Everybody's favourite pots and pans outfit have travelled a troubled path to reach the pinnacle of indie promise that is the sundown set on the Other Stage.
It's a shame then that the sun is nowhere to be seen, buried by a thick and threatening blanket of those familiar black Somerset clouds. Just The Beta Band's luck, morose frontman Steve Mason might at this point chime in.
"We're going to play another one of our records that's was at number one for, oh... eight weeks," he deadpans. "You're probably all sick to death of it by now but we're gonna' play it anyway."
Ah, how we laughed. Luckily, the song is 'Broke' and with the band joined on stage by dancehall rhythm magician, Colin 'C-Swing' Emmanuel, those pieces start to fall into place.
It's always a struggle with The Beta Band, their music is so ambitious and the ingredients needed to bring it into harmony so many and varied that things seldom kick in from the outset.
'Squares' - as close as the Scottish mavericks get to a cynical pop song - may lack the passion of their '3EPs' masterworks but it proves a way in for this crowd. And, consequently a way in for the band.
Openly thrilled by the sight of a Glastonbury field that actually knows the words to one of their humble tunes the band begins to soar. Steve Mason cracks a grin. We're on.
The eternally wondrous 'She's The One' finds us freefalling through perfectly organic percussion, chanting "she's the one for me" like a field full of grinning idiots. 'The House Song', the real showcase of that renowned multi-instrumentalism, is beaten out like an announcement of impending battle. However, there is no time for 'Dry The Rain'.
The scale of the event and obvious production restrictions mean that The Beta Band may never become a realistic main stage headline act. When they're at their full hypnotic yet defiantly earth-rooted best, why would you condemn them to tread the road to the Pyramid?
