What is it with all these weirdy alt-folk types creating unseemly bunching in the virtual ticket emporiums of this land this year?  First Ms Newsom caused tremors with her Barbican event a few weeks back, then Will Oldham sold out a bunch of shows, added a new one, then sold that out too, all in less time than it would take me to gaffer tape a mid-sized long-haired cat to my chin.   Oh yes, plenty photos of Billy’s rather fine face foliage to follow….

Although I’ll keep you waiting with a brief note about Oldham’s support, Scout Niblett.  I’d had my ears pricked by her version of Donna and Althea’s “Uptown Top Ranking” some years ago, and was always going to be disappointed by its inevitable non-appearance in her skank-free set.  Still, seeing her shuffle about on drums, and hearing her flay her guitar raw, sounding like the more wounded parts of the Polly Jean back catalogue, made for a filling entrée.

Bonnie Prince Billy made his entrance looking uber-redneck in beard and ill-fitting cap.  He spent the evening rummaging in the recesses of his back catalogue like a tramp head-first in a dustbin digging out haute cuisine.  As if I was watching Dylan, I had to desperately try to keep up with all of the reworkings.  And to confuse me further, I’m certain some of the songs aren’t his – he announces one as being his brother Ned’s, and I swear I heard a John Martyn cover in there too in his shouty “John The Baptist”.  And there’s even some Canned Heat Willie Nelson with “On The Road Again”.

The combination of unfamiliar arrangements, wilful obscurity, and my ever-diminishing memory prevents me listing much of what he played, but here goes.  In between all the covers, a couple from The Letting Go were stripped of their string and female voice clothing (although Scout reappeared to sub for Dawn McCarthy on “Strange Form Of Life”), and given some neat-fitting if decidedly louder attire – “Wai” sounded a different song altogether.  It was a far cry from the last time I saw him in London - solo and orange-trewed at the Barbican.  The older material included the menacing “Today I Was An Evil One” from I See A Darkness, the booty-fixated “Ease Down The Road” and “After I Made Love To You”, and also from that album, a quite stunning “Lion Lair”.  I’m fairly sure I heard those.  Did I hear “All Gone, All Gone” too?  Who knows.  I can tell you that amongst all that I heard some commendably fine drumming from the improbably youthful-looking Alex Nielsen.

Requests for “Blockbuster”, “Just To See My Holly Home” and to play at some rather misguided chap’s wedding were deflected with a twitch of the beard and some good humour.  Much as I’d imagine any offers to buy tickets for this from those present would have been, given the holler Oldham was afforded at the end.