Carnival of Light
I think I’ve just recovered from recovering from Covid then going to Greenman and End of the Road within a month.
It was a close thing. Sian and I weren’t firing on all cylinders when we went to Greenman, I’d started testing negative just on the Tuesday before. We skipped the Thursday and came up smiling on the Friday morning. We were both determined to see Friday headliners Kraftwerk and so we planned the day accordingly so it was a pretty light day. We did see Public Service Broadcasting - a late replacement for Low. Loved PSB but Low cancelling hit me hard. Mimi Parker’s cancer has returned and I’m just really hoping she’s going to recover and be okay, they were so majestic when I saw them earlier in the year and it filled me with joy at the prospect of seeing them again, and I genuinely find the possibility of never seeing Low live again crushing. All my love an meta flies to her and her family.
Sian and I did stay up for Kraftwerk an great they were too, cause they barely moved a muscle, but boy the visuals! The 3D glasses made a real difference, loved the UFO landing in Usk behind them. We even managed to stay up and catch a bit of Cate La Bong.
Other highlights of Greenman were the inspirational MP Jess Philips being interview by Catlin Moran and a special guest set from The Wedding Present. The Weddos were on blistering form. They did a cover of ‘Canada’ in honour of Low, and when they did ‘Kennedy’ i ran down the front to the mosh pit, which was a bit Saga holiday, but lots of fun. It’s fair to say that we didn’t hit Greenman with both barrels this year, but we enjoyed ourselves and saw a lot of friends.
The one way to get over the post festival come down is to have another one lined up soon after. There was a little ticket drama which was soon resolved and we travelled down after work on the Thursday. It was pretty much just finding our tent then meeting up with friends. Saw Krunangbin who I thought were so/so.
The Saturday morning I went for a mouch around the site before the festival got underway in a hope of seeing Pixies soundcheck. I didn’t, but while enjoying a coffee I overheard someone mention that they couldn’t miss soul singer P.P Arnold being interviewed at the Talking Heads stage, so I thought why not, and what a joy she was! Brimming with stories of the 60s and the movers and shakers. She was so great that I queued up to get a copy of her book signed - and this was after telling myself I wasn’t going to buy anymore books for awhile.
Had a good day at the festival leading up to the main event: Pixies! Couldn’t believe how how good my beloved Pixies were! There was a real feeling of expectation amongst the crowd with the front made up of people largely in their twenties which I was surprised at. It was probably the best set I’ve seen them do this year, full of energy, a bit playful and was i the only person in the crowd who was happy that they played new songs? Probably.
We were always gonna bail early on the Sunday, but managed to a wonderfully gentle set of songs from Katherine Priddy and get a rousing set in The Bug Club. The afternoon drink buzz quickly wore off and we drove off around 3:30. Giggly, exhausting festival fun!