The order of their names in the headline reflects the sequence in which they performed rather than any pecking order-style billing and it made for an interesting set of circumstances as these three politically conscious troubadours took their turns in the spotlight.

On this form, Nick Harper is unassailable. It was little wonder Rev Hammer noted he and the Levellers' Mark Chadwick should have invited Billy Bragg (equally forthright but musically rather prosaic) to join them instead, after Harper peeled off another devastating piece of guitar artistry to accompany the glide through the multi-octave range of his singing.

Hammer had to follow Harper, and Chadwick, sporting slippers to ease a foot injury, was forced to listen as Harper started the next cycle by, without any malice, showing he was on another musical planet. Sheer force of personality pulled Hammer and Chadwick through, although the former's tribute to Ralph McTell raised a smile and Chadwick's way with a singalong chorus and convergence of acoustic rapper meets Gary Glitter went down well.

Harper's selection included his excoriating, musically sophisticated and rhythmically booting assessment of Thatcherism, Thanks for the Miracle, with its newly topical pay-off, and brilliantly assembled thoughts on ecology, consumerism and the political strengths of Evo Morales, complete with virtuosic flamenco-infused guitar picking. There were no diversions, entertaining though these can be; this was a totally focused Harper, superbly witty in his lyrical observations, notably so on The Juicy Fruit Girl, and in an unfinished fantasy about dating Dorothy Parker, showing that his current songwriting is well up to standard.

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