Foreign festivals - highly recommended. Especially those in hot countries. The venue itself was a fair bit outside Athens, on the site of the old airport, and which was used for certain Olympic events like fencing, when Athens hosted the games five years ago.

The temperatures were ideal in fact. By night-fall on both days of the festival it was still warm but there was a nice, mild breeze, meaning you could be jumping up and down with the Greeks and their glow-sticks (Klaxons were on too, see) and not feel sweaty and dehydrated.

Anyway, Jarvis played as second headliner (Royksopp finishing the night). Previously Klaxons put on a frantic hour, complete with sparkly outfits and keyboards (would have gone down well with Pulp fans presumably). Earlier in the evening, walking round I felt really proud seeing so many people wearing Pulp t-shirts. (Is that sad?) In hindsight, I probably should have approached one or two. Not often that I see people advertising my favourite group on their chests. They may of course, not have necessarily made for good company - they could have been complete arseholes like half the posters on Bar Italia

One guy I did stop, while waiting in line for a kebab, had a white t-shirt with the artwork from the Hits album. No writing, just the six green/black/pink figures with Russell in black. Looked really good. I told him it was a nice t-shirt but his English was obviously rudimentary. ''Thanks. I hope to listen Pulp songs from Jarvis this night''. Hope he wasn't too disappointed.

By the time Jarvis was on, a large crowd had gathered towards the stage. Certainly comparable to what the Pixies drew the previous night. Echo and the Bunnymen had been the first band to play on the one other stage, indoors, just before Jarvis (last-minute replacements for the ever-unreliable Lauryn Hill), so I thought that many people would still be inside by the time Jarvis appeared, but there was a long setting-up period so no worries there. Saw most of the Bunnymen set. Was waiting for The Killing Moon but it never came so I went back outside to get a good spot for Jarvis' performance.

Coming on at half eleven, milking the fantastic reception he got, he had the natives eating out of his hand straight away. With a page of some Greek phrases stuck to the floor alongside the set-list in front of his mic stand, they really went mad for him. The predictable, and wise, choice of the brisk first three tracks on the new album coupled with his warmth and humour in between songs was going down very well. Even the next, slow part of the set: Slush (asking the crowd to hold a one-note drone when he signalled; only partially successful since the signal didn't come until nearly four minutes into the song), Big Julie and Leftovers, were all well-received. The latter especially so by the time the last chorus hit and the crowd were getting to know it.

And so the tried and trusted, always entertaining repartee continued. ''It must be ten years since we've been here, is that right Steve?'' he said early on. ''Who was here last time?'' Big cheers. ''Oh, so you all were? I dunno about that...but I do recognise...(pointing his finger around the place)...you (to some random person).'' Presumably it was the Hardcore tour, the last time they'd been in Greece. I thought of the huge Greek, Pulp fan who always wrote to the newsletter, Dimmi, I think his/her name was, and wondered whether they were there.

Homewreckers, admitted Jarvis, featured a sax ''which has a tendency to make or destroy a song. But we walk that line between good and evil''. And Simon Stafford did a sterling job indeed with it. Rather than playing note-for-note Steve Mackay's bit on the album, he kind of imrpovised around the melody.

Fat Children and Don't Let Him... were the only songs that seemed to be well-known. Which makes it all the more impressive that Jarvis can put on a show, solely consisting of solo songs, and leave everybody entertained and smiling. My mate didn't know any of his solo material (though does like Pulp) and only really came to see the Pixies. When I asked him who he thought had been the best, he said he'd plump for the Pixies by a whisker but had he listened to JC's albums a few times before coming, he probably would have went for him. The Pixies set was blinding mind. The fact that their songs are so short also means they can cram a hell of a lot into an hour and a quarter.

From where I was, I only heard one shout for Pulp songs - one guy calling for ''Razzamatazza, Commin Peepol''. Which reminds me, that one of the songs played on the sound system while waiting for the Pixies arrival the night before was Razzmatazz.

Jarvis finished his Greek phrases with a translation of ''My space station is full of eels''. The crowd, those that understood his pronunciation, lapped it up.

The one hour set (missing from the shows he's been doing in Europe/UK over the last few weeks were 'Big Stuff' , 'I Never Said I Was Deep', 'Caucasian Blues' and 'Hold Still') finished with 'You're In My Eyes'. Interestingly, it was a little different to the version I'd fallen in love with in Manchester six months ago. A lot less reliant on the sample, indeed it was very much buried in the mix after the first verse, the band themselves played around with the sample's melody themselves, a bit more whack-a-whacka guitar and it sounded, while not as full-sounding, certainly more organic. Someone's put up a well-recorded version of it on youtube. For those who aren't convinced by the song, have a look. I also see there's a great recording of the song from the Troxy gig when the sample is heavily used, makes for a good comparison.

Jarvis thanked the crowd, introduced the band, and said his goodbyes, leaving the five band members to face their amps (or just continue drumming in the case of Ross!) and control the final drones of the song for a good five minutes. Possibly over-done but none of the crowd were leaving. With it being a festival, the fact that he wasn't the last act on, and that the festival was over-running by an hour, I didn't imagine Jarvis returning for an encore. But everyone left very happy with their lot indeed.

His show-man skills, for want of a better expression, are just second-to-none. Which creates a tremendous amount of goodwill for those who don't know/care for his songs. Earlier in the day, The Subways had put on a boisterous performance, complete with stage-diving, ''You guys fucking rock. But can you get any louder?'' crowd-buoying, and the singer getting one half of the crowd to cheer, then the other, alternating and comparing them. All good fun, but exactly the same thing I'd seen them do the three previous times I've seen them at festivals. With Jarvis, the banter is never forced, clichéd or obnoxious.

All in all, despite the long times spent on planes, buses, taxis, metros and trams, it was a great couple of days. And watching Jarvis an absoloute privilege.