Psychedelic indie band Kula Shaker are sheer university days nostalgia for a certain group of people, of which I am one. The four piece band, fronted by blonde, pixie-faced Crispian Mills were popular during the Post-Britpop era of the late 1990s - but they weren't always taken seriously by some.
Maybe it was Crispian's "posh" past - his mother is actress Hayley Mills, maybe it was the mysticism and Indian influence surrounding the band's music that put you in mind of rich kids "finding themselves" while being funded to go travelling - many of the band's songs feature traditional Indian instruments, such as the sitar, tambura, and tabla.
But despite a good slating from a few critics, the band notched up an impressive number of Top 10 hits on the UK Singles Chart between 1996 and 1999, including Tattva, Hey Dude, Govinda, Hush, and Sound of Drums and the band's debut album, K , reached No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart.
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Kula Shaker disbanded in September 1999 but reformed in 2004 for sessions for the School of Braja compilation album. This led to plans for a full comeback, and the band's third album, Strangefolk, was issued in 2007 and their fourth, Pilgrims Progress, was released in 2010.
The band returned with a European tour and a well-received new album K 2.0 in 2016. In June this year they released their sixth album, 1st Congregational Church of Eternal Love and Free Hugs which preceded a UK tour.
In the intimate venue of The Albert Hall, late sun streaming in through the stained glass windows, the band appeared on stage to a more than warm welcome - sending the crowd bouncing as they launched straight into 1990s favourite Hey Dude delivered with gusto and sending a shockwave of excitement through the audience
With a shout out to Manchester, Crispian then moved on to Sound of Drums and Infinite Sun, setting the bar for an energetic, up tempo set.
A visually pleasing backdrop of shifting and swirling psychedelia brought the stage even more to life as keyboard player Harry Broadbent performed on a wooden piano and a lithe Crispian in black jeans and gold-hued jacket delivered his signature moves. Shaking his blonde mop from side to side and thrashing it out on his electric guitar, it was an energy that appears to have shown no sign of slowing down in the last 20 years.
Crispian's unstoppable energy was infectious, the atmosphere in the crowd being purely positive, with shiny happy people vibrating on the feel-good ambience and going crazy when old favourites such as Hush, Grateful When You're Dead and Tattva were revisited, but equally enjoying a string of tunes from more recent albums.
The set, which also included a well-received live debut of Love In Separation, flew by, feeling like it was over far too quickly and the band were called back on to the stage for a rapturous encore, bursting in to Knight on The Town and saving perhaps one of their most well-known hits Govinda to last.
This was my first time seeing Kula Shaker, something I had not anticipated would ever happen after what looked like an initial short run when they first hit the scene. But I was transported straight back to the nineties and the sheer nostalgia mixed with the band's magnetic charisma, their distinctive sound and the glorious venue of The Albert Hall made it well worth the wait.
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