The one abiding memory to be taken away from this gig is Yellow Moon Band guitarist Rudy Carroll picking up an electric mandolin, plugging it in to some pedal gaining maximum distortion and reverb, blazing out a strange folk-metal solo, and then banging the instrument against the Social’s low ceilings.

It looked good, and despite technical problems with sound (the mikes didn’t end up working at all – which didn’t really matter because YMB hardly ever sing), it sounds gloriously like Wishbone Ash beating up Yes, the ensuing noise being the harmonious combination of victory cry and squealing for mercy.

The Yellow Moon Band features Jo Bartlett on acoustic guitar and Danny Hagan on bass, the twosome behind the Green Man Festival, but there can be little doubt that it is Carroll who is the king here. He stands centre-stage with his guitar low-slung rattling out proggy solo after proggy solo, tattoos glistening, temple pulsing.

Thanks to Bartlett’s acoustic rhythms there is a certain comparison with Fairport Convention to be had here, but YMB are really much, much too rocking for that. ‘Maybach’ and the brief ‘Polaris’ are their best songs, and both get an outing here. Those with a hatred of jamming and widdly guitar should stay away, but even the hardest of hearts couldn’t surely resist cracking a smile at such celt-rock gusto.

Barnaby Smith