Borderline Genius

I'm glad they found the "missing" Sinead O'Connor. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has been worried about her.

And I'd been listening to her beautiful singing just a few days before her Prince/Arsenio Hall comments caused such a furore.

She's almost as good at causing uproar as she is at moving you to tears with her voice.

I had been revisiting Willie Nelson's 'Across The Borderline' album from 1993 – his finest work and one of the best albums ever.

Sinead performed an emotional duet with him on a version of Peter Gabriel's 'Don't Give Up', the track being recorded just the day after she had been more or less booed off stage at the Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary gig – because, just before that, she had torn up a photograph of the Pope on TV in protest at the Catholic church's handling of child abuse.

(What supposed Dylan fans were doing booing someone for making a legitimate protest is something of a puzzle – although Dylan 'fans' have, of course, not been unknown to boo Bob Dylan on a number of occasions.)

Dylan, inevitably, has a presence on 'Across The Borderline', joining in on 'Heartland' which he co-wrote with Willie. And Nelson also throws in a great reading of Dylan's 'What Was It You Wanted'.

With additional contributions from Bonnie Raitt and Paul Simon, every track on this album is a masterpiece, and Sinead, a voice crying against the wilderness, provides one of its very finest moments.

In Memory Of Syd

I know I had a good time last night because I have the bruises to prove it. All down my right leg. That's where I was banging the tambourine to help "conduct" a music workshop performance by the Homeless Oratorio.

These great people and musicians get together regularly at Crisis in east London, and I was lucky enough to be there as part of a course I'm doing in leading music workshops.

This particular workshop is led by the remarkable Clare Kenny, bass player to Sinead O'Connor, and (in her days with Hank Wangford) aka Cherry Red Footwear. Also helping out on percussion was local resident Dave Rowntree, drummer with Blur.

The piece for the night — rather surreally — was Pink Floyd's Astronomy Domine, which the 14-strong group performed with tremendous energy.

In just over a week, they will be on stage at the Royal Albert Hall with Brit Floyd (leading Floyd soundalikes) in a performance that has largely been brought about by the late Syd Barrett's sister's involvement in charity work. It looks like being an amazing night...