Standing at the side of the Eastown stage talking to Cocker choirmember Nicol Blay, Joe Cocker looked as unprepossessing as he ever did, offstage. Still the same tie-dyed sweatshirt, still the same paisleycarpet boots; still the same amazing voice and still the same diffidence. “Do you think people will dig it?”, he asked softly.

Considering what he’d just managed to pull off at a rehearsal, the questin was a bit superfluous. Sure, we’ve all seen big bands before, the Bee Gees toured with a forty piece orchestra once; but never before has there been a twenty-piece rock and roll band. Twenty people doesn’t seem staggering until you’ve seen them all at once, standing on a stage where you’re used to seeing half a dozen at most.