, but the first day of this year’s festival was something else. Pitching your tent in torrential Welsh rain is no fun at all and it’s likely that […] "'Pin It")
REVIEW: GREEN MAN FESTIVAL 2012
Barely a year has gone by in the 10 year history of Green Man Festival where mother nature hasn’t let rip a little (after all, it is Wales), but the first day of this year’s festival was something else. Pitching your tent in torrential Welsh rain is no fun at all and it’s likely that most of the bands on the Mountain Stage between noon and 6pm (including the brilliant Treetop Flyers) suffered massively, with depleted audiences.
It kickstarted for us, in the Far Out tent with psych-folk three-piece Stealing Sheep. Stealing Sheep comprises a mesmerising hippy keyboardist with beautiful nu-folk vocals, a beautifully smiley standing drummer and a effortlessly cool, Britpop-flavoured bassist. The trio comes together to create tribal sounding numbers such as ‘Genevieve’ and the undeniably catchy ‘Shut Eye’. Then the rain stopped, giving the less hardcore among us the perfect opportunity to check out Cashier No.9 and King Charles on the Mountain Stage. The latter, with his unmistakable barnet ended his set with an inspired singalong-invoking cover of Billy Joel’s ‘We Didn’t Start The Fire’. While Dexys (the reincarnation of 80s legends Dexys Midnight Runners) were milking ‘Come On Eileen’ for all its worth on the Mountain Stage, the Cinema tent was packed out for the Fence Records takeover, featuring among others, former Bristol songstress Rozi Plain. She followed The Felice Brothers, who while nowhere near as resplendent as at End of the Road, were still pretty astounding – belting out The Band-inspired folk hoe-downs such as ‘Frankies Gun’ and ‘Run Chicken Run’ and ‘Whisky in my Whisky’.
Saturday belonged to one act and one act alone…Yann Tiersen. The insanely talented Frenchman and his crew of exceptional musicians totally nailed it on the mountain stage; from spine-tingling keys to jaw-dropping strings with some haunting vocals thrown into boot, it was all too easy to get swept away in this dreamy soundscape. A bizarrely apt introduction to the powerhouse headliner that is Metronomy. The Devon group is hot property at the moment with headline slots at festivals across the globe (including Off in Poland, read our review HERE) and it’s not hard to see why. They’re perfect for that late-night slot, their catchy electro-indie personified in the shape of cool, suave, snake hipped bassist Gbenga Adelekan. Songs such as ‘Heartbreaker’ bring the party vibe to the Brecon Beacons.
Sunday, as the sun finally reared it’s head over the Welsh mountains, was a day full of clashes. But after making some tough decisions, there was some top quality music to be heard. The Pictish Trail, whose personality shone through, played some of his signature stripped-back Scottish folk in a similar vein to labelmate King Creosote, whose last ever (apparently) set with Jon Hopkins provided one of those ‘festival moments’, sun peeping over the mountain, thousands of people sat down for the first time without getting wet arses and the soundtrack comprising some charming and fantastically executed, heartbreaking ballads – such as ‘Bubble’ and ‘Your Young Voice’. Bristol’s Crybaby played a captivating afternoon set in the walled garden, tracks such as ‘When The Lights Go Out’ and ‘I Cherish The Hearbreak More Than The Love That I Lost’ proving perfect songs from a near perfect band.
Then came the highlight of Sunday, in the shape of the wolves dressed in sheeps clothing that was Jamie N Commons. Looking not disimilar to 1990s teenage one-hit-wonders Hanson, all long hair and baby faces, they sound absolutely nothing like they look. Not one iota. Instead, singer Bristol-born Jamie has harnessed the voice of an old American a la Eddie Vedder or ? and while he grew up in the States, at 16 he returned to the Westcountry, where he created this awesome blues sound. ‘Devil In Me’ is a blinding track which leaves you stomping along with the troupe, while ‘The Preacher’ is a much more laid back blues number with more in common with old timers such as Townes Van Zandt and Shooter Jennings, rasp aside.
tUnE-yArDs impressed almost the entire festival with her main stage set of jaw-dropping sounds, sounds which really shouldn’t originate from one woman. With sniffs of Tracey Chapman and Gaggle, all eyes were on Merrill Garbus as she pounded the drum, looped her remarkable vocals and generally did her thang. A Florence-esque Feist played her headline set to a pretty diminished crowd – people sick of the mud and rain were long gone; but those who stayed were treated to some buzzing and beautiful (yep, how many times can I use the word ‘beautiful’ in one festival review) set 0f surprisingly upbeat indie – the highlight of which was the recent blinder ‘How Come You Never Go There’ and an alternative version of ‘Limit To Your Love’ made famous by fellow Green Man-er James Blake.
Green Man felt somewhat quieter this year, despite the tenfold increase in the number of babies and toddlers, but when it’s up against this year’s mighty End of the Road line-up, acts like Mogwai, Feist and Van Morrisson failed to cut the mustard among many of the strapped-for-cash folk/Americana loving target audience. Thankfully, the rest of the bill was pretty solid and what Green Man does so much better than it’s counterparts is 24-hour frolics – from Jen Long’s now legendary indie disco in the walled garden to Chai Wallah’s insane bill of live acts and DJs to the log fire and obligatory impromptu singalongs and the ceremonial burning of the Green Man, with full fireworks display. Oh and there was Einsteins Garden, which had no shortage of sciency stuff to learn from, including a thrilling talk from Inside Nature’s Giants presenter Simon Watt. In some ways, the headliners are simply a bonus.
Words and photo: Laura Williams
