“For those of you who perhaps feel that any music which might be appropriate for dancing is for the feeble-witted, that last piece was called Heptaparaparshinokh to illustrate a fundamental point of Gurdjieffian metaphysics. However the two people that left because it wasn’t clever enough perhaps would have enjoyed hearing this. This is Thrang Thrang Gozinbulx. This is based on a notion of Stafford Beer, leading professor of cybernetics among other things worked with Allende in constructing the Chilean Marxist administration along cybernetic lines. He’s now in hiding. This is to illustrate the capacity of machines to learn language without reference to prior input.”

Regardless of one or two folks at the sceptical end of the pop versus prog continuum, the vast bulk of crowd in Cologne can be heard a-hoppin’ and a-boppin’ with some real vigor and, when the occasion demands to listen attentively. A great sound and a cracking gig.

Barry Andrews takes to the microphone: “Just like to say these are our last two numbers tonight and we’ve enjoyed doing this very much, thank you” and with that launches into Eye Needle and a splendidly askew Inductive Resonance. Clearly the band enjoyed the show as they come back for a further two encores, carpet bombing the place with a truly raucous Dislocated and an incendiary but sadly incomplete TTG III.