Working with Brian Eno was fantastic, but I very nearly didn't get the chance because of an awful experience-- I suppose this is the time I'll have to lay it all out there--> I almost seriously F'd it up!!! And in the end I snatched victory from the very jaws of defeat to get that gig… This is what happened… You see, years ago in about 1998 I was already working as a programmer for Bryan Ferry after he heard my single ‘Spikey Message’ on BBC Radio One. He said he liked my weird vibey programming, and he asked his management to track me down and invite me to his studio… It was the same single that received viral interest with my Alien Stunt (but that’s another story for another day!) While I was there, Brain Eno was invited to come and do a session, and that’s how we met. In fact, when Brian Eno came to the studio he had with him a Yamaha DX7 keyboard replete with the sought after Grey Matter ‘E’ expansion card… I must admit I was quite starstruck, Brian Eno was my idol after all, an ambient music guru and all-round cool ethical person… He arrived, and I plugged the DX7 into my midi interface, as I did with every other keyboard… but to our mutual horror the keyboard just went completely absolutely nuts!!!! All the keys seemed to be playing weird crazy notes at completely odd pitches, and the user programmable sound patches (all of his presets) bank 7 and 8 were gone! Brian was… understandably more than a little concerned! Of course, I was totally crestfallen… I had somehow broken his favourite DX7!! I was terrified that from now on I’d be known as the professional idiot who destroyed Brian Eno’s celebrated DX7 and lost all of his sounds!! I was absolutely beside myself. I just wanted to dig a little hole, pull leaves and a bush over myself and tell people to ‘go away I’m hiding!’ Bryan Ferry made me feel even worse by saying in a whispered voice… “Erm James this is really bad…embarrassing… you’ve let the studio down…” …and my hero Brian Eno was well, quite rightly a bit p*ssed off! He kept pressing - hitting, really - the keys of the DX7 saying“Oh My God, all my sounds… 20 years of work gone! I can’t believe it!”