With a Stetson-toting Texan in the White House notching record lows in popularity for a president, this is not the happiest time for cowboys. So the country fans who clamped cowboy hats on their heads and headed out west for Willie Nelson’s gig – west London that is – were hoping to renew their faith in a great American archetype. They were not disappointed.

The 75-year-old Nelson came to prominence in the early 1970s as a member of the “outlaw country” movement rebelling against Nashville’s conservatism. An outspoken marijuana enthusiast and forgetful tax-payer – in 1990 he was landed with a bill of $16.7m for back taxes – he still sports the hippy-cowboy look with his red bandana, plaited grey hair and scruffy beard. At the Apollo he played a battered guitar and performed with a backing band in front of a vast Texan flag, reclaiming the Lone Star from George W. Bush.