The Barbican resembled La Rive Gauche as London's Francophiles assembled for the live recreation of two of the strangest moments in French music.

Jean Claude Vannier, a unique figure worthy of wider recognition, was the evening's charming host - and the guests happy to play second fiddle to him spoke of a very committed cult: out came Jarvis Cocker, Badly Drawn Boy, Stereolab's Laetitia Sadier, Mick Harvey of the Bad Seeds, Gruff Rhys of the Super Furry Animals and French legend Brigitte Fontaine to lend vocals.

A self-taught studio maverick, Vannier is best known for producing Serge Gainsbourg's 1971 concept album Histoire de Melody Nelson. He came up with the louche orchestral funk that underpins Gainsbourg's-tale of lust, disgust and a small English redhead.

In the same sessions, Vannier recorded L'Enfant Assassin des Mouches, a wordless "psychedelic symphony" inspired by a hallucinatory piece of Gainsbourg prose about a child killing flies. Vinyl copies now change hands for thousands.

It took about 80 musicians to recreate the lush Vannier sound: a tight group of rock session men, the BBC Concert Orchestra and the Crouch End Festival Chorus. L'Enfant, bonkers and beguiling, was adorned by a sound-effects technician operating liquidisers, slamming a door and setting about a frying pan with a whisk, and a small boy, who snipped scissors, ripped paper and, at one point, relieved Vannier of conducting duties.

After the entr'acte, Histoire was as sad and sexy as ever, all cool plucked bass and yearning strings. If anything, it was let down by the famous guest singers, who with the exception of Mlle Fontaine, seemed overawed at the prospect of filling M Gainsbourg's shoes. It is surely no longer tenable for an Englishman to look down on French pop.