In interviews Misty’s Big Adventure often talk of being on a one-band mission to keep music exciting and vibrant. As experience shows, music stays vibrant by smashing together genres and seeing the results: consequences can be bizarre, occasionally unlistenable and always challenging. This is Misty’s Big Adventure in a nutshell. Listing influences that go into making the six-piece’s sound is a long process, but the most obvious are classic folk-rock like Neil Young and Paul Simon, mixed with a freewheeling jazz ska sensibility, like a more raucous Dexy’s Midnight Runners or a less cheeky Madness. Both disorderly and extremely twee, their live shows are always accompanied by an honorary member dressed in a jester costume who scampers about the venue in general, geeing up the crowd.

The band’s spirit and perseverance is extremely admirable. They have been together for almost 15 years, and, although they’ve never really had a single that attracted much airplay, sold many records or ever made it past venues bigger than the Jericho Tavern, they’ve continued to knock out albums at a furious rate — eight in seven years to be precise, each as weird and wacky as the last. They cover their whole career in their set, with the respectable crowd especially appreciating the satirical Fashion Parade and the sprightly Never Stops Never Rests Never Sleeps. It’s fun and there are plenty of happy faces in the Jericho by the time the set ends. The nature of Misty’s Big Adventure and all they stand for is the fact that they’ll never be too long in the tooth to try new things, but it’s also fair to say that they’re unlikely to be troubling the shopping baskets of middle England anytime this century – which is probably exactly what they’ve always wanted.