"Tony's gone," exulted Damon Albarn, Blur's frontman and a notable Blair-baiter. The audience at the Barbican Centre in London was indifferent, its imagination caught by the leadership struggles of another great institution, Pink Floyd.

Madcap's Last Laugh was an event held in tribute to Syd Barrett, the rock band's founder, who died last year aged 60 having been forced out in 1968 after a mental breakdown. In New Labour terms, he was John Smith, a leader struck down in his prime whom Floyd purists hail as the band's soul.