Dyn Gwrydd :: 2017 :: Green Man - Part 4 - three vital bands on Friday.

I have said that I wouldn't go to a festival that I didn't believe had strength in depth. Green Man and End Of The Road tick that box with abandon. Here are a few more acts that I saw at Green Man and that come highly recommended in my humble opinion.
The first, and one that criminally I have failed to see live twice before, is a world away from the more "serious" music that some might think preoccupies me. From Madrid, with garage-rock attitude and a pop sensibility to match, comes all-female foursome Hinds.

Hinds' Ana Perrote. Far Out stage, 18 August 2017.

This is a move to a different stage and a very different artist. One that I seen live before but never at a festival.

Stevie Parker, Rising stage, 18 August 2017. Her first album 'The Cure' is out now.

Another act known to me but one that I had never seen live was Cobalt Chapel, touring their self-titled LP. Let's face it all three acts here were on my must-see-live wants list and this is yet another reason that festivals such as this work for me.

Cobalt Chapel, Walled Garden stage, 18 August 2017. (Klove Records, 20 January 2017).

Cecilia Fage fronts the show.

Green Man :: 2016 :: Dyn Gwyrdd - A quick site tour.

I week ago that's where I was, in the heart of the Brecon Beacons, so I guess it is about time for some words and pictures about that. I still haven't got any real idea about how to group the artists that I saw and heard into posts.  I'll just start with something else and see whether that leads me to some kind of logistical inspiration.
That somewhere might best be a picture of the (main) 'Mountain stage' taken from a distance and under a glowering sky on Sunday afternoon. For the record the artist playing here is Julia Holter, to whom I shall return somewhat later.

It is true that the weather was less than perfect much of the time but that did nothing of significance to detract from the overall experience. Having started with a scene of the site maybe I should continue the theme for now.

The smallest of the four dedicated music stages is the 'Green Man Rising stage', which principally showcases new, up-and-coming acts.

Here it is viewed from across the pond. I had just returned from seeing Paradisia play there and was on my way back to the Mountain stage. This was Sunday lunchtime and the weather was playing nice at that point.
The Green Man, after which the festival is titled, is a large mythical figure of a different design each year, that is burned just after Sunday midnight. This is this year's incarnation.

Indeterminate weather on Saturday afternoon.

The big blue tent is the 'Far Out stage', the only dedicated music stage that is fully undercover and with a capacity of several thousand standing. Whilst the setting of the Mountain stage is arguably only rivalled by the Garden stage at End of The Road Festival, my pick of the bunch at Green Man is the Walled Garden stage and here it is.

Friday midday. The band is Welsh three-piece Plu.

Not only is it intimate and characterful but it has some of the most interesting artists, at least for my money, gracing it.

The layout at this stage (and indeed elsewhere throughout the festival site) has been much enhanced since last year, which was also rather wet. It's not possible to engineer the weather but it is certainly possible to mitigate the worst of its effects. Another change in the Walled Garden stage is this.

The bar has moved to the back of the garden and changed radically. Now, as well as a handful of beers and the usual other drinks, it hosts an array of thirty draught ciders all brewed in Wales. The seventy draught beers remain for sale in the Courtyard Bar, which is just a minute or two walk away. The result was that both bars were far less overcrowded.

Next I shall turn my attention to some of the music. That is after all what I was there for.

Dyn Gwyrdd 2015 - Green Man - Part 2 - The Walled Garden

I like the smaller stages, that is no revelation unless you haven't been reading for long and in which case hello and welcome. Of those stages at Green Man Festival the Walled Garden stage is the one that matters most. Here is just a flavour of what happened within those four walls last weekend.
I'm not going to do this in chronological order, as of the festival, but I will start with an artist that I have serial convictions, as regards failure to see live, going back as far as 2009. Nothing is ever that simple...

Emmy The Great - Walled Garden stage - Friday evening.

To some extent I like it simply for its unpredictability. Here it is in the rain late on Sunday morning.

and, just minutes later...

Meilyr Jones playing and it is raining no longer!

That is Stephen Black, aka Sweet Baboo. playing bass on the far left of the shot. Never knowingly under used! It is not the only time, as this post unfolds, that artists appear more than once...

This next artist was not the easiest to photograph - she put me in mind of Angel Olsen at Green Man last year.

The opening act on Saturday was Anna B Savage.

On Sunday, and utterly different, was Norwegian singer and songwriter Aurora Aksnes.

Back to Saturday evening...  no band is as aptly named as this and the latest album 'Bashed Out' carries the theme admirably, right down to the point of walking on stage attired as on the cover artwork of the album. It was too warm for the jumper to last even the first song and the hat was removed soon afterwards too.

This Is The Kit - Kate Sables on banjo (at least for now) and Rozi Plain (see below) on bass.

Rozi Plain played the same stage on Friday afternoon in support of her latest LP 'Friend'.