As a canny piece of merchandising it is up there with the best.

Odd, yes, but quite brilliant.

A couple of Saturdays ago, lovers of music and strong drink gathered in an Oxford eaterie to celebrate one of the weirdest link-ups since Lembit Opik jumped into bed with that Cheeky Girl, or Sinitta teamed up with Simon Cowell.

After years dedicated to getting audiences onto their feet and dancing, jump-blues swingers The Original Rabbit Foot Spasm Band are now officially helping to knock them over — by releasing their own cider.

For a band who cut a dash in sharp suits, shiny shoes and fedoras, a move into the world of scrumpy is not an obvious step. Expensive cocktails and fine wines, yes. But cider?

The results, though, judging by the faces of those cutting a dash on the dancefloor at The Big Bang said it all. The marriage between bandleader Stuart Macbeth’s renegade jazzmen and the Cotswold Cider Company is a match made in heaven.

Not ones to miss a trick, the band, who made history by being the first group in almost a century to release a single on wax cylinder, have also used the bottle’s rabbit logo on T-shirts, pint glasses and half-pint glasses.

Of course, the Rabbit Feet are far from alone in branching out into the world of beverages — with everyone from Cliff Richard to the rapper Nelly marketing their own tipples — Portuguese wine and cans of Pimp Juice, respectively (or was it the other way round?) Others have gone further. Jay-Z has his own clothing empire while everyone from Britney Spears and Lady Gaga to Mariah Carey and Celine Dion have their name on bottles of perfume. Justin Bieber even has his own range of nail varnish.

But you don’t have to be a global concern to get in on the act and Oxford gig-goers are no strangers to quirky merchandising. While it used to be fine to just pitch up a concert with a few CDs and maybe a T-shirt, the savviest acts are cashing in with lavish vinyl, signed posters, limited edition screen prints, branded cigarette lighters, plectrums — and even condoms.

Among my favourites are Oxford pop-punks The Young Knives who, in their tweedy days, sold their own branded ties. Rockers Motorhead, meanwhile, tempt fans to part with their money by offering signed drumsticks and skins. And when former Talking Head David Bryne played the New Theatre a few years ago, he brought with him some beautiful, but expensive, limited edition coffee cup sets.

Dance music producer Mr Scruff went one better, selling mugs of his own tea at the back of the O2 Academy, while The Charlatans’ Tim Burgess has his Tim Peaks coffee, the proceeds of which go to help kids learn transcendental meditation.

Brighton-based indie-pop band British Sea Power sell not just music, DVDs and T-shirts, but British ‘Tea’ Power cups, seaside fudge and a brilliantine hair pomade called Mortality, which the band claims “...doubles up as a wonderful lip balm, moisturiser and is great at preventing wetsuit chaffing around the neck when sea swimming”.

If the Rabbit Foots are looking to branch out in style, however, they could go one better by taking hints from Carlos Santana and Trey Songz and step into the world of women’s shoes, do a Jessica Simpson and flog their own range of hair extensions — or copy shock rockers Kiss who typically took the whole merch thing too far by flogging their own ‘Kiss Kasket’ coffins.

Judging by how my head felt after half a case of that potent cider, they could come in handy.