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To the Colchester Arts Centre! …on an early autumnal North Essex estuary afternoon for a rare musical performance from the Pop Genius of this Parish.

Mr Mule has many personas, reflecting the man of many talents tag. The Pop Genius billing is one that he likes to shy away from. Shame – maturity over the years may have led him more towards his literary work, but you can take the six string away from the musician, but you can’t take…

Or something.

Martin Newell’s Golden Afternoon in the splendour of the old St Mary-at-the -Walls was the ninth such late summer gathering. The Golden billing lived up to the name. There can be no finer stage for a Sunday afternoon sermon, with the font stage right, and the splendour of the stained glass windows illuminating man and guitar from behind.

I’m no ecclesiastical man of the cloth, but the setting tempted me to sample some red wine, not to mention sacrificing the odd virgin on the altar in-between stage breaks.

Um, good luck in finding those, fella.

And so yep – a rare, rare afternoon celebrating the music of Mr Mule, with a random bit of dancing added for good measure. The boy like glee in his eye is infectious, indicating a man that knows he can still pull this off with ease, even without the safety net of some scribbled poetry.

It’s a wonder that Mr Mule could actually come up with a set list, such is the vast back catalogue upon which to draw upon. A career spent celebrating cassette culture, and now using the modern interweb for this exact same way of cutting out the middleman in distributing music – there’s at least two-dozen more Golden Afternoons if we’re going to ever get through that Mr Mule discography.

The performance on Sunday was one in three parts, and then once again divided into three with three artists taking it in turn on the church stage. Brainstorm Wednesday are a couple of local Wivenhoe lads, well known at The Greyhound Tuesday jam session. No idea what the boys get up to on a Thursday or Friday.

The Significant Others are a Sunny Colch super group of sorts, featuring various members of Surfquake, Lady Bird and the Larks and Judith Chalmers. That’s quite a significant collection of, um, others.

Mr Mule meanwhile spent his time flitting from guitar to grand piano, with a pause for the day job of some poetry mid-set. Anyone who has wandered down Queens Road back at base on a midweek mid-afternoon may be familiar with the intricacies of the Pop Genius’ piano playing abilities.

Amplified from back street estuary town to a church come concert hall, and the sound was indeed evangelical. I reached for my hymnbook mid-set, only to be caught out with the faux pas of a shaggy dog tale all about a talking dog.

New songs were included for the sell-out crowd that travel from all around the country for this annual one-off appearance from the Pop Genius. Chimp World ‘aint gonna make the charts, but the sound of the British Beach Boys if they had lived in a North Essex town is twisted, troubling and totally ACE, all in one simple piano sequence.

With a pause for tea and cake, just as the sun was setting across the South aisle at St Mary at-the-Walls, the final third of the performance featured collaboration and more comic turns.

And so that was the annual Golden Afternoon, polished off to perfection, and then back down the road in Wivenhoe in time for Songs of Praise.

Mr Mule meanwhile is still working, still recording, still writing: still relevant as ever – just listen to the tormented (and spot on) take of rural town life in Farm Shop.

He’s an artist that seems content and comfortable at every stage of his career over the years. The Golden afternoon symbolises this. Rock ‘n roll midnight performance by a mid-50′s Mr Mule would sound slightly silly. Afternoon tea and cake in the church was rather comforting.

Just don’t get too comfortable in those golden years.

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