Their songs are touching (‘Booze, madness and the ghost of love’), relevant (‘I want to be normal, why can’t I be normal?’ – a song that pretty much everyone in the audience can identify with I speculate), and not least, nostalgic (‘I scream/You scream/beside the seaside…sorry, didn’t quite catch the full title). The lead singer’s t-shirt says it all really; paying homage to the Monster Raving Loony Party, and it occurs to me that the festival itself could be construed as a fundraising enterprise for the aforementioned cult of eccentricity, flippancy and downright recklessness. Great British eccentrics they are indeed; with a medieval, Shakespearian feel to their merrymaking. I went to see King Lear at the Globe recently and some of Tom O Bedlam’s rantings and ravings were not totally dissimilar in theme and import. They are the latter day Chas n Dave of anti-folk you could say, and might say, with a liberal dash of Keith Floyd thrown in.”
