The Green Man Podcast

As we come towards the end of our 2024 series, we’re taking things up a notch with Manchester band Maruja, known for going hell-for-leather in their punk jazz vigour, joined in our studio (read: tent) by Big Special, whose working-class anger melds with anthemic punchy pop, and left crowds reeling at their Sunday night Rising stage headline set.

And then it’s time to get lost in the world of Welsh myth and legend, exploring the relationship between the magic of old and the technology of new. Megan Broadmeadow’s exhibition in the woods, Dewiniath (or Sorcery) mixes AI and superstition, and she’s joined in conversation by fellow visual artist Angela Davies, whose work Aequus uses a lido in north Wales to question constructs of space and greener energy solutions.

Tomiwa Olowade is a British Nigerian writer and critic.

In his debut book ‘This Is Not America’, he looks at how a split away from American views on race and identity might help build an anti-racist agenda in Britain. 

Here he speaks to journalist and author Jude Rogers.

Conversation recorded at the Talking Shop 2024.

Smokin’ Jo is the only female DJ to have won DJ Magazine’s DJ of the Year Award, and stands as a pioneer of the 90s dance scene. She has gigged all over the world, from Ibiza to Miami, China to Brazil, and collaborated with many major figures in music, film and fashion. Her memoir, You Don’t Need a Dick to DJ, tells of a childhood spent in a children’s home, the elation, euphoria and community she found in the burgeoning acid house scene, drink, drugs, and the misogyny, racism, prejudice and homophobia she encountered in the course of her phenomenally successful career.

Once more unto the fields of joy we go, as we join Olli Dutton of Duty Disco, the late night Green Man institution, in conversation with pillars of the festival scene Deptford Northern Soul Club, and from New York to Crickhowell-via-London, electro-punk disco connoisseurs Baba Ali. Between them they all know a thing or two about staying up late, and share some fond Green Man after dark memories.

Then we wander across the green fields to catch up with Jason Solomons at the wonderful Cinedrome tent. He’s chatting to director Janis Pugh about her musical romantic comedy based in north Wales, Chuck Chuck Baby.

To round off this episode, we hand you over to some of the rising stars of the audio world, the young people who've taken part in this year's Somewhere Podcasting workshop.

Ash Kenazi returns to the Babbling Tongues stage for 2024 bringing the same humour, perspective and drama for which he has become cherished. Host of the podcast The Pink Room, Ash has spoken to the likes of Self Esteem, Mac De Marco and Ezra Furman on issues ranging from queer experiences in the music industry to the dangers of huffing poppers.

Here, Ash sits down for a sgwrs with our fearless leader, festival managing director Fiona Stewart. They cover a lot of ground in their time together, from her early years dressing drag queens in the infamous Black Cap in Camden, to her innate connection to wales, to running our favourite - and BBC Radio 6Music listeners' festival of the year - the Green Man. 

Joe Boyd is the legendary producer of Pink Floyd, Nick Drake, R.E.M., Fairport Convention, ¡Cubanismo!, Toots and the Maytals, Toumani Diabaté, Taj Mahal and numerous others. He founded and ran the Hannibal label for twenty years. His film productions include Jimi Hendrix and Aretha Franklin's Amazing Grace. His memoir, White Bicyles: Making Music in the 1960s, was published in 2006 to wide critical-acclaim. Boyd’s latest work, And The Roots of Rhythm Remain: The Story of Global Music, is a definitive study of the genre, a culmination of a lifetime travelling the globe and immersing himself in music. It reveals how personalities, events and politics in places such as Havana, Lagos, Budapest, Kingston and Rio are as colourful and momentous as anything that took place in New Orleans, Harlem, Laurel Canyon or Liverpool. And, moreover, how jazz, rhythm and blues and rock ‘n’ roll would never have happened if it weren’t for the notes and rhythms emanating from over the horizon.

Laura Barton is a writer and broadcaster, specialising in music. She writes for a range of publications including The Guardian, Uncut and Prospect, and is a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4, where alongside her series’ Notes on Music and Notes on a Musical Island, she has written and presented documentaries on everything from Shakespeare to confidence, via rivers, roadtrips and reproductive rights. She runs the Talking Shop stage at Green Man festival, and moonlights in A&R, signing artists such as Self Esteem, Let’s Eat Grandma, and Cigarettes After Sex. Her next book, Sad Songs, is a memoir of music and sadness. 

Under the green canopy of the towering tree next to the podcast tent, Welsh comedian and podcaster extraordinaire Esyllt Sears chats to Irish folk legend and multi-instrumentalist John Francis Flynn, just before his performance on the Walled Garden on Sunday. 

Then we pop across to the other side of the festival, joining broadcaster Jason Solomons backstage at the Cinedrome with Mercury Prize winner Adrian Utley from Portishead, there to present the remaster of their live album Roseland that turned 25 this year. 

And finally we join drag sensation and Wishbone host Dolly Trolley exploring all things Green Man Workshops, and giving us a peek behind the curtain at the festival’s newest and most secret stage - think raunchy performances and cocktails to match! 

Ahead of their Far Out Stage headline slot, William and Jim Reid joined their co-writer, critic and radio host Ben Thompson, to discuss their memoir Never Understood: The Story of the Jesus and Mary Chain. A wildly funny and improbably moving chronicle of brotherly strife, feedback, riots, drug and alcohol addiction, eternal outsiders and extreme shyness, it is the story of how the Reid Brothers travelled from their working-class East Kilbride roots to form one of Britain’s greatest guitar bands. 

Joelle Taylor is the winner of the TS Eliot Prize and the Polari Prize for LGBTQ+ literature; a queer, working class author of six plays and four collections of poetry, most recently C+nto and Othered Poems.

She is the host and co-curator of Out-Spoken, the UK’s premier poetry and music club, currently resident at the Southbank Centre, features regularly on BBC radio and television, and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Society of Arts. Her first novel, The Night Alphabet, was published in February 2022.

Owen Sheers is an award-winning poet, author and playwright. Twice-winner of Welsh Book of the Year he was the recipient of the 2016 St Davids Award for Culture and the 2018 Wilfred Owen Poetry Award. His poetry publications include Skirrid Hill and Pink Mist, which was adapted for the stage by Bristol Old Vic. His BAFTA-nominated BBC film-poem The Green Hollow also won three BAFTA Cymru awards, including Best Writer. To Provide All People, his most recent film-poem, was broadcast to mark the 70th anniversary of the NHS. He is also the author of two novels, Resistance and I Saw A Man, and the BBC One drama The Trick. 

More magic awaits as Welsh folk singer Gillie, who brought wonder to the Walled Garden when she opened the stage on Thursday, returns to the fabled podcast tent, joined by Cerys Hafana, known for her transformation of classic Welsh Folk with her triple harp, and Sheffield’s own Gia Ford, the soft rock singer-songwriter who’s been supporting Self Esteem on tour. 

Next, Scottish-born fingerstyle guitarist Sam Grassie, rising star of trad folk and member of folk collective Broadside Hacks is joined by his band members Daisy Rickman and Nathan Piggott for a chat. Together, their flurry of woodwind, sax, drones and double bass mesmerised the Green Man Rising stage. 

Then, the podcast tent is electrified by comedy, with award-winning Essex talent Esther Manito, actor and comedian Eryn Tett, two-time BBC comedy award nominee Sasha LO, and Welsh stand-up and Green Man first-timer Caryl Burke. The four talk strange DMs, dream festivals, and getting comedy advice from the audience.