Tunng

Green Man Festival

21st August 2005

• Tunng recorded an exclusive session for the BBC Collective at the Green Man Festival. Check it out: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A5291741

• Photos by Jonny Morris

• Photos by Geoff Dolman

• No Ripchord review:
• We spent the greater part of the afternoon in front of the main stage with Tunng, ye olde dictaphone clanking away, collectively building a shrine to Red Stripe and Golden Virginia – check out the interview for what transpired. Arriving at the Folky Dolky stage early to bag the best floor space, we had the serendipity to catch Culprit One, a baseball-capped duo with sloppy grins on base and keyboard who pounded out a collection of energetic, early-ninetiesish tunes – think KLF’s hyperactive younger brothers. By the time Tunng took to the stage, a steady stream of people into the room had severely diminished our tenure of carpet-space, and bodies were perched on every available surface.
• Various stringed instruments were given a preparatory twang, a child’s xylophone and other Early Learning Centre additions placed on hand, and percussion that included shells and bones strung on a length of line. The set kicked off with the mellow, acoustic-heavy People Folk, rhythmic and lulling, before straying into the darker and more sinister territory and Mother’s Daughter and Tale From Black; the latter, happily, was its usual anguilliform and delicately menacing self. The sound was tight and well-timed, samples slotted in effortlessly; female backing vocals were provided by elfin Becky Jacobs (white dress, bare feet), who slapped her thighs and chest in time in an appropriately Eckland-esque manner. By this stage the overcrowding had become so severe that floor space became untenable and we were all obliged to stand, amidst heckles of “You should be on the main stage!”. A couple of surprises – the previously unreleased Jay Down nestled quite happily alongside the album tracks, and a cover of Bloc Party’s The Pioneers joined the ranks of All Along The Watchtower, Hallelujah, and The Man Who Sold The World, by putting the original in the shade. The quirky, cheerful Surprise Me 44 closed the set, with singer Mike Lindsay conjuring his shiny-eyed audience to join in for the Doo doo doos. Which they did. Brilliant stuff.