The gig started off with a short film - 'Troubled Samurai Stephen' made by and staring the band. In a nutshell it's the tale of a traveling kilt-wearing samurai (Steve) who's a bit handy with a sword.

Wearing black space suits with flashing letters, they kicked off with Rhododendron with frontman Steve zipped up like Kenny in his hooded top warming up on the drums, and drummer Robin playing the xylophone.

Keyboard master, John

The lights stayed low and the ceiling of the steel pyramid filled with thousands of tiny swirling twinkling spots of white light which made you feel like you were in some kind of space station.

Four screens were dotted about the stage - and as they launched into Squares, psychedelic coloured blobs oozed across them. The crowd jigged along and belted out the chorus Daydream I Fell Asleep Beneath The Flowers.....

This was a hometown gig for bass player Richard and people randomly yelled out "Oiy Greentree!" throughout the gig while Steve (who'd stripped off to a Pompey shirt) yelled back "Oiy Pompey!"

Out-side with it's barking dogs, aggressive rock guitars and clattering drums had a Stones/The Who feel to it. This track was a highlight for me and judging by the amount of bouncing bodies, the rest of the audience loved it too.

The band did their usual musical chair manoeuvres with everyone swapping instruments throughout the songs. How the music sounds so spot on and doesn't stop still remains a jaw-dropping mystery to me.

Richard

The funky edged, sleazy Easy went down a treat with the crowd as well and saw Richard take centre stage on acoustic guitar with Steve on harmonica and John playing a bizarre looking handheld keyboard thing that you blow into.

They finished with Quiet, waved goodbye and headed off stage. The crowd yelled for more and I noticed that they were bound to come back as they hadn't touched the bongos yet.

Sure enough we were in for some impressive bongo bashing from Robin as they played Dog's Got a Bone before bringing us back to earth with a bump with their anthem Broke.

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