And so to the second instalment of My Life Inside A Beer Advert (first part is back here; note that by the time of this second instalment the price of said beverage had risen to an outrageous £3.90 for 330mls; approaching £7 a pint…I thought this was a celebration of Brazilian not Norwegian culture).  I arrived to near-Brazilian sunshine, and in plenty of time, so much so in fact that I was able to indulge in a quick game of Mornington Crescent (tipping my hat deferentially to Willie Rushton’s blue plaque on the station), and to have a cheeky non-sponsored pint in the pub next door to Koko; the entire King Creosote entourage appeared to have had a similar idea by the look of the place.

This did mean that I missed the solo set of Tony Da Gatorra – more of him later – and another capoeira demonstration.  The first act I saw was Sao Paolo’s Romulo Froes, who did an interesting job of blending classic tropicalia’s wistful bossanova with more modern influences.  The band were a bit mid-period Radiohead in parts, with particularly squalling and proggish guitar, but Froes’ vocals fitted perfectly into that gorgeous Gil/Veloso/Gilberto lineage.  Most interesting.

I’m not even a fan of the Super Furry Animals, but I appear to have accidentally seen Gruff Rhys twice now in just over a week.  He appeared helmeted, as is his wont, and accompanied by the aforementioned Tony The Guitar, who looked fresh from playing at some small venue somewhere in, um, the late 1960s, and who was jabbing at some sort of home made electronic guitar-shaped synthesiser whilst shouting “Peace!”.  Quite often.

 

The logical progression from this madness was for the remainder of Rhys’s set to take place inside a television set diorama.  Oh, and in some airplane seats for the epic narrative of the closer which set some story about aircraft terrorism to the bass line from (appropriately enough) Os Mutantes’ “Bat Macumba”.  I particularly enjoyed the track they built from lots of looped samples until it became a cacophony of screams and noise, and the one which went “we’re driving driving driving driving driving driving driving”.  But in Welsh.

King Creosote was given the task to follow this, and did so with a surprisingly raucous band which featured fellow Fence artist Johnny Pictish.  They played some new stuff from forthcoming album Bombshell, and some tracks from last album KC Rules OK, including “Bootprints” and a marvellous “Not One Bit Ashamed” which featured Romulo Froes adding shiver-inducing Brazilian harmonies to KC’s melancholic Fife burr. 

Inevitably, Tony Da Gattora stumbled back on stage, prompting a cheeky chorus of “What Have I Done To Deserve This?” from Johnny Pictish, prompting fits of giggles all round.  By the end of the gig, pretty much everyone was on stage at once (about ten people, all very Earth Wind and Fire) for a cover of his brother’s band The Aliens’ “Happy Song”, including a bewildered-looking Gruff Rhys stomping from side to side of the stage shouting into everyone’s microphones.   It all seemed a suitably happy conclusion to a very happy evening.  At least until I left to get the tube home, that was…