Yesterday Paul, Josh, Niamh and I joined 60,000 other London revellers for the precursor to the Wireless Festival, which takes place annually in Hyde Park, providing those who don’t want to trek cross country or sleep in a tent the chance to experience some outdoor music. The festival itself only kicks off today but someone clearly had a moment of genius when they decided to pop up the stage and other accoutrements a day early and get Arcade Fire to play a special show.

With Paul having started a new job this week, we were unable to sneak off early enough to catch the whole line-up but we were in time to hear a bit of Beirut, who reminded me of a somewhat more cheerful Frightened Rabbit.

We also got to see the much lauded Mumford & Sons, who were really starting to charm me with their upbeat, sing-along, folksy loveliness when things went a bit wrong. A group of very drunk guys next to us decided it would be a good idea to jointly urinate in a paper pint cup and then click it, drenching everyone (including their idiotic selves) with warm wee. Of course I kicked off, inspiring support from the incredibly sweet bloke behind me and his girlfriend and the next thing there was a fight. Paul was in the bathroom but Josh and Niamh were briefly dragged into it and the guy behind me got a bloody nose. It was short-lived but still very unpleasant. I can’t say I see the point in spending £50 on a ticket to something and then getting so drunk before the main act even goes on that you’re unlikely to remember any of it.

By the time Arcade Fire came on though, I had learned to live with wee-covered hair and allowed myself to get swept away. They made the right decision starting with the dramatic Ready To Start, putting the crowd on a high that never subsided even after they debuted an unknown track previously played only in rehearsal. Front man, Win Butler, is charmingly humble and his rather severe haircut has the odd side-effect of making him look really hip and really vulnerable at the same time. While the opportunity was there for him to preach about the band’s dedication to the cause in Haiti, he made only a brief nod to the band’s choice to donate some of the concert’s proceeds to Kanpe, focusing instead on encouraging the audience to make enough noise to piss off the “rich people” living around the park. That said it was wonderful watching Régine Chassagne perform Haiti live. This was only one of numerous nods to Funeral, which certainly went even further to endear all the old school AF fans, like me. I don’t think you would have had to know a single song though to enjoy the gig. AF provides a visual feast performing live and this is surely the best way to experience such a uniquely special band. Putting aside their magnificently weird stage outfits, the fact that almost all the band are multi-instrumentalists and roam around the stage taking turns playing each others’ instruments is something I have never seen before. You would expect some level of disharmony in a band so big but they seem almost unnaturally in tune with each other. It is easy to see why they have captured such a large and dedicated fan base.