Greenbelt - Friday

[retrospective blog]

Got up and packed ready for Greenbelt, quite a job remembering everything, as well as delivering key for the community centre to the pearsons. In fact i didn't remember everything and had to borrow a plate and cutlery from andrew.

The rive down was fairly pleasant, arriving around 2ish and not much of a queue to get onto the campsite. As we arrived at Cheltenham racecourse i felt quite excited, like a kid going on holiday. Andrew got a couple of programmes and they were eagerly opened. Finding a place to pitch a tent is quite tricky, some of these people must arrive super early to claim their plots. Searched for somewhere that looked like there weren't lots of noisy teenagers to keep you awake at night, or for that matter young kids, who are likely to be up at 6am playing outside the tents! A suitable plot was found, and once the tent was pitched it was time to scour the programme to select which items I wanted to see/partake in. There's so much to see, hear, read, smell, taste and do at Greenbelt.

This evening was spent mainly listening to various artists around the site. First stop main stage for a fairly pleasent folk singer, then over to the performance cafe to see a band who had given us a free sampler cd on our arrival. Pretty average, but they had a neat trick of recording and looping live, eg sing falsetto harmonies, which when recoredd and played back on a loop add to the normal vocals. Later that evening had chance to see One Nation for the first time this year. Came across them last year and they were superb. Playing an eclectic mix of world, jazz and funk music. Wah wah guitars, synth, percussion and horns. They really got the crowd going with their cover of "Pick up the Peices". More about them later.

Back to the mainstage to see Emiliani torrini, who has a wonderful blend of folk and pop with strong vocals. Iceland seems to produce a number of otherworldy sounding vocals eg Bjork, Mum and Sigur Ros, ET is another to add to this list.

Iain Archer then headlined the mainstage, a Greenbelt regular, he has played everything from the bandstand upwards. He won an Ivor Novello for his writing collaboration with Snow Patrol, but like snow patrol he was fairly dull live. Nice tunes, but nothing to really ignite the crowd.

Off then to the Centaur for some late night music. First off a nashville musician, I had a fear of twee country, but was in for a surprise. Bluesy gospel from a guy called John Davis, who could really lick a riff, it sounded strong and passionate.

The best of all, and perhaps the band of GB05, came on around 0030. Ella Guru, a liverpudlian band playing their interpretation of alt.country - fantastic. Steel guitar backed meandering music, very laid back. You should check their web page

Slept well in the tent, after an enjoyable first evening, sampling a range of musical genres.

One huge disappointment though - NO BANDSTAND!!




Check out some pics from greenbelt by clicking above image!
greenbelt2005