Green Man Festival Glanusk, Wales - 15,16,17,18 August 2013

Another Green Man over…ahhh

This year they really pulled the fish off the bicycle.. I mean they made a huge effort to give the venue a face lift, and it worked.

Moving the stages around helped a bit to isolate the sound overlap, and the new Green Man rising stage was a good idea, with some tasty up and coming bands, like Little Arrow.

Oh and the weather was pretty friendly, Friday was beautiful, bit of drizz on Saturday but the matting worked, Sunday was just right.

 

What made me feets move..

Fossil Collective…..Edwyn Collins playing ‘Ghost of a Chance….Forgot how good this sounded… Kings of Convenience, Helen likes the beardy one… Band of Horses, they didn’t think they were headline material, they very are…Lord Huron, delivered a cracking set really should have been on second to headline Saturday night http://www.greenman.net/artist/lord-huron maybe next year....the last Fence gig the new Lost Map revealed..Rozi Plain and crew....

…. Midlake, of course…a Sunday chill to the sound of Lau http://www.greenman.net/artist/lau we saw them earlier in the year at the Glee Club in Brm…Half Moon Run… Public Broadcasting Service, when I say public you say Broadcasting Service http://publicservicebroadcasting.net/ very nice, checkout the tracks Spitfire http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u4Md_aXVJE and Everest http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhgfzEm3CWU

 

All in all, very lovely, thanks GM…

2000 Trees Festival - 11th-13th July 2013, Upcote Farm, Gloustershire

Bit late with this review but hey ho...

 

1^st proper festival of the year, and the ‘2000Trees’ delivered. Now in its 7^th year, a present capacity of 4,500 happy people puts it right back at the early days of the Greenman and End of the Road etc. A good mixed line up with most of the bands substantially different from that of the GM & EOTR script. That’s a big plus, though I love the AmerCanadiianEuro Alt scene, coming away with a clutch of new sounds is inspiring.

Should explain there are 4 stages. The Main Stage for the usual bigger crowd pleasers, The tented Cave stage for the heavier and Post Prog, The Leaf Lounge for the clever alt, and the Greenhouse for the acoustic play offs. The age range is fairly young and wealthy, with a muttering of middle aged cotswoldians, all very friendly.

Friday

We got there a bit late on the Friday so unfortunately missed ‘The Park Bench Society’, so after pitching the tent at a jaunty angle (tip get there a bit earlier and try and find a flat spot without to many rocks) we headed off to the Main Stage to catch ‘Jim Lockey & the Solemn Sun’ ‘Funeral for a Friend’ all very good and as expected one quite enjoyed the ‘King Charles’ set. Saturday main stage finale was ‘Frank Turner’ OK not exactly my run out and buy the CD favourite but I have to admit he did a bloody good show. Without wanting to sound farty ‘you could hear the words’. We also caught ‘INME’ and a bit of ‘Adebesi Shank’ at the Cave. Officially it’s all quiet after 11pm, to let the trees sleep. Crawling back to the tent we picked up a last pint, fortunately due to the angle we pitched out tent we veered off towards the woodness and stumbled upon the twinkly lights of the ‘in the trees’ acoustic stage with its own leetle door. Great bunch of blokes busking something with lyrics ‘l’m a Leprechauns I’m not a F**cking Fairy’ and ‘We just want your money’ Then a few comedy bits from ‘Fair & Square’ ha ha ha …stumble, trip snorezzzz

 

Saturday

Ow those feckin rocks in me back, I need some breakfast..

 

So which bands raised the hairs?

TTNG (This Town Needs Guns)  
 
 

http://thistownneedsguns.bandcamp.com/

Maybeshewill

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaGRxq8Z3tc

http://www.maybeshewill.net/

Picos de Europa - August

Recently back from a trekking in ‘Picos de Europa’ a quiet..ish Limestone Massif in Northern Spain.

Can't believe we’ve not noticed the area before, quite beautiful and in peak August I would have expected it to be busier. It’s a great place for circular day hikes 6-8hrs with a number of good refuges in the centre if you want to extend them further. HF Holidays, Exodus and High Plains do guided hikes of various grades. There is a reasonable bus service but taxis are probably a better bet to get you into the trailheads. For 7 days we weren’t intending to slum it and so stayed at the Hotel ‘Picos de Europa’ http://www.hotelpicosdeuropa.com/interior.asp?MP=51 in the small town of

Arenas de Cabrales, we couldn’t fault the place good food, great staff, good location, makes a great centre for the Northern area.

Heartily recommend the local Cabrales Cheese and Natural Cider!!!!, the cider has to be poured from a height, into a glass, the higher the better to get a good head. You’re only supposed to put a small amount in the glass at a time and drink it down straight, err most of the contents of my bottle ended up on the floor, So take advantage of the device a some café/bars have that pushes into the top of your bottle and pours at force give the same effect.

Plenty of sport climbing to be had, for easier access the one day we took a trip round to the south side and took the Cable car at Fuente De straight up to 2,000k this gets you onto the plateau amongst the odd snowfields still present in August. Good maps available from The Map Shop at Upton on Severn or from the local shops when you get there.

Don’t miss the classic Cares Gorge hike, it’s and out and return route along a single same path that was cut into the sides the cliffs to facilitate a hydro electric scheme. It’s an estimated 12k each way so 24k the whole wack. The path at its narrowest is about a meter wide, there have been some landslides so occasionally the path gets a tad more epic. I would recommend in high summer you start the route as early as possible to avoid the heat of the day and take about 3 litres of water for there and back although if you do get all the way to Cain at the other end, there are some cafes to recharge your bottles. This would make a pretty cool night hike during a full moon!!

The Picos has some stunning rock architecture, with soaring peaks to match/better the Dolomites.