pagan gods be praised! a dry green man!

its funny what a difference a nice bit of weather can make. after last years' quagmire everyone i knew was anxious about this years' GREEN MAN festival. i spent a good week searching the internet and going into millets and outdoors pursuits shops getting advice on what best to do. last year was fun but exhausting and we all went to this year with a sort of militaristic zeal, going to battle with nature. the morning of the festival i joyously went to get our twin sleeping bags (they zip together to form a double sleeping bag for cwtching comfort) from the attic will only ot be stopped in my tracks by the realisation that the CATS IN PARIS had taken one of them by mistake (no hard evidence but i remember commenting that we had the same sleeping bags when they came to stay in may...) so after a little diversion to blacks to replace the left hand bag we were on our way. we were going with the lovely jon ruddick and nic finch, hereby to be known as the ruddy finch and the rain lashed it down. the four of us looked at the sky with trepidation and put on some tunes. hearing the ruddy finches doing voices and singing along to the tape player put us in a better mood and from the back of the van we could see blue poking in between the clouds. we got there and it was suspiciously not raining and not even muddy. we immediately put on our wellies and headed down to the camp site, nabbing what i think was the best spot we've ever had. we were near the toilets (but not too near) close to a tree (landmarks) and only 5 minutes away from the entrance. score! it was dry enough at this point for me to discard my wellies (which had been rubbing my ankle on the way in) and i am happy to report i did not need them for the whole festival. joy! first stop, the green man shop to pay a ridiculous £5 for the programme, which we shared between the four of us. i love green man and think they do an amazing job but there was no way you could get the times for anything (neither internet nor t'otherwise) unless you bought a programme which felt like a bit of a rip off. steen kept his rather dangerously in his back pocket and it only fell out once. we acclimatised ourselves, finding out where the folky dolky tent had gone (replaced by the far out stage which is where the cinema tent used to be) and where the green man cafe was (now the green man pub, now in the walled garden). i liked the new layout very much, it is still the loveliest setting and it made more sense to swap things around a bit.

after a our wonder, which took in some of THE GENTLE GOOD and some of cate le bon doing songs for will hodgkinson's tour of britain, quite a lot of cider and most of cardiff we settled to watch PIVOT. they looked like sons of the THOMPSON TWINS and their music got us dancing to some 80s electronic. at one point i remember thinking that if it didn't have the thumping beats behind it there was no way to distinguish it from an authentic song of the time. the haircuts were to be a bit of a theme, it seems all the youngsters now want to look like the thompson twins, well good luck to them. i wanted to look like them in the 80s too but my mum wouldn't let me get my hair cut. by the time she did she told the hairdresser to make me look like demi moore not the "short back and sides" dykey look i was going for. i was only 10 though. more wondering took us to see GANG GANG DANCE on the main stage. they were amazing, just the sort of multi-instrumental mishmash of tribal beats, electronicy synths and bluesy singing. it was unlike anything else there that weekend, properly joyous. we were dancing on top of the hill and just grinning.

we headed over to see WOODEN SHJIPS but i was a bit underwhelmed. maybe it was due to the sunny weather and the comparison to gang gang dance but they just seemed a bit beardy and proggy (which is odd cos i usually like that sort of thing). it was most people's highlight but it left me feeling bored. the next thing that i didn't want to miss was ROKY ERICKSON. i became a fan when i went to see a film where 13th FLOOR ELEVATORS was on the soundtrack back when i was in wazzu. we'd been to see the film at a test screening at the cinema on campus and the promoters were giving out free soundtracks and t-shirts. i tried to find anything else by them ever since and years later it is still a bit of a problem as roky went a bit mad and became a beardy recluse. the 80s rock stuff wasn't brilliant but still had that amazing intensity. he did "you're gonna miss me" as an encore and i was a pogoing fiend. steen photographed me still grinning insanely afterwards. we saw a bit of ANIMAL COLLECTIVE, who were good but unmemorable and then headed over to the cinema tent to queue for THE MAN OF ARAN, an old silent film documentary with a new score by BRITISH SEA POWER. it was a beautiful film that made you feel a part of the community, struggling on the isle against the elements to eke out a life. the score was moving and powerful and one of my highlights of the whole festival, sitting in a tent that put me in away from the brecon beacons and out on the cliffs of west scotland.

the next day we went for breakfast in the quite wonderful TEA AND TOAST caravan near our tent which served the bargainous 2 slices of delicious marmite on toast (cut into triangles) for £1.50 and then wandered up to see the lovely laura bryon do a set of her LE B songs. by this time the idea had set in that it was going to continue NOT to rain and a bunch of us sat on the grass slowly getting drunk and happily watched a little tot dancing at the front like laura was playing just for her. it pretty much summed up the loveliness of the festival. saturday was characterised with a lot of wandering around, drinking and sunning. we passed by lots of things that day, MISSISSIPPI WITCH, THE PHANTOM BAND before sitting near the far out tent to listen to a brilliant set by RICH JAMES. we had food from the ever tasty paella stall and went to the literature tent to hear readings from joe boyd's book accompanied by robyn hitchcock illustrating it with songs of the time. a highlight of the afternoon was the norman blake - euros childs duo JONNY, doing a some gorgeous songs and being amusing and lovely. i was excited to see THE ALIENS but i was a bit disappointed, they seemed in contrast to a lot of other things at the festival, almost britpop blokey and took in a few other things, including a much needed stop for some of PEACEFUL PROGRESS chai tea and a chat with my friend catrin and her gorgeous little 'uns, before seeing an ok-but unmemorable set from GRIZZLY BEAR and then made a bee-line for JARVIS COCKER. he was a good showman but the songs were not PULP songs and a little too melodramatic and not quite sleazy enough for my liking, but it was great to see him on stage.

sunday we said goodbye to the ruddy finch, for they needed to be back in cardiff by 4pm. we hurtled up to the cinema tent to catch some silent comedy films with a live piano score. we caught a LAUREL AND HARDY and BUSTER KEATON films. it was so nice sitting there hearing all the kids laughing, it makes such a difference to watch them with an audience. we then did the green man POP QUIZ in the literature tent with iain and leah, anna and john. despite the combination of the two top teams in cardiff we did pretty badly but it was a lot of fun, i do like a good quiz. after that we headed over to get some SCRABBLE SUNDAY action. the weather turned weird with black skies and hard hot sun and we got a bit lazy and relaxed listening to 9 BACH and ROZI PLAIN but we still managed to get some great words in (trounced was my favourite) before will and i parted ways (partly because i was going to pee myself trying to get him to finish his go) so i could go and dance like a loon to the brilliant RIGHT HAND LEFT HAND.

we met up again to see DAVE THOMAS do some ramshakle drunken poetry in the literature tent and watch a bit of the truly terrible BAD FILM CLUB'S SNOWBEAST before going to watch THE PICTISH TRAIL who were great and who gave a shout out to JOSIE LONG, who ended up being the giggling girl behind us. speculation whether they snogged later ensued whilst we got some food waiting for the brilliant CRANIUM PIE who made us wig out some. we saved the psyche for later and headed down to the main stage to lay on the grass and fall asleep to CAMERA OBSCURA (or at least i did) and saw a little bit of RODRIGUEZ before running up to catch more wigging out from AMORPHOUS ANDROGYNOUS. they seemed to have everyone and the kitchen sink on stage with them, a wailing alisha sufit, a sitar player. in many ways they were a cliche psyche band but so much fun and lots of dancing was done. we ran over back to the main stage to catch what turned out to be our highlight of the weekend, the immensely beautiful DIRTY THREE. they completely transported you to somewhere else; their dark, poetic, solemn shanties that came close to making me cry was belied by their entertaining stage banter. a wonderful set. WILCO were ok, a bit dull but still lovely and thus ended our musical weekend.

we travelled back with the lovely charlie bull, rob sell, larego, oli, steph and friends in a fab vehicle called serge vansborough and had a nice hot bath and a plate of chips when we got back. even the vom in the sink from chris' alternative party weekend couldn't spoil our mood. green man is brilliant!