I’m not coming back…

A couple more sets from Green Man. Compare and contrast…

Roky Erickson

I’ve always been a big Thirteenth Floor Elevators fan, and so the news that Roky Erickson himself was coming to Green Man was pretty exciting. Kind of similar to the time when another alien from the Sixties. Arthur Lee, turned up at the Guildhall a couple of years ago. Watching his set I couldn’t help but be excited by the fact a genuinely legendary figure from psychedelic history was performing in front of me. This was probably what kept me going through the whole set because the comparisons with Arthur Lee stopped pretty abruptly as soon as a rather portly gent with grey beard shuffled uncertainly onto the stage. In truth he was pretty poor (“moribund” was Martin’s phrase), escorted through a series of uninspiring blues rock standards, by a band of younger zealots, none of the songs being Elevators ones..

It was a shame really, but there was a sort of reward for my dumb perseverance in that his last song was the Elevators’ classic You’re gonna miss me. Again not perfect, and sadly short of an electric jug, but, hey, I saw him do it…

And now you can too!

Far from perfect, I know, but the man himself.

I’ve got a couple of recordings of the set too, the first being one of the standards, Two Headed Dog. (Actually it‘s worth pointing out that a lot of the audience were loving his other songs and I’ve a feeling he has a bit of a reputation for his late seventies Cramps-style horror rock catalogue.)

Two Headed Dog

You’re Gonna Miss Me

Megson


So anyway, having left the main stage after this set I had a hankering to get me some real songs so I wandered over to the Pub stage and caught most of a wonderful folk set by husband and wife pair, Megson.

After a bit of an overdose of, y’’know, rock, it was a real pleasure to hear some folk songs, well-crafted and simply performed. They were enchanting and quite a palate-cleanser.

Inexplicably I spent the weekend, referring to them as The Megsons, and presumably everyone was too polite to correct me in this a mistake which I carried into the dubbing the video I shot. I’m afraid I only spotted this rather crass error after I had uploaded the video. My apologies…

Again, I made some recordings which have turned out pretty well. I strongly recommend them…

Working Town

Four Pence a Day

Take Yourself a Wife

Oh Mary Will You Go

Megson have two albums available here, and I really like the sound of the samples. I shall be getting them…

Green Man – The coolest

OK I want to push on with these…

The Mandibles

This is probably the coolest thing I saw all weekend. As well as the normal three stages at Green Man this year, there was a new tent called Chai Wallahs, which featured a mixture of DJs and live sets playing a great mix of hip hop, jazz-funk, reggae and blue beat. We ventured over there a good few times over the weekend and each time it was really jumping.

The clip I’ve got here was of Bath band, the Mandibles, of whom I hope to tell you more later…

I probably should warn you that in my enthusiasm to try to capture the whole “scene” I did a few sweeps of the tent and may well have overdone it a little.

Green Man 2 – Good manners cost nothing

So, if Hawkwind were the last and slightly silliest act of Green Man, today I’ve got some recordings for you from a band who were undoubtedly the politest young men of the whole weekend – in fact they were chief exponent of a trend that was a bit of a feature of the whole festival, The Polite American.

Grizzly Bear

As I say, one of the features of Green Man was of Americans playing their hearts out on stage and then thanking us the audience for the privilege of doing so. Grizzly Bear thanked us all in between songs as did Bon Iver and also Beachouse, and I have to say I rather like this. Don’t mention it, fellers.

I’ll admit I waver when it comes to listening to Grizzly Bear, sometimes I love their brittle rather awkward folky sound, and other times I just can’t be arsed with it. But from the moment the four lads came onstage I was very impressed with their ability to play what I think are quite complex songs, without losing anything to the live experience. They didn’t rock out or produce a completely different onstage sound, instead they really went for it. And I loved it; in fact if I’m honest, I had a bit of a “Ah-I-totally-get-this-now” moment. It sounded beautiful, and was by general consensus one of the better sets of the weekend.

I have only two tracks, I’m afraid, but they’re both pretty good.

Enjoy.

Lullaby

Two Weeks

What I did over the summer…

Well, I’ve had just the best summer.

Started off with the obligatory week or so tidying up and getting everything for the school year finished off, but that passed quickly enough and then we were off on our hols.

We had two ridiculously sunny and relaxing weeks in Valetta and Gozo, and I have a few recordings taken there that I hope to put up at some stage.

But what’s really put a stupid grin on my face for the summer was the unexpected offer of a ticket to Green Man from my esteemed colleague, Martin. I’d originally intended not to go, the previous two years I’d ventured out having been dominated by rainfall and the attending grimness. But, well, anything to help a friend out, eh?

And it was a terrific weekend, the main difference being that the weather was very kind to us. We spent a lot of time, sitting around in the sunshine, drinking cloudy cider, meeting people and listening to some cracking music. It was fantastic.

I also spent quiet a lot of time recording some of the best sets and videoing a few of them too. I’ve actually got quite a lot to wade through, some of them very good indeed. I hope to make some of this available but such is the glacial pace at which I get round to these things, it may take a while…

It seems as good a plan as any, to start at the end and work backwards, partly because the last music I saw (Hawkwind, of all people) was one of the sets that was the most fun over the weekend. The other reason I’m starting here is that two friends I made over the weekend, Richard and Muireann, were particularly keen to see this video up first.

So, here we have it, Hawkwind at Green Man 2009 – I have no idea what the name of the song is, perhaps someone will help me out…