Sunday 16/09/07 Day Three @ End Of The Road festival, Salisbury

It’s only on waking up this morning that I realise I missed Monkey Swallows the Universe last night. The sound of Slowcar wafting over the tents from the Bimble Inn calms me down just enough to go and nick some free ice cream and a copy of Mojo before heading off to see Pete and the Pirates.

It’s ridiculous how cross people in bands get about their names. If you choose to call yourselves Sandra and the Paedophiles then you should expect some questions raised (viz, Architecture in Helsinki) but Pete and the Pirates singer Tommy Sanders seems to regard crowd reactions to the band’s name as some kind of albatross to be borne with as much martyrdom as possible.

“Who are they?” he said sniffily to a heckler asking whether they’d met with Local stage performers Peggy Sue and the Pirates. Which made us care just that little bit less about ever seeing Sanders’ band again.

Over on the Garden stage, Euros Childs might as well have carried a bucket of charm and thrown it over the audience such was the array of beaming smiles looking back at him. And this despite some piddling showers as well – well done Euros. A cover of The Sweet’s ‘Chop Chop’ precedes a rousing ‘My Country Girl,’ before the band test the very limits of the crowd’s goodwill with the 15 minute title track from new album ‘The Miracle Inn.’ “They’re pauses, it’s not finished,” he warns brightly, “so don’t clap. Or do.” Then, a moment later, “Bollocks,” on ****ing up the opening to a new section. It’s just so lovely that I nearly forgave him for not playing either ‘Henry Y Matilda’ or ‘Outside My Window.’

Back in the Bimble Inn, the world’s tweest tepee (“run by sunshine…and lovely people!”) the magnificent Johnny Flynn and the Sussex Wit proceed to lay claim to Emmy The Great’s stranglehold on London folk. Switching between instruments throughout isn’t unusual, but when it comes attached to the sort of quietly confident likes of ‘Cold Bread’ and ‘Ode To A Mare Trod Ditch’ – both tracks your kids will steal off you in years to come – it’s just magical. An encore of the gravely charming ‘Tickle Me Pink’ just seals the deal further.