aides memoires 2019

got a few good ones this year

a link to the first is up on the unofficial site now  (http://greenmanfest.proboards.com/)

alex rex

you're welcome

might take me a while to get everything edited - but the following will appear:

pictish trail

anna st louis

modern nature

mapache

stella donnelly

richard thompson

the limiñanas

i also taped bill ryder-jones and stealing sheep - but the rain eventually overwhelmed the machine

i thought it had killed it at first - but thankfully once it dried out, we were back to normal service on saturday

a lot of the stealing sheep set will be salvageable - but BRJ is cursed with static throughout as the damp shorted out the connection between the mics and the recorder

which is a shame as he was one of the highlights of my weekend

hey ho - fate is a fickle mistress

i recorded sharon van etten as well

but that will also be unlistenable, i suspect - not because of rain but the deafening babble around us (and a lot of consequent swearing from me)

we stood in entirely the wrong place to watch her - completely my own fault

adults were very drunk and children were very excited - but i can't for a moment begrudge them the excellent time they were all having as we were pretty far back

i won't make that mistake again - as she was also excellent, i thought

bugger

SVE was the one set all weekend for  us that had a really high talking arsehole count.

We moved 4 times as we ended up near talky twats every time, and we were prob 30 yards from the stage. 

ah - well maybe we'd have fared no better closer in then

it annoys me much more when i'm close (why push your way to the front to ignore the music?)

so maybe we were better where we were - where i could (very quietly, obvs) talk myself down into a state of buddhist acceptance

So chuffed that there's an Aide Memoire of that Limiñanas set. 

I thought it wasn't as bad this year. Only got annoyed at Yo La Tengo, and then one of the people announced mid song that they were going to Khurangbin instead and left and it was lovely from then on.

 

Thanks Ray. I always look forward to these. 

(Thanks also for the Silver Jews set)

Only two bad instances of talking over the music over the weekend (the rest of the time was either quiet or bearable).

just as Mama’s Broke came on to the rising stage, some twat was reunited with his aunt Mary and had an excited  chat together with their frientds and family nearby.  This including two other, older ladies who then continued to talk amongst themselves until Aunt Mary, of all people asked them to be quiet for the sake of other people, later to recommence talking away to her nephew.

second occasion was at the front, suffering the rain for Julia Jacklin, when three people met up, later talking loudly right in front of me discussing the merits and practicalities of the f***ing hot tubs!  That time I found myself telling them to shut up as I was try8ng to listen to the lady on stage, fair enough they stopped (after a bit of a stare at me) but doing so always makes me feel that I was the one in the wrong (At least I was restrained enough not to shout out ‘shut the f*ck up’ as I did during Neutral Milk Hotel on a previous occasion).

anyway, rather than having a rant I was just wanting to say thanks Mr Ray

If fitted in with what Ray said at the start and was before I saw the other thread even existed.  Still, I did say thank you to Mr Ray for  the musical snippets, now and still to come

thought they were great and, even though coming all the way from Canada to play the Rising stage, glad they had a decent size audience listening to them

next one's up at the other site

pictish trail

LOTS of new songs

any help with song titles gratefully received

and another one is up at the other site

anna st. louis

accompanied by the gentle pitter-patter of rain falling on the small but enthusiastic crowd she drew

this one took some time - a lot of mic rustle as the dead rats got soaked - which i had to snip out microsecond by microsecond

a few odd moments remain where removing them would have made for too much of an interruption of the music

but this sounds pretty lovely regardless

ASL has a distinct karen dalton vibe - and what could be better than that?

if you missed her this time round, but are going to EOTR, you have another chance

the next one is up at the unofficial site - modern nature

fuck me, the sound in that tent remains unforgiveably bad

squelchy, flat and leaden

but a bit of judicious EQing has hopefully drawn out the great performance behind the sludge

i think it sounds pretty nice anyway

(though i did miss jeff tobias on the sax)

up to download now

i can't find any pictures of MN from GM - so if you took one, i'd be grateful if you could pass it on to use as a cover

and one more - mapache

the sound on the main stage, by contrast, was, as ever, lovely

only interrupted on occasion by some strong gusts of wind

and the accompanying clanking of the scaffolding that holds the backdrops in place

that clanking can be pretty terrifying, though, if you think it means that the stage lights are about to fall on you

no one wants to do a curtis mayfield

and clay and sam frequently peered up into the rafters with a mixture of alarm and stoned bemusement

hard to beat their sheer delight at the crowd and its reaction, though

i suspect they'll be back

another one up at the unofficial site - stella donnelly

she was fantastic, i thought - owning that main stage

a very worthy upgrade from opening the walled garden last year

 

and another

richard thompson

fuck me, he was good

sadly, losing track of time plus a very full bladder meant i missed the opening song

but everything else is there

and no bass or drums meant that the usual tent sludge was conspicuous by its absence

it was a wonderful set

would have enjoyed a few more of the FC songs he's been doing recently - and i didn't get my hoped for 'i musunderstood'

but all complaints are washed away by the luminous brilliance of that perfromance

i know kras will enjoy this one...

 

* also a reminder that today is the last day to grab the alex rex set - the link will expire at midnight *

Thanks so much Ray. Just downloaded the Alex Rex, Pictish Trail, Mapache and RT sets. And that is me hollering on the RT set (20 chat). Adds to the overallambience though don't it?

ha-ha!

is it?

i thought i’d trimmed out all your inadvertent exuberance!

ooh!

yes please!

if you send me a private message on the unofficial site, i'll send you my contact details, etc.

and thanks!

Just got the Richard Thompson set. Sounds superb, he was on top form that night, as good as it gets. That guitar break at 3.10 on Valerie is astonishing, and the comment about getting the easy ones out of the way first is typical of his humour, which was also brilliant. I'll treasure this one. Many thanks.

and one more up at the official site

the limiñanas

again, had to do battle with the dreadful sound in that tent

but some judicious tweaking has made it sound pretty good, i think

this one needs turning up very loud...

 

and that's it for everything i know will work

over the weekend, i'm going to take a look at the other sets i taped and see if they can be salvaged

it's only the end of stealing sheep's set that has the rain-soaked shorting out problems - so that should be rescuable, i hope

i don't hold out much hope for the bill ryder-jones set, sadly - it has interference and static throughout - the machine was drenched by that point

but you never know

if i do do anything with it, it'll be last, as it'll take ages to deal withe every instance of screeching static

i probably will, though, have a crack at SVE's set

i've had a quick listen - and it's not as horrible as it seemed in the flesh

people are very chatty around us - but the music is good and loud - so it may only be an issue on the quieter songs

the bigger job will be editing out my own cursing, spitting and raging

but that may well be a useful buddhist exercise

we'll see...

ok - so this came out reasonable, after all

and is up now at the unofficial site

there's definitely a lot of chatter around us

particularly from a group to our right - predominated by one dude who just had to be the loudest, most 'fun' guy in his extended family...

but mostly the music drowns it out

the other issue, though, is that i managed somehow to turn the recorder off not far into 'comeback kid' - and only noticed at the start of the following song

so there are a couple of minutes missing

i was hoping to patch it with the audio from some youtube clips - but none seem have gone up from her set as yet

hey ho

anyhow - it is was it is

but what it is ain't bad

just a reminder about some of the downloads expiring

today is the last day to grab the richard thompson set if you want it

the liminanas (which no one has grabbed as yet) expires on friday

and sharon van etten on saturday

grab em while you can!

I grabbed the Liminanas last weekend, excellent it is too. A belated thanks for all of these ray, something to reminisce with over the winter months. I must buy you a beer next year or sooner if we happen to meet at a gig in London

ah, right

wetransfer sent me an email saying no one had downloaded it

ghosts in the machine!

but glad you're enjoying it!

 

starting to put these sets up on dimeadozen for anyone who wants lossless versions

links on the other site, as usual

only just got round to listening to mr rays recordings

started with RT - what an excellent recording, brought it all back, on the verge of blubbing as I drove on the A488

apologies for my wittering on about being in floods of tears just before the Rattle Within.

Great work ray!!

ah no

that's not wittering - it's emoting

it's the context what makes it!