On an overcast Tuesday afternoon, a commotion is taking place on the roof of a terraced house in south-east London. Circulus, a septet who can lay claim to being Britain's foremost medieval-influenced progressive psychedelic folk band, are having their photograph taken. This is proving to be a complicated and noisy process.
Firstly, one has to contend with what multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and band "auteur" Michael Tyack refers to as the group's "cozzies", a selection of capes, floppy hats and flares that he has spent years painstakingly sourcing from charity shops. Tyack himself is resplendent in an outfit he announces has been "pretty much modelled" on his favourite style icon: Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy between 1419 and 1467.
Indeed, with his cozzie on, some of the spirit of medieval Europe's most extravagant monarch does seem to have settled on Tyack. As he marshals his bandmates into position, and puts me in charge of a dry ice machine deemed necessary for the all-important "magical" vibe, he certainly commands more respect than you might expect of a man wearing glittery black tights.
Unfortunately, not all of his bandmates are present. One, Mexican percussionist Victor Hugo, is swiftly replaced by Circulus's press officer, who after some cajoling agrees to wear a large rubber horse's head. More difficult to substitute is singer Lo Polidoro, who, judging by other photographs, is the kind of lady the pre-Raphaelite brotherhood would have done their collective nut for: a vision of tumbling, ivy-garlanded tresses.
Demonstrating the kind of initiative that has seen Circulus through eight years without a record deal, and the kind of personnel upheavals that would cause most bands to give up - at one point, all but three members left, refusing to "go the full hog with the medieval thing" - Tyack suggests her place be taken by his housemate Kevin.
A skinny, bearded man with an encyclopaedic knowledge of obscure early-70s rock, Kevin has been around all afternoon, offering the occasional laconic interjection into some of Tyack's more fanciful speeches (when Tyack announces "my dream is to be able to live in a progressive folk psychedelic fantasy world 24-7", Kevin interrupts with "so you take a lot of drugs"). He used to be in Circulus, but was, he claims, ejected for failing to believe in fairies - a problem in a band whose big number is called Power to the Pixies