbing all the time I can here and there on trains and in cars.