Hallelujah for all things peculiar! For Heston Blumenthal’s snail porridge, comedian Noel Fielding’s garrulous moon, and for chart toppers playing cosy, acoustic, Christmas-time gigs to 600 listeners in church.

Since 2006, Mencap’s Little Noise Sessions have caused joyful hullabaloos, mostly because raucous rockers (coaxed from stadiums by curator DJ Jo Whiley) playing soothing, stripped down concerts is so dashed incongruous. This year’s superb ten-day season has included Glasvegas, Biffy Clyro, Kasabian and The Killers, all more familiar with crowds throwing shapes and lager rather than polite, pew-originated applause. On Saturday, Whiley and co-compere Matthew Horne (Gavin without Stacey) hosted a more delicate affair.

Every mum’s favourite soft-centred piano-pop chaps, Keane, topped a bill which, as a treat, included five bands rather than the usual four. Dublin’s The Script warmed the altar with Keane-like melodies recalling The Fray and U2. Absent Elk provided a five-boy babble of Hoosier-friendly beige, before heftier helpings of mild-mannered testosterone came via Red Light Company’s palatable goth-tinted alt-rock and Bryn Christopher’s theatrical, Winehouse-inspired soul.

Keane’s pinchable-cheeked voicebox, Tom Chaplin, opened proceedings with an astonishing, acoustic solo performance of Again And Again, with neither guitar amp nor microphone. His unaided tones filled the cavernous Union Chapel and reminded us why this band’s charming – if occasionally unadventurous – melodies are so popular. Chaplin led his trio to a roaring ovation of tunes that suited their reverent surroundings alarmingly well. Alas, no talking planets or mollusc oatmeal; perfectly lovely but not peculiar enough.