The night’s final act, the Algerian-born, gravel-voiced Rachid Taha, is a highly popular voice of protest both throughout the Arab world and in France, where he moved with his family aged 10. Although he’s often likened to a north African Joe Strummer (in whose honour he recorded Rock El Casbah, a current leftfield radio favourite), Taha’s grubbily dishevelled aesthetic – if that’s the right word – appears more in debt to Shane MacGowan, complete with the air of being on a rather different planet from the rest of his six-piece band. His music is dominated by a crude amalgam of punk and heavy metal – complete with Spinal Tap-esque guitarist – against which a varying proportion of traditional Arabic elements struggle to be heard.

As with all three acts to an extent, the political content of Taha’s songs was essentially neutralised by language barriers and lack of context – a perennial issue facing many “world music” performers. Nonetheless, an impressive audience turnout – especially given the blizzard conditions outside – underlined the still-growing strength of the sector, which can only bode well for such artists’ opportunities to tell it like it is on their own terms.

-Sue Wilson