Just one small slice of the lineup for 2009

We talk to Rachel Stringer, Greenbelt's Head of Content, about her role, its joys and challenges, Shlomo about beatboxing, The Vocal Orchestra and coming back to Greenbelt, Mark Vernon about agnosticism and the School of Life, and Vito Aiuto from The Welcome Wagon about their debut album and Sufjan Stevens' friendship.

Click here to download the enhanced .m4a podcast file (31 MB).

Or stream the audio using the player below.

Or if you still prefer good old MP3 format click here (30MB).

Timings – so you can dip in and out if you want to:

00.00 – 01.44 – Intro
01.44 – 03.42 – Rachel – on her role as Head of Content
03.42 – 08.38 – Shlomo
08.38 – 09.22 – Rachel – highs
09.22 – 12.56 – Mark Vernon
12.56 – 14.47 – Rachel – the challenges
14.47 – 18.50 – Vito Aiuto from The Welcome Wagon
18.50 – 20.15 – Rachel – some other highlights
20.15 – 21.50 – Outro

Resources and links

Shlomo's website

Mark Vernon's website

The School of Life website

The Welcome Wagon's website

And click here, here and here to read what Sufjan Stevens writes about some of the songs on their new album (and to listen to the material too).

The Greenbelt 2009 lineup

Soundtrack (click to buy in iTunes)

Sufjan Stevens -UFO Sighting / The Tallest Man, The Broadest Shoulders
Royksopp – A Feeling of Care
The Welcome Wagon – Sold to the Nice Rich Man / I am a Stranger
Sway – Fit 4 a King / Letters to Heaven
Shlomo – Kernia / Lyrical Distortion

Credits

• Narrated by Phil Smith and Grace Wroe
• Narration recorded by Iain Archer
• Mixed and Edited – bigJohn Noble
• Written and Executive Produced by Paul Northup
• Co-production – bigJohn Noble
• Field Recording – Paul Northup

Photo by Matt Patterson

by Nick Welsh

I came across Russell Davies*, (strategist, futurist, blogger & gadget maker – his words, not mine) after last years Do Lectures that Howies put on.

Russell (pictured) was talking, amongst other things, about failing. It’s a subject close to my heart (I’ve had lots of practice). I may blog about that here another time but for now, I wanted to pick up on something that Russell spoke about in his lecture and that’s Good, Fast & Cheap.

The idea is that as a producer (of anything really), you can only supply 2 of these 3 things. If you come to me and ask me to create a web site for you, it might be good and fast but it won’t be cheap. Conversely, if you want it quickly and cheaply, it might not be very good and if you want it to be good and cheap, it might take a little longer to produce than usual.

You can use this for anything really, from cooking a meal to making a film, from designing a car to organising an arts festival.

I really like it. As someone who deals with clients who are constantly demanding things to be better, faster and cheaper, it’s a useful little tool to remind them gently that actually, 2 out of 3 ain’t bad.

To see all of Russell's lecture, please click here.

(* Not to be confused with Russell T Davies who used to write Dr. Who and who is a completely different person).

Nick Welsh
www.monoindustries.com & www.the-monoblog.com
Twitter: @mononick

Nick Welsh practices graphic art and web design in Cambridge, UK under the name Mono Industries. He was involved in the music programme at Greenbelt for about 100 years and now helps out with various aspects of www.greenbelt.org.uk. He lives in Cambridge with his partner Jane, his daughter Edie and an Irish Terrier called Hattie.