Greenfingered - Green Man's Jo Bartlett

Finding out who the Green Man really is.

United Kingdom | by Ross Purdie | 18 April 2008

When Jo Bartlett and Danny Hagen were dropped by their record label and they found themselves without any gigs to go to, they settled on a change of direction, and decided to bring the bands they wanted to see, to them...

Since the first Green Man in 2003 where only 350 revellers turned up, the festival has outgrown two sites and rapidly developed into a 10,000 capacity bash that currently resides at Glanusk Park in the heart of the Brecon Beacons.

With many acts still to be announced, this year's eclectic line up will feature Super Furry Animals, Iron And Wine, Black Mountain and of course folk rock four piece The Yellow Moon Band, of whom Jo and Danny make up one half.

Promising an eclectic mix of folk, rock and folktronica as well as Rumpus Room DJ's, green fields, cinema tent and cafe this year's Green Man will keep festival-goers entertained beyond the music with bonfires keeping the spirit of the festival burning after dark.

So just who is this enigmatic Green Man? Jo reveals all...

VF: Who is the Green Man?
JB:"Historically, the Green Man is a pagan figurehead who stands for rebirth and regeneration. When we left London and moved to the Brecon Beacons there were lots of green men that followed you around that area and it suited where we were in our life on a personal level because we were changing over from having been dropped by our record company to setting up the festival. So the rebirth angle appealed to us."

VF: Was the decision to move to Wales brought on because you got dropped?
JB:"No, we had been living in London for years but got sick of it all and fancied a move to the mountains. Our record was picking up loads of attention and we were in Brecon for about 6 months before it all started to go belly up in a classical major label way. We’ve moved to Cardiff recently. We had to move back to the city for family reasons - we needed to get pizza delivered again!"

VF: Do you go under the name 'Jo and Danny?'
JB: "We used to, we did a few albums under ‘It’s Jo and Danny’ but we’ve got a new band now called the Yellow Moon Band. We’ve only been playing under that name for a couple of years but we always play at the festival."

VF: You moved to a new site two years ago, how does that reflect the character of the festival?
JB: "Every time we’ve moved it has been totally logical. This is our third site but we’ve had to move on previous occasions because we’ve outgrown them. All three of the sites we’ve been on have been truly beautiful, there really seems to be something special in the air at Green Man. All the performers play to another level, everyone enjoys it and, whatever the weather, people will just sit back and look at the mist on the mountains. It’s a totally relaxing and wonderful experience. We get a fantastic response afterwards from people who have had a great time."

VF: What were your initial reasons for putting it on? What’s the ethos behind it?
JB: "We’d recently left London and started a family at the same time; I moved here when I was pregnant. When we were living in London we had been going to gigs so to move here and a) be starting a family and b) be in the Brecon Beacons where there weren’t any gigs was a shock to our system so we decided to bring all our favourite bands here so we could watch them. In 2003, there were loads of bands like ourselves who were part of that future band/ folk scene that was happening and it seemed like a nice idea to bring everyone together to the same place on the same weekend so we could all say hi to each other and play our music to people who wanted to come."

VF: Have you deliberately tried to base it on a Folk festival mould?
JB: "Folk was something that got attributed to our music when people called our first album ‘Folk Influenced.’ It wasn’t something Danny and I had set out to do but looking back we realised we were quite folky Our parents are Irish and Scottish and play the bagpipes, but because we ourselves had grown up as indie kids playing guitar music, we didn’t really notice the folk side of it. When we started booking for the festival we were just booking things that we were into and hit upon this whole new folk scene. At that time there were people picking up acoustic guitars and listening to Nick Drake but also listening to techno, so the festival just seemed like a really good meeting place for the two types of music."

VF: What can someone who hasn’t been to Green Man expect?
JB: "On a music level, it seems to me that people really enjoy the opportunity to come and discover bands they haven’t necessarily seen or heard of before. We book the bands ourselves, purely because we love them. We don’t have any financial reasons for choosing the ones we do or corporate people breathing down our necks saying who we can and cannot book. Before the festival people always ask me who I’m looking forward to seeing but I’m pretty much as interested in the first band on the smaller stage as I am in the headline act on the bigger stage because we’ve heard their music, we’re intrigued by it and we’re curious to see how they do it live. We also have a cinema tent with films showing, followed by Q & A’s with directors and last year on the Saturday night we had live soundtracks to hammer horror films from the 1970s. We have workshops in the kid’s area where they can learn how to make animations and the best ones are shown in the cinema tent on the Sunday night. It is genuinely all done for the love of it."

VF: There always seems to be an interesting mix of acts. What have been some of your highlights?
JB: "Last year was amazing because we had Robert Plant headlining on the Saturday night. He’s really into Green Man mythology and the band rehearse in the Brecon Beacons so he actually phoned us at home to ask if he could play. We are mutual friends with the owner of a stately home in Brecon, where we were originally going to do the festival. Obviously it went through agents after that to get it signed, sealed and delivered but that was how it came into happening. When Robert Plant encored 'A Whole Lotta Love' we had to take a step back and pinch ourselves because we couldn’t believe that it was actually our festival!"

VF: Stephen Malkmus stuck out for me because he doesn’t really play over here...
JB: "We’ve had a great relationship with Domino since the first festival because we have a really similar ethos and outlook on life. Since the word go we have had a lot of their bands and reports are going back to them in America that it’s a great festival. We’ve approached Stephen Malkmus for the last couple of years to see if he would play and he did."

VF: Have you had any acts that you’ve really wanted to get and at the last minute they’ve had to pull out?
JB: "A couple but I’m not going to tell you who because we’re still after them. You will know who when they confirm."

VF: Who are you most excited about this year?
JB: "There’s that question! All of them. Drive-by Truckers should be a laugh. I’m really looking forward to Iron and Wine and Black Mountain because, again, we’ve been after them for a few years. Black Mountain are headlining the second stage on the Friday night so that’s going to be brilliant."

VF: We wrote a story a while back about how Super Furry Animals did a kind of come and get me through the media...
JB: "They did and it worked. We were knocked for six after the last few festivals, especially after Robert Plant. So we were sitting around for a couple of months wondering who on earth we could book for this year when we got word that Super Furry Animals wanted to play. Online they actually requested Thursday night but we had to talk sense into them. They come pretty much every year anyway and Gruff has performed solo the last couple of years. The band had been an inspiration from the word go with regards to the festival so it was a lovely, logical way for it to go."

VF: You’ve got a community message board. Is there much input from the community?
JB: "Very much so. We love the people with their wish lists. If there are any bands we haven’t heard of, we get onto Google straight away and check them out and that is how loads of bands have been booked in the past."

VF: There’s lots of other attractions that go on down there. Isn’t there a field of breast feeding women?
JB: "Yes something like that. In the green field we had the midwives tent who were just giving advice on breast feeding. The green field is fantastic actually; we’ve got the Solar Powered Milk Float Stage where people give talks on green issues, there’s comedy and ‘Ringo Bingo’ which is like a pub quiz but based on music. We want to make more of the green field area. We’ve got somebody who built an eco house to show people what goes into the making of it and there’s an Eco Fairground."

VF: Finally, is there anything new for this year?
JB: "We have a bonfire every year at the back on one of the hills, which is going to be bigger than ever, and we’re also going to have a bar up there. There is going to be a piano in the bar so we’re hoping some of the artists will come down a little worse for wear in the middle of the night and give everyone a bit of a song."