Coyne Of The Realm

It's a peak experience. No doubt about it. I'm dressed as a cartoon superhero, dancing at the side of the stage while The Flaming Lips do their magical psyche-mass, with balloons, explosions, confetti, bugles, lasers and incandescent tunes. The music is awfully loud, the available space is a bit tight, but myself and the other guys in the muscle costumes are too pumped up to care.

On the other side of the stage, the girls are dressed as ninja vestals, and there's a hilarious flirting game going on, as we wave and gesture to each other. Meantime the Flaming Lips are rocking Custom House Square to the ultimate degree, dropping in the big anthems and persuading the feeble climate to get intense.

It took a few begging e-mails to get here, but I would have paid a lot of money for the privilege. A couple of years ago, I watched The Flaming Lips at Oxegen and saw my pal Rigsy from Radio Ulster in a fetching animal costume, cavorting around the place. I made a mental note that I'd need to take part in that ceremony myself some time, so now's the very occasion in Belfast. And it's not disappointing.

I'm getting fresh with an inflatable creature that's shaped like a giant red pepper. And when Wayne sings 'Do You Realise', I pogo for the first time in several decades. When I explain this later to my daughter, she doesn't understand the verb, "to pogo". Now she knows.

Afterwards, we all meet Wayne and he congratulates us for our part in the show. We peel off our moist Iron Man costumes and he signs bits of paper. On my one he writes, "Hey Lily, your dad's cool". Aw bless.