With the, you know, utmost respect and sensitivity to anyone who might be directly affected, please don’t be offended when I report to you that a conference a couple of weeks back on new treatments for various types of mental illness was addressed by a Prof. Nutt. (If he were from Eritrea, that would be nutt.er, right?.)

All this by way of introducing you to someone who could possibly benefit from a visit to Prof Nutt’s couch, and man after my own heart, Gareth Kennedy. And his inflatable bandstand.

"The Inflatable Bandstand is a 4.88 metre tall structure inspired by the development of the Irish economy over the last 10 years. From mid August it will tour towns and villages of Leitrim and Roscommon. A marker in time, an epic musical score composed by Ian Wilson will be performed live from the bandstand by Saxophonist Cathal Roche.

A white van with the crew inside (musician, artist & assistant) will arrive at selected sites across Leitrim and Roscommon. The bandstand will be laid out and will inflate in minutes. Hence the musician will take his place within the bandstand and perform a 15 minute musical score inspired by the Irish economy. Afterwards the Inflatable Bandstand will fall and slowly but epically deflate."

Each live performance lasts 20 minutes and audience members are strongly advised to arrive on time so as not to miss any action. I meant to give Gareth a plug for his most recent performance. Luckily for him I forgot all about it or else I would have given the people of Killargue a bum steer because, as it turns out, the previously advertised 2 o’clock performance had to be changed to 4 o'clock because of a wedding in the local church. Here’s a sampler of the gang in action.