Fionn Regan's delicate folk-blues is designed for more rarefied surroundings than the boozy dancefloor of King's College. But the venue could not be blamed for a set that was closer, at times, to cringeworthy comedy than award-winning folk.

The Irish troubadour, whose Mercury Prize-nominated debut, The End Of History, earned him comparisons with folk luminaries Nick Drake and Bob Dylan, turned self-saboteur last night in a performance marred by pre-song rambling and mid-song interruptions.

Put a Penny in the Slot was preceded by a 10-minute tale about bulldogs and wheelbarrows, more bizarre than funny, while the haunting melody of Hunter's Map was interrupted twice by Regan’s insistence that the crowd sing along.
The crowd, however, were growing restless. They had turned up to see the subtle, stripped-down folk of the genre's finest emerging talent and were instead greeted by a band containing two drummers, a female backing vocalist and an artist who, on the night, seemed more concerned with becoming the next Bobby Davro than the next Bob Dylan.

An encore of Be Good Or Be Gone, complete with the poetic lines - "I have become an aerial view/Of a coastal town that you once new" - served as a much-needed reminder of what Regan is capable of.

He should drop the comedy act and take his music more seriously.