Why Luke Leighfield Is Excited
Piano-pop maestro, friend of Greenbelt, and Last Orders 2011 house band Luke Leighfield has a triple recommendation for Greenbelt. You can see Luke himself in the Underground on Greenbelt Monday at 8pm.
Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly
Entertaining us on the Mainstage on Saturday night will be Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly, aka Sam Duckworth. Having played in Sam's band briefly a few years back, I can assure you that he knows how to bring party vibes to a festival! Songs about ethical issues will be mixed in with love songs, all served within Get Cape's acoustic-led, horn-filled, skewed pop sound. With his latest album containing collaborations with Shy FX and Baaba Maal, it's pop for sure, but not quite as we know it.
Listener
I went to see Listener play in a tiny art gallery in Southampton a few months back and was completely, genuinely blown away - it was the best live performance I'd seen all year! Describing their sound to you is no easy task, but singer/talker Dan Smith has coined the term "Talk Music", which hints at their fusion of poetry with a largely acoustic backing. However, the raw power and emotion that Smith conveys in his delivery as he sing-talks about hope, life and humanity is beyond anything that I've ever witnessed in live music before, and his accent is something else!
Your best bet in understanding the mystery of Listener's music is to watch this video of them performing and banging a washing machine (it genuinely makes everything become clearer). I think they have a policy that if anyone brings a washing machine to one of their shows, then they'll play it onstage. Any takers, Greenbelt?
Flight Brigade
I was introduced to Hampshire-based Flight Brigade earlier this year and instantly fell in love with their catchy folk-pop. Their songs are filled with gorgeous boy-girl harmonies and lush string arrangements, all coming together to make for a feel-good, upbeat, heartwarming band experience. Better still, you can download their EP for free at flightbrigade.com and learn the words in time for Greenbelt, or check out their latest gorgeous homemade video here:
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In a continuing series on the blog, we're going to be hearing about parts of the Lineup for 2011 that people are particularly looking forward to. (For all Why I'm Excited posts, click here.)
If there's something on the Greenbelt 2011 programme that you're particularly looking forward to, do email us a paragraph or two saying why, and we'll put it up here on the blog...
