I'm becoming a bit of an expert at low-tech global performance. Last weekend, at an event honouring my friend and colleague Robert Calvert, who died of a heart attack 20 years ago, I attempted to bellow a few lyrics down the blower from Texas while, in Kent, Nik Turner, who was a bandmate of mine and Calvert's in the prog-rock band Hawkwind, held the phone up to a microphone. To picture the effect, think Spinal Tap .

This transatlantic tribute was to celebrate the under-appreciated work of a witty and inventive singer/songwriter. Calvert's first solo album, 1974's Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters was followed, a year later, by my favourite, Lucky Leif and the Longships , produced by Brian Eno, on which I - as an occasional Calvert collaborator - had a lot of fun doing banjo and background vocals. I later graduated to a 12-string Rickenbacker on his 1981 album Hype , which accompanied Calvert's novel of the same name, and, with my wife Linda, sang backgrounds on his fine single "The Greenfly and the Rose". Happy days.