Green Man - Dyn Gwyrdd 2015 - Part 3 - The Mountain Stage

The Mountain Stage, the main one at Green Man Festival, has a strong claim to being as perfectly situated as any at a UK festival. When The Garden Stage was the main one at End Of The Road Festival, before the addition of The Woods Stage in 2012, then that was probably the one but the Mountain Stage is far bigger and its situation in an amphitheatre, the result of a long vanished country house garden and with views of the mountains (weather permitting) as a backdrop seals it. 
On early Sunday evening, with a low sun illuminating the stage, it was pretty amazing.

Jessica Staveley-Taylor of The Staves, Mountain Stage, Sunday evening.

The sun was an even rarer commodity on Saturday but during the couple of hours when it graced us with its presence one of the beneficiaries was the awesome Marika Hackman performing completely solo.

Without any doubt this set was one of the highlights of the weekend.

Indeed, Saturday afternoon on the mountain stage was on good form generally. She was followed by the always heart-warming, and every-time-better-than-the last The Leisure Society.

While, despite the release of five LPs, still not really well known in the UK Australian Darren Hanlon deserves to be more so. This was the first time I had seen him play live and it was time well spent. Songs based on observations of detail and a very special way with words.

A bonus of going to multiple festivals is that, when they share the same acts it is possible to ameliorate the situation as regards clashes somewhat. Natalie Prass, from Richmond VA, also appears this coming weekend at End Of The Road 2015.

 The other possibility, and it happened to me a couple of times last summer, is that one simply decides to see them twice!

EOTR 2013 - acts to see live again.

For all that I say that festivals are largely about seeing acts that I haven't seen live before there is always the pleasure of seeing one's favourites for a second, third or.... *whistles* ...time.

One of those was The Staves, three sisters from Watford who specialize in close harmony vocals, that I first saw at Deer Shed Festival in North Yorkshire in July 2012. In the meantime they have recorded an album 'Dead & Born & Grown', released by Universal - so at least the major labels are finally sensing the way the wind is blowing. Here are Camilla, Emily and Jessica on the Garden Stage at EOTR on Sunday afternoon.

This next I had only seen as recently as Truck Festival 2013 but I was happy to see their quite esoterically British show all over again. As a matter of fact, as often such things are, it was better the second time around because I noticed so many things that had passed me by on the first listen. I was right at the back of the Big Top stage and so I couldn't take pictures, which allowed me to give my full attention to the performance. This picture is therefore one taken at Truck Festival 2013 and then I found it difficult to capture what makes Public Service Broadcasting worthwhile watching (and listening too; I had the EP before seeing them live).

Public Service Broadcasting, Market stage, Truck Festival 2013.

    

I am interested to see in what direction J. Willgoose Esq. and Wrigglesworth go next but I am quite sure that, given their awareness of history and its context, they have long ago considered this issue. The Yorkshire Post wondered, somewhat less charitably, about this too following a gig at Leeds' Brudenell Social Club.

  

I have to admit that the first time I saw The Leisure Society play live I was slightly underwhelmed but, perhaps sensing this was odd, I bought their first album anyhow. I saw them again last year and, as timings worked out that way, for a third time at EOTR 2013. At last I get it!
To be honest 17:15 - 18:15 on the main stage Saturday is not prime time; well in one way it is... after 36 hours many people are suffering from mid-festival lassitude, thinking more of food than music.  The food, and the choice thereof, at EOTR is pretty good too.

The Leisure Society - Woods Stage - End of The Road Festival 2013.

  

 [post in progress - to be continued soon but I am getting hungry]
  

There will be now be an intermission. There is nothing wrong with your TV set.

Please do not adjust your eyes or ears.

That was only supposed to be temporary but the

 cauliflower cheese was good, even if I say so myself. 

I shall finish with the artist who, as far as I am aware, I have seen more times playing live than any other. For readers of this blog she probably needs no further introduction. She played twice at EOTR 2013 and I saw all of both sets. The first was on the Woods Stage as part of her on-going UK tour. That is admirably summed up, though her apparent ennui is likely affected rather than genuine, by this review from the London Guardian of her subsequent show at Shepherds Bush Empire. It is no secret that she is not a fan of large venues and early stage times (17:45 start on the Woods Stage). Similarly you can have all the recorded music she has made, and I pretty much do, but it just isn't the same.

She reappeared about 1:15am Monday morning at an unannounced (at least in the printed programme) set on the small, tented Tipi Stage...

... and this truly was Caitlin Rose live: The real deal.

    

If I still had the slightest doubt that I would buy a ticket for End Of The Road Festival 2014, without any knowledge of the line up, it had well and truly vanished by this point. I have one and 'early-bird' tickets had all sold out less than 48 hours after their release on the Tuesday. It is fair to say that that is a public vote of confidence on quite some scale. See you at EOTR 2014?

New Music - Part 24 - festivals, oh festivals!

Not having been to Glastonbury Festival 2013 myself, I have been wading through some of the comment, review and footage that is freely available. This has already made me look ahead to the festivals that I am attending this summer.

When End Of The Road Festival booked London three-piece Daughter it was on the basis of a couple of EPs (those EPs again and why they matter). Since then they have released an album, 'If You Leave', and I think that the band's appearance at EOTR will be an absolute must for me. The album is certainly good, and they were already on my list of ones to see, but having seen their performance on The John Peel Stage at Glastonbury cemented this desire in my mind.

Other footage also reminded me of highlights of festivals that I have attended over the last couple of years.
I noticed that for the final song of their headline set on Sunday Mumford and Sons (Latitude 2008) were joined on stage by First Aid Kit (EOTR 2009 and 2012) as well as The Staves (Deershed Festival 2012 and EOTR 2013).
Otherwise, whilst navigating the cat's-cradle that is new music, I came across this collaboration, Sylvan Esso, and immediately thought that I recognized the vocalist as Amelia Randall Meath and one third of Mountain Man (EOTR 2012). I was right too, which pleases me as I never used to be able do this by ear. 
Her co-conspirator is Nick Sanborn and, on the face of it is an unlikely pairing but fear not. It is released in the US (Trekky Records, TRK043) on July 16 as double A-side 12" Hey Mami/Play It Right. Here is the track Hey Mami.

I don't think it means the demise of Mountain Man; this pleases me too as the 2010 album 'Made The Harbor' is excellent and reminds me rather of The Staves' album 'Dead & Born & Grown' (2013).

Deer Shed Festival 3 - New Music 2012 - Part 23

You might have suspected that this was coming. Festivals for me are, as much as anything else, a chance to go and catch up with some new artists that either I have never heard live or sometimes that I have never even heard about. This first trio of acts all fall into the former category and they all featured on the Saturday. I present them simply in the order in which I saw them play:
First off, and indeed the first music artist to perform at Deer Shed 3 on the Saturday, was North Yorkshire's own Pip Mountjoy on the (Far from the) Lake Stage. The stage was thus re-named as it had finally been erected far from where it was originally intended to be, owing to the very wet conditions prevailing before the festival took place.

She accompanied herself on acoustic guitar and played most of the six tracks from her début EP 'Louisiana', which I have already mentioned here and also included a couple of very recently written new songs that were extremely promising, not least the one that she introduced with some obvious reluctance and embarrassment, yet to considerable acclaim thereafter. I had already bought the EP digitally but as it is now available hand-made, including the sewn CD sleeve and CD-R, I bought a real one for £4 and here it is. 

These are now also available on-line, also for £4 (p & p extra) from her website.

She is off travelling, something that features in many of her songs and may impact on the availability of the CD, but returns to the UK for a tour in October/November 2012. 

  

This next, who played on the main stage at 3.40pm, is a trio of sisters from Hertfordshire who perform under the title of 'The Staves'.

This, their three-track 'Mexico EP' from 2011 has already appeared in the side-bar of this blog but here they are live and acapella.

And in standard mode - this is Mexico from the aforementioned EP.

The Staves release their début album in autumn 2012, hence the new music category. 

The final act of today's trio is in fact the only one to have released an album so far. That is Leeds' five-piece Ellen and The Escapades and I have mentioned their 2012 début album 'All The Crooked Scenes'. In fact it is a great example of what I like to do...

I was idly listening to Amazing Radio a couple of months ago and, having no previous knowledge of the band at all, a track from it came on. I didn't even attempt to listen to any other tracks on it: I just ordered the album from the band's website, all the more so because I found that for little extra cost I could have it on gate-fold vinyl. It arrived very swiftly and it certainly didn't disappoint.

My next mission was to see this band live and Deer Shed Festival soon came to the rescue as Ellen & The Escapades headlined the Lake Stage on Saturday evening and here is something from that set.

Ellen Smith has a way with song-writing and a voice that matches it perfectly.

  

You could just possibly compare her to Amy Macdonald at her very best but, more than anything else, it makes me think that backed up by such an amazing band she both writes and sings songs that are the modern equivalent of Lowry paintings but never quite so modern as to alienate those who know the originals.

That is an astonishing achievement.