The Green Man Podcast

Feeling inspired to start a band? Come to the Mountain Stage, where Ishmael Ensemble & Los Campesinos! reflect on their careers, the people who have championed them along the way, and how to get your music out there. We then wander through Einstein's Garden and up to Cinedrome where the host of the Cinedrome Jason Solomons talks to Adrian Utley about the film 137.

Pete Cunningham cut his teeth as a teenage DJ playing at raves in quarries, before sampling some of the finest club culture his home city of Bristol has had to offer. He’s a saxophonist as well as a DJ and producer, and since 2017 has led eclectic collective Ishmael Ensemble to increasingly epic heights. Last year’s Rituals upped the ante with a generous use of drones and drums you might hear on a metal record, and the result: vast, textured Massive Attack-style soundscapes that will sound right at home in the Welsh mountains

Cardiff indie rockers Los Campesinos! met during freshers’ week at university and seven albums on, achieved their first Top 20 album, All Hell — self-produced and self-released and with a total marketing spend of £190.86. They’re true champions of the independent DIY spirit and when they’re not at their day jobs, they’re making songs about “local football, doomed romances, and the fall of capitalism” that are made to be danced to.

An exploration in free thought and improvisation, 137 is the combined sonic force of Adrian Utley (Portishead), Larry Stabbins, Jim Barr (Get the Blessing) & Sebastian Rochford (Polar Bear, Patti Smith). Brutal noise interlaced with meditative rhythms, ferocious yet fragile, 137 will venture into the world of expanded cinema playing in symbiosis with avant-garde experimental film.

*This episode contains discussion of personal experiences, including references to sexual abuse, which some listeners may find distressing. The views and opinions expressed are those of the guest, based on their own experiences, and do not necessarily reflect those of the producers or this podcast. No allegations are made against any named individual. Listener discretion is advised.*

The light still breaks through each morning. That’s the driving sentiment on You Are The Morning, the debut album from trans woman and Manchester-based singer-songwriter jasmine.4.t. Its title is dedicated to queer friendship, which she says saved her life. The first UK signee on Saddest Factory Records, the album was produced by Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus. Jasmine and her band travelled to L.A. to record at Sound City Studios. It was made across 12 days in a highly collaborative and emotional process, and because Jasmine sees her songs as fluid and ever-changing, the recordings carry that free and spontaneous spirit. Jasmine considers her album as a call to action for a brighter future for trans people.

Ash Kenazi is a London artist who has honed his craft after years of experimentation, finally evolving into their true form through writing that draws from sounds that have shaped their experience - a youthful chorister, an indie drummer and a queer dancer. Known for his work as a member of Happyness, drag royalty to the indie scene and podcast host, Ash has built a strong following across the UK through supporting the likes of Self Esteem, CSS, Jess Winter and Dreamwife with his impressive counter-tenor vocals, queer storytelling and magnetic stage presence.

Icons in their respective fields and admirers of one another's work, Stewart Lee and Richard Dawson discuss their creative processes as well as what they're up to at this years' festival.

Stewart Lee delivered an extended set at Green Man 2025 ("world's greatest living stand-up" - The Times)

An a cappella song about a man in the 1500s in Hexham, a 41-minute track, albums that channel the voices of past, present, and future: you never know what’s coming next from Northumbrian folk artist and storyteller Rich(ard) Dawson. His eighth album End of the Middle landed very recently, and he’s also dabbled in Finnish experimental rock, North Country blues, and jazzy psych-folk, raiding museum archives and releasing vinyl that plays inside-out.

After their Friday afternoon performance on the Mountain Stage, which saw members of the crowd giving their best shot at gospel, Annie and daughter Anjessica reflect on their show - and which wannabe gospel singer they liked the best. We're also joined by Last Laugh comedians Daman Bamrah + Gavin Osborn. Daman gives an insight into MCing to a festival crowd, while Gavin talks about 'playing the hits'.

A flamboyantly-dressed family affair — frontwoman Annie with her daughters singing backup, her husband on guitar, and sons on bass and drums — Annie & The Caldwells hail from the Deep South and harness the power of live gospel music like nobody can. They recorded their debut album Can’t Lose My (Soul) in a Mississippi church, a mere forty years after they started performing.

Stand out British-Sikh comedian, Daman Bamrah uses his instant likability, wry humour and a lot of heart to captivate audiences, and is best known for his cultural observations on his Indian heritage, topical writing and imaginative storytelling.

Gavin Osborn is a 47 year old singer-songwriter with six solo albums under his belt, having spent over 20 years touring the UK, Europe and Australia with his brand of witty storytelling folk songs. Familiar to listeners of BBC 6Music and Radio 4, Gavin’s tours and shows include support slots for the likes of Belle & Sebastian and Frank Turner.

Wow. What. A. Festival. Let’s hit the ground running in ’25 with a kick off to match the energy of the weekend. Mercury Prize winners and Far Out Stage headliners English Teacher get chatty outside the podcast tent with gothic folk New York duo Sex Week, chatting first time festival moments and the best grub for a weekend in the fields.
Then we join Jason Solomons, head of the Cinedrome for a chat with none other than Martin Parr, chatting about the new documentary by Lee Shulman’s about his life and work.
With plenty of bangers to come, get locked in for episodes featuring acts and moments from across a blisteringly fun weekend in Bannau Brycheiniog.

Sex Week: New York duo Richard Orofino and Pearl Amanda Dickson bonded over a playlist made for a friend’s road trip from Colorado to Omaha. The dulcet tones of Baxter Dury, Wolf Alice, Liz Phair and more laid the foundations for a musical collaboration that takes in the humble joy of the mixtape, the films of David Lynch and David Cronenberg, fat cats, gothic folk, gory detail and vulnerable homespun confession.

English Teacher have captured life in Britain like no other band in recent years. It’s no wonder they won last year’s Mercury Prize for their debut album This Could Be Texas. The Leeds band, who first played on the Rising stage back in 2022, match meandering climbing bass with instances of folk, prog, electronica, and all-out vigour, underpinned by frontwoman Lily Fontaine’s impressionistic, conversational lyrics: musically adventurous, socially observant, and live, an emotional force to be reckoned with.

Introduced by director Lee Shulman and the man himself, Martin Parr, join us for a focus into the career and work of an artist and legendary photographer.

In the final instalment of the Green Man 2025 preview, we're joined by Jimmy Watkins from Running Punks, who invites you to swap the cider, put on your trainers and head for a brisk morning jog around the Glanusk Estate.

Jimmy Watkins founded Running Punks in 2019. Having broken the Welsh 800m indoor record in 2006, he made the final at the World Indoor Championships in Moscow. His life was very different a year later, when he started a band and followed a very different lifestyle – the life of athletics was behind him. However, just like in 2006, he couldn't outrun the runner! He needed to make his way back – the rock and roll lifestyle wasn't for him. Fast forward to 2025 and we have our very own music-come-running club! Don't forget to pack your trainers!

Fiona Stewart is the owner of Green Man Festival. Since 2006, she has been bringing the industry's best musicians and performers to the valleys of Bannau Brycheiniog. She is a legend in her game. But what she also focuses on is the Green Man Trust, which ensures the values of the festival have a far-reaching impact beyond the weekend in August.

Anna Thomas is an award-winning comedian, originally hailing from Carmarthenshire, South Wales. She wrote and starred in Lady Bigfoot, a short film that premiered on BBC One Wales and became the most-watched comedy short on BBC iPlayer in 2023.

In this episode we hear from Welsh band Melin Melyn, talking to Green Man stalwart Pictish Trail about their first times at the festival, camping next to Kneecap at Glastonbury, the bubble machine...and exactly how to pronounce Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons).

We're also joined by The Beatles Dub Club, who played their first show at Chai Wallahs here at Green Man in 2021, and has since taken it as far a field as New Zealand, Australia and Bali. The brains behind it - DJ Chris Arnold -highlights some of his favourite areas of the festival, and this year he's bringing his baby - so he'll be exploring a whole new side of it as well.

“Croeso! Welcome, one and all to the magical world of the Mill On The Hill. The yellow mill that sits on top of a hill, looking down on Melin Village and all of its wonderful occupants. Everyone is welcome here.” So begins the longed-for debut album from Wales’ beloved Melin Melyn (Welsh for Yellow Mill). The group are regular friendly faces at Green Man and consummate live entertainers, who sing psychedelic surf-rock and country songs in Welsh and English about falling in love with computer characters and eating “existential crises-inducing spicy foods”. In Melin Village, the townsfolk “bask in the beauty of song” — with Melin Melyn around, Green Man merrymakers are bound to do just the same.

Quite possibly Green Man’s most frequent performer — in fact he hasn’t missed a single year of the festival — Scottish musician Johnny Lynch will once again make the voyage (another kind of ancient kingdom-linking Pictish Trail) down from the Isle of Eigg to the Welsh mountains. He’s just made a new EP called Follow Footsteps, continuing to furrow his own path within the Lost Map Records family.

DJ Chris Arnold takes us on a mystery tour through his collection of covers, remixes and cuts that sampled arguably the greatest band to have ever lived, The Beatles. Get ready to dance as Chris bounces from track to track to the backdrop of a mish-mash of Beatles related film, this time with a supporting horn section.

Kicking off the Green Man podcast 2025 , we’re joined by Last Laugh comedian Kate Cheka and British-born Nigerian spoken-word artist & musician Joshua Idehen. Kate’s bringing her mum, and is camping. Joshua is very much not bringing his mum - or camping, but having visited the festival in previous years he’s offering her - and you, some top tips on how to get the best out of your weekend in the mountains. 

We’re also joined by two of our late-night performers DJ Paulette, who cut her teeth at the Hacienda, Manchester in the early 90s and Ash Kenazi - who’s bringing the queer drag scene of Green Man to life with his Round The Twist takeover - Popperz. They’re celebrating what it means to draw people together through music, and the importance of the independent festival scene - as well as sharing what we can expect from their sets. 

Kate Cheka, the globetrotting comedian, has graced stages across four continents and seven diverse countries. Her comedy journey began in Berlin, where she not only performed but also organised and hosted two remarkable shows: a femme-identifying open mic and a women of colour showcase.

Already firmly established within the independent music scene — a founding member of bands such as Benin City, hugh, and Calabashed, and a Sons of Kemet collaborator — the British-raised, Stockholm-based Joshua Idehen commands stages and radio airwaves with his wise, mesmerising brand of spoken word music. On new EP Mum Does The Washing, the poet teamed up with producer Ludvig Parment to fuse his spoken word lyrics with indie and electronica — the result has been described as part sermon, part rave.

Three decades, countless countries: Manchester’s award-winning house music pioneer DJ Paulette refuses to slow down. Residencies at the Hacienda, Heaven, and Ministry of Sound, regular radio slots including on BBC 6 Music — there’s nary a club she hasn’t set foot in, and her recent memoir Welcome to the Club documents every last beat.

Ash Kenazi is a London artist who has honed his craft after years of experimentation, finally evolving into their true form through writing that draws from sounds that have shaped their experience - a youthful chorister, an indie drummer and a queer dancer.

For the series finale of the Green Man Podcast 2024 please enjoy Huw Stephens chatting to Jude Rogers recorded live at the Talking Shop this August.

Huw Stephens broadcasts on BBC Radio 6 Music on his daily drivetime show, guest presents on BBC Radio 4's Saturday Live and hosts weekly shows in both English and Welsh on BBC Radio Wales and Radio Cymru. He co-founded the Welsh Music Prize and Cardiff's Sŵn Festival. His new book, Wales: 100 Records, offers a multifarious encyclopedia of Welsh music, from Tom Jones and Bonnie Tyler, to Manic Street Preachers and Super Furry Animals, via Dafydd Iwan, Cate Le Bon, Gwenno, and Underworld, bringing us a vivid portrait of the irreverent spirit of this country.

Jude Rogers is the author of The Sound Of Being Human: How Music Shapes our Lives, an arts and culture journalist for The Guardian, The Observer and others, makes radio programmes for BBC Radio, and runs arts projects. She moved back to Wales in 2016 thanks to her love of the Green Man Festival, which she has attended since 2005, where she's interviewed the likes of Shirley Collins and John Cale, and co-run the Saturday quiz in recent years.

A joyous return to the fields of Green Man 2024 with none other than festival MD Fiona Stewart herself. She is joined by former royal nanny and keen fisher Tiggy Pettifer, to discuss the River Usk that runs along the Green Man site, and the importance of conservation efforts needed in Wales.

Then we rejoin comic and Welsh wonder Esyllt Sears, who spends Sunday afternoon at Green Man meeting Little Amal, the 12-foot puppet of a Syrian refugee child, and a global symbol of human rights. Amal has travelled to over 166 towns, this is her first time in Wales, and she not only led the Little Folk parade but also joined the crowds for the burning of the Green Man at the festival's close.