THE effervescent Winchester four-piece Polly and the Billets Doux baked on the Garden Stage, dealing with instruments going out of tune and the blinding sun, as they pumped out their eclectic mix of poppy tunes.

A little reminiscent of Belle and Sebastian at times, Polly Perry and Co's upbeat take on the world should see them through. Catch them at Kyps occasionally.

Best band of the day, possibly of the whole festival, was Richard Thompson's Electric Trio. Here was the folk institution really giving it some heavy work in a classic guitar, bass and drums trio of Tarus Prodanuik and Michael Jerome of sublime musicianship.

A lot of new material from the Electric album shows Thompson just getting better with age and not resting on his fairly substantial laurels, although he did include a smattering of classics, performing them with the gusto of a man unafraid to change.

They really should have been headlining, but, sadly, that honour fell to Dexys.

I was even prepared to tolerate them performing newish album One Day I'm Going To Soar in sequence in its entirety because the thought of seeing combative Kevin Rowland's combo remained interesting.

However, despite a theatrical and full-on cabaret-style show complete with daft costumes there was something missing - namely anything the audience actually wanted to hear.

Rowland, his words often inaudible, spent the evening patrolling the stage like a doolally lion in a zoo, engaging in somewhat angry and emotional repartee with co-singer (and better singer) Peter Williams.

As a showpiece it had merits, but hardly captivated the crowd. A mangled version of Geno was about all we got - no Eileen, no Dance Stance, no judgment, no point really.

As if to emphasise the Dexys folly, Ranking Roger's version of The Beat were soon packing out the Big Top with a brilliant hits package of ska dance classics. That is, indeed, the way to do it at a festival.