IS it a gig? Is it theatre? Ten minutes into Songs for the End of the World some were still wondering.

With the current General Election fluff floating around, astronaut Jim Walters had the right idea and headed for Mars as the world known as New Albion headed for an apocalyptic ending. Dom Coyote was suitably angry and distressed as the hapless Jim, looking down on his doomed planet as he orbited hopelessly.

When he sang one of the star turns, How Can I Lose You?, there seemed to be ambiguity between the planet below and his beloved wife Mary. The script was so near being weightless it almost defied gravity and the satire sometimes needed a sharper cutting edge.

Yet it all proved highly entertaining and strangely compulsive, driven on by the multitalents of the musicians and sounds often as dark as The Doors. The Bloodmoney’s band doubled neatly as the comfortably complacent community of AshleyCoombe, one of the last refuges for humanity. God, greed, politicians and global capitalism got a pasting, while Jim’s soulful lament, Where is My Love? showed great humanity.

It might have been nonsense. It might have been a message for our time. It was never dull.