Charity events can so easily become self-congratulatory, parochial and dumb; this one blew our damn socks off. Off the back of a fairly daft suggestion over some beer, came this, the singer from one of 2010′s brightest (and least industry-created) hopes, teaming up with the singer of one of Scotland’s most-buzzed new acts, to play their own and others songs, in an Oxfam store, as part of Oxjam Edinburgh. Yeah, it was amazing.

Scott (Frightened Rabbit’s singer – he’s on the right) and Neil (singer from Meursault – the slightly louder one) performed seven tracks that afternoon, but we’ve chosen three here since it basically means we get to throw in the ‘something old, something new, something borrowed’ pun again. It’s also a fantastic mix of one-offs – you probably won’t see any of these songs done this way again.

First up is the boys belting their way through the F’rabbit classic ‘Old Old Fashioned’, a foot-stomping yee-hah of a song, something familiar as a warm blanket to long-time fans of the band, but made even richer with the addition of Neil’s harmony. This was the first song they played on the day, and it set the scene in spades.

For ‘something new’ we got something we were really pleased with, a new Meursault song that – at the time – was so new it didn’t even have a title. In the grand tradition of Meursault, there’s a touch of the sea shanty, with a lyrical sense of wisdom beyond years. It’s also a good introduction to Neil’s astonishing foghorn of a voice, which – for the first time in our case – we managed to record without it sending the microphones into meltdown.

As a cover version finale for this session, the boys also chose a song by Desc, called ‘Joy’, the perfect vehicle for spot of vocal sparring, and a cracking track given a long overdue airing again.

There’s been a lot of blog guff about both these bands over recent months – and they’ve both got much-anticipated albums due next year – but it was a particular kind of pleasure to see these two together. A charity even this may have been – but it wasn’t just Oxfam that got something special out of it. What a treat.

See photos from the session at Blueback Hotrod

Watch our original session with Frightened Rabbit, including the first recording of their new single, ‘Swim Until You Can’t See Land’