Green Man Appraisal

I'm back like crack.

Got in from Green Man around 3 today. It was a good weekend, of course no romantic progress was made, though hotties were spotted. I saw - in chrono order -

SLOW CLUB - good drumsgirl boyguitar band, very poppy and fun, with odd percussion like a chair and bottles of water, i enjoyed
KING CREOSOTE - alright, not as good as i have seen him before, but fun. Comme ci Comme ca
JOANNA NEWSOM - glorious, she was wearing this kinda native American hot pants set, and had her drummer, banjo/tambura player (not my friend Kevin though, sadly) and a violinist. It was great, i felt transported back to when i first heard Sawdust and Diamonds in 2004/5, and only Skin gave me actual shivers

SHIRLEY COLLINS: AMERICA OVER THE WATER - the same talk me, Mum and Charlie saw last year, without photos or actor, and shortened, but still brilliant and surprisingly emotional. Her description of the way her relationship with Alan Lomax breaks up is just sums up a whole type of relationship exactly and incisively.
P. G. SIX - full band line-up, which i have heard was not so good, but i thought it was great. Lovely fluid folk rock with pat Gublers lovely voice, lovely. They began and ended with the same song which gives them points too
VOICE OF THE SEVEN WOODS - missed some of the beginning but they seemed to be turning out some heavy jams. They came and went pretty quickly, but where good while they were there
NORTH SEA RADIO ORCHESTRA - My friend Dug sings in this band, along with others, so ihad to see them, and they were brilliant. A mixture of Rachel's style chamber music with a kind of classical British bent. They played settings of W. B. Yeats and William Blake songs, based around guitar with strings, organ, bassoon and oboe. i think, i can never tell which are oboes/cor anglais/others.
SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE - I had to skip the end of this one, but what i saw was awesome. Ben Chasny had a girl with him, playing guitar and singing, she started off with her hair up, quite demure, but then started ripping some awesome noise from her guitar, her hair fell loose and she was rockin out SO HARD. She was awesome. I was looking at her scanning my knowledge of who she might be, and i thought, having never seen the band, and only listened to tiny bits, that she might be the girl from Magik Markers. And my friend Otto who i met later confirmed this! Noise brain psychic
VETIVER - Otto drums with this band, they were great as always, my brother is very into them, and my Mum as well. I could see Joanna on the other side of the stage really into it, it was lovely.
DIANE CLUCK - me and my sister spurned Vashti Bunyan, painful as it was, as we had seen her ebfore, and went to catch Diane Cluck, who i like a lot but have never seen. She was great, a little dark for the mood, but wonderful. I loved Monte Carlo, which i don't know, but someone called out for. Thank you that person!

SHIRLEY COLLINS: I'M A ROMANY RAI - second Shirley talk about Romany music in Britain, lovely again, she is a great speaker, and i almost don't care that she doesn't sing anymore - we got so much more from her as a talker - people sang all over the festival, but these talks really shone. She is a lovely woman.
ARCTIC CIRCLE - a friend of a friends boyfriend's band, but they were great, eclectic indie pop from Bristol, like Architecture In Helsinki with the organs and percussion of Arthur Russell's Instrumentals Vol. 2.
DIRECTING HAND - Alex Neilson and Vinnie i forget her second name, they were good, Alex on drums and Vinnie on vocals, psaltery and harp. It was very much in the vein of a Max Roach/Abbey Lincoln collaboration, with exploratory vocals next to free jazz drums. I enjoyed it a lot, obviously, as it's a woman screaming, and i love that. I got the impression that maybe she was new to experimental singing, as she didn't seem to have a very varied repetoire of sounds. She had a great classical top range and a really nice commanding bray at the lower end, and some impressive ululations, but like i say, i felt like maybe she was finding her way still in this area. But i only say this because i love avant singing and i was so excited to see some, and i really think she could develop into a really powerful singer. Also i totally fancy Alex Neilson, he is so cute, like a little rabbit. And he's got red hair, so, bingo
DAVID THOMAS BROUGHTON - from Leeds, heard of him before. He sang and played guitar, both of which he looped. It was very nice, and he was pleasantly volatile, during one round of loops, getting up and stalking across the stage, drinking water, coming to the front and pouring water down his front as he drank, running offstage into the portacabin, running back out. It was fun, but me and my sister left early to check out Otto's recommendation of
ARBOURETUM - These were great, a kind of moss covered stoner band, but with a really nice lightness of touch. Their heavy jams were just right for me and Vicky at this point, and we had a lot of fun
ALASDAIR ROBERTS - We only caught a bit of Ali as we were getting food, but he sounded on good form, with festival hottie Alex Neilson playing drums. My Mum and Brother were up front for this, and had a good time. My mum described it as 'The Ali Roberts Experience'
MY BRIGHTEST DIAMOND - We caught the last 15 minutes or so of this, it was great, Shara Worden, bassist and drummer. Her voice was great as always, and their enthusiasm made up for the slightly mannered vibe i always get from them
JOHN RENBOURN - this was good, but too busy, i had paella and i couldn't eat it properly, so i left and went to the juice bar with Mum. We could still hear, but i felt like it just wasn't the right time or palce for John Renbourn. I liked him a lot when i've seen him in small venues, but it just didn't do it for me. he played 'Blues Run The Game' though, very nicely.
DEVENDRA BANHART - and the weekend closed with Dev, us right near the front, a beautiful cool breeze blowing across, bubbles everywhere. The set was amazing, danced right through, started to fancy him a bit. He played songs new and old, the new ones were awesome, and the weekend ended in warm jubilation. We got ice creams afterwards and went to dance in the Rumpus Room for about an hour.

I always feel mixed about festivals; i'm never sure if the enjoyment i get from them is worth the misery. Allt he RAIN and MUD and walking around, and back hurting and feet hurting and seeing bands you're indifferent to. But Devendra really lifted me up yesterday and made me really happy. So a good choice!