mostly on a music tip

Green Man Festival 2009

I was at Green Man Festival over the weekend. It's one of my favourite festivals, in part because I've been going since its second appearance back in 2004, in part because it's so close to home, and in the main because it's just bloody wonderful. This year almost matched the high point of that 2004 festival as at long last Green Man got the chance to unfurl without the distraction of three days of rain. The sun shone hard over Friday and Saturday and though on Sunday it drizzled a little, the skies never opened. 

Of what I can recall, I saw THE GENTLE GOOD, GANG GANG DANCE, WOODEN SHJIPS, ROKY ERICKSON, ANIMAL COLLECTIVE and then the comedian TONY LAW on Friday. On Saturday I devoured SOUNDCARRIERS, CATE LE BON, STORNOWAY, RICHARD JAMES, JONNY (aka NORMAN BLAKE and EUROS CHILDS), PETE BRODERICK, NOAH AND THE WHALE, GRIZZLY BEAR, BON IVER, JARVIS, comedy from CLINT EDWARDS, the second half of the film HOLY MOUNTAIN and a terrible 40 minutes spent playing 'Ringo Music Bingo' - a good idea in theory, but not in practice. Sunday began with a music quiz, before taking in RIGHT HAND LEFT HAND, CAMERA OBSCURA, RODRIGUEZ, DIRTY THREE, and WILCO, and the half-hour documentary FORGOTTEN BIRD OF PARADISE, which, after the aforementioned sets from DIRTY THREE and WOODEN SHJIPS was a definite highlight of the weekend. You can find out more about the film (and I recommend seeing it) here.

In The City 2009

I was fortunate today to be invited to London to sit on the panel for It The City Unsigned - helping to whittle a long-shortlist of unsigned bands to the 52 needed for the ITC 2009 showcases in Manchester in October.

I have been on the panel once before, about three years ago, the most notable success from which was The Wombats. I think Friendly Fires made it through back then too, though there were a very different proposition to the wonderful band they are now.

The panel this year was much better - in part because there were more people on it (about a dozen), and partly because the quality of the bands was better. The submissions, and the longlist presented to us to work from, had depth. The bands brought to the table by the panelists were much stronger than my previous experince too.

There's a second panel in Manchester on Thursday which will work through the bands we didn't complete today, as well as any suggestions they bring forward. Until it's all finished and checked I can't discuss who might have made it through and who didn't. But in the mix there was one band I instantly fell for - Spectrals (http://www.myspace.com/spectralspectral). We heard some good bands today, some possible future stars, and some acts that will do well at ITC and beyond. Often as I raised my hand to support their progress through, it didn't actually mean I personally liked them. But Spectrals. Yes. I got excited. I can't wait to see them live.

Oya Festival, Oslo

For the past five days I've been out in Oslo at OYA Festival. I was invited out here by the organisers as part of their International Program, which aims to bring in music companies to see Oya, see Oslo, see Norway, meet music businesses and make new contacts in this country. It's been well organised and well worthwhile - for them and for me - which is exactly what they were hoping for. It also demonstrates just how far behind we are back in Wales.

Norway has a population of 5 million. Wales has 3 million. Oslo's populaton is 500,000. Cardiff's is 350000. That's not a huge difference. OYA Festival takes place in the city centre - 5 days of live music across four stages, with 12,000 people attending each day (8,000 buy 5-day passes, then 4,000 buy day passes). It's taken 11 years for Oya to reach this size. In Cardiff Huw Stephens and I set up SWN Festival just three years ago. Around 2,000 people attend in all, though only 350 bought 3-day passes. In the first year less than 300 bought 3-day passes. We've a way to go to reach 8,000. 

What I've learnt out here though, is that SWN can be for Cardiff, and Wales, what OYA is to Oslo and Norway. OYA is programmed heavily with Norwegian bands, and Huw and I have booked one, Ungdomskulen, on the back of seeing them here. I've met Norwegian managers, agents, labels, distributors and more. It's been an eye opener.

SWN Festival can clearly do this for Wales. Our programming follows the same pattern - leading with the strongest new Welsh music, but mixing in new UK and international music too. It's something I will return to Wales and push for. Being here has really hammered home how poorly supported the music industry is in Wales. It's shocking.