Attention all fun-loving festival goers, the anticipated dates have finally arrived… Green Man Festival is set to return on the 17th, 18th and 19th of August! The jam-packed festival is being held in the heart of the breathtaking Brecon Beacons in Wales, at the famous Glanusk Park. Lucky for you, we here at Amazing Radio have lined up a dedicated festival preview, so be sure to tune into the Bethan Elfyn Show this Sunday from 12pm for all the information you need!

Green Man Festival are celebrating their 10th anniversary; the independent festival have bagged themselves a pretty impressive line up this year, including the inspirational Van Morrison alongside the award winning Feist; as well as Amazing Radio favourites Savages, Slow Club, Ghostpoet and Daughter who are amongst the huge number of incredible artists playing the festival, so be sure to take advantage of the 24 hour bar and join in with the exciting celebrations!

The main stage is set up amongst 200 year old trees, under the shadow of the Black Mountains – one of the best settings… ever, and it seems The Times doesn’t disagree: ”Of all the festivals in all the fields in Britain, probably the best field of all has been bagged by the Green Man Festival.” If you can’t get enough of the dance/indie festival, Green Man host an annual Boat Party on London’s River Thames, which this year took place on the 16th June with artists such as Tom Williams & the Boat and Three Trapped Tigers. To top off the 10th anniversary celebrations, Green Man are providing several diverse activities, ranging from painfully funny comedy acts to relaxing massages at the Nature Nurture area.

So if you fancy a thrilling three days of listening to sensational music, taking in fresh country air and sipping your favorite cask ale under the breathtaking Black Mountains, be sure to grab yourself a ticket, hurry though – tickets are selling fast.

On Sunday, Bethan will have interviews with festival organizer, Ben Coleman, as well as former Amazing Sessions guests Field Music and Johnny from Fence Records - who have several of their artists performing this year along with Johnny himself under the guise of the Pictish Trail – impressively they have attended every Green Man Festival since the beginning. You can catch all three interviews this Sunday at 12pm on Bethan Elfyn‘s show, so don’t miss out – of course, the whole playlist is also entirely devoted to artists that are set to make an appearance at this year’s festival.

The Bethan Elfyn Show will begin at 12pm on Sunday. Be sure to  visit her show page for more information, and for Green Man Festival tickets head to their official site.

Back in December we published our Twelvex12 list, a list of artists we thought you needed in your lives in 2012. They were artists that we’d fallen in love with and knew were destined for big things. We thought it was about time we caught up with how they were getting on.

Daughter

After a string of EP releases through Communion Records it was announced this April that Daughter had signed to the prestigious 4AD (and Glassnote in America). Elena Tonra and co also sold out the 700 capacity Assembly Hall in North London. The whole thing was filmed and is truly mesmerising to watch. Their live performance proving their incredible talent.

Alt-J

Well if you’re still not familiar with Alt-J, quite frankly, what have you been doing? Their debut album, An Awesome Wave, has just landed; poking its head into the official top 20 album chart. It’s a modern classic; diverse, unique and compelling. They recently stopped by to play two of the tracks live in session for us.

Azealia Banks

We knew 212 was going to be big, but things have really gone crazy for the Harlem MC. Since January she has hired and fired Lady Gaga’s manager, quit Twitter, quit rapping (she’s a vocalist now apparently) and still has only just released her EP. There’s a mix-tape, Fantasea on the way in July with a full length scheduled for September.

Friends

Friends have grown into one of the most effortlessly cool bands on the planet. Their debut album, Manifest, is a masterclass in smooth hip-hop jams, percussion laden beats and unique vocals courtesy of front-woman Samantha Urbani. We’re still madly in love with the album and they really are something to behold live.

Clams Casino

You may still not have heard of him but you have heard him. It’s his beats that are shaping the dark new sound of hip-hop. He’s behind A$AP Rocky‘s recent smashes, Palace and Wassup. He has also produced tracks for The Weeknd and Lil B. Clams Casino is quietly changing the sound of hip-hop and we love it.

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs

Orlando Higginbottom is predictably huge. He’s five-singles deep and with a debut album just out, he’s set to alight the dance world with a huge world tour across the summer.

Lianne La Havas

Since her huge debut single, Lost and Found, featuring Willy Mason, Lianne has released two further singles with a gorgeous debut album scheduled early next month.

No Ceremony

No Ceremony was a bit of a wild-card choice. When we included them in our Twelvex12 list, we had no clue who made up the outfit and they hadn’t even played their first gig. They kept their identity hidden but had blown us away with the one track that had made it onto the internet, Hurtlove.  They’ve since released four tracks and they’ve actually played a gig! It was spectacular and proves they’re were worthy of the buzz bestowed upon them.

Spector

Oh Spector, you have kept us waiting. With their highly anticipated debut album, Enjoy It While It Lasts delayed until August, Spector have teased their already-sizeable fan-base, but we have no doubt the album will deliver.

Outfit

Hailing from Liverpool and now based in London, the five-piece seduced us with their debut single Two Islands. They have since expanded their dark-pop sound and packed it up into an EP, Another Nights Dream Reaches Earth Again. They’ll hit festivals across the country this summer.

Dry The River

We’ve been long-term fan-boys/girls of Dry The River who delivered one of the albums of the year in Shallow Bed this March. The band kindly stopped by during their huge world tour to record a live session with us. You can watch it here.

2:54

Since we fell in love with the twisted sounds of Scarlet, 2:54 have released a deliciously dark album of fuzzed-up guitars and atmospheric jams and are hitting the US hard with none-stop touring.

After our departure from the UK’s digital airwaves last week, it made us all realise how proud of amazing we are. Not that we weren’t before but when you run from one day to the next it’s easy to get lost in what you’re doing. When suddenly you hear the thousands of messages of support and campaigns kicking off around you to get you back on air, you take a second to take it in.

What we’re doing is crazy radical; giving new music from emerging artists a voice on an international platform.

Last week we started to post ‘Reasons to Love amazing‘ on Facebook and Twitter  to highlight all the things we love about what we do and why we think it’s important.

Forgive the self-indulgence, we’re just super-proud and we want to make sure people get to see, read and hear the great things they may have missed.  That and the fact that we’re winning new fans each week from around the world.

What can you expect from ‘Reasons to Love amazing‘? Well, what about the fact that the brilliant Haim are currently number one in the only Top 40 chart dedicated solely to new music talent? Or the fact that we traveled the full length of the country to The Great Escape festival, broadcast live for 16 hours, filmed 7 sessions and recorded 10 interviews. Or is it reason enough to love amazing because our specialist shows are playing music you won’t find on any other radio station, yet?

Keep listing to Amazing Radio online and via our mobile Apps and we’ll keep working hard on giving you more and more ‘Reasons to Love amazing‘.

You’ll find more on Facebook and Twitter. See you there.

Ruth kicked off the show this week with the new single from all female alt-choir Gaggle, Army of Birds, which set the tone of the show brilliantly – here’s the video:

On the show Ruth also had an interview with the soon-to-be-stratospheric Mary Epworth, her album Dream Life is out next month on her own wee indie Hand of Glory Records and is already garnering much acclaim.

You can listen again to the interview here;

Ruth also caught up with German duo Me and My Drummer, former Amazing Breakfast Artist of the Week and a new fave of ours – Charlotte’s voice!! They’re a very blonde and serious pair, Charlotte and Matze, we get inside their heads about their debut The Hawk, The Beak, The Prey.

You can listen again to the interview here;

Ruth also had plenty to dazzle your eardrums from Emorie, The Cornshed Sisters, Doe Paoro and ten reasons why you should immediately come to the No Direction Home Festival in June. Three days in Sherwood Forest with a fantastic line up from the people behind End of the Road – yes please!

You can listen again to the whole show here;

Festival season begins in a North London indie haven every mayday Bank Holiday weekend and this year, true to form, it kicked off with Camden Crawl.

First up was the Electric Ballroom for the wonderful Swedes, Simian Ghost. They’re great at creating euphoria, building a happy wash of sound layer by layer, like Hot Chip at their most blissful, gentle and content.

The next band won me over in 3 chords. Throwing Up were a heady mix of Elastica’s throwaway sleepy vocals, and the relentless assault of The Ramones. When I was learning guitar I wanted to get past one finger power chords, these guys use it to their advantage. It’s all black moods and distortion and when the final song hit the chorus it let out eight extended banshee shrieks and then finished. That’s how you do it.

From there, a swift bus up to Kentish town for the best band of the weekend. The Abbey Tavern couldn’t have been more full, nor more happy. The sheer euphoria of Team Me is hard to describe. It’s that feeling when you fizz with excitement because life is brilliant, well, listening to this band transports you right to that exact state of mind. They look like they’re having fun. The crowd were on their side. Good job as they ended up performing there! At one point the bassist, who was performing from the exit due to the heat in the venue, motioned to start drinking a girl in the crowd’s drink, she was delighted but her boyfriend gave him the blackest look! You couldn’t have squeezed more people in, they were brilliant and of my favourite finds of the last few years. The bald guy with lipstick kisses all over his head looked like he was loving it too.

Wrapping up Saturday was an acapella, stripped down set from Futureheads including covers of Kelis (appropriately ‘Acapella’), The Television Personalities and Sparks (a lovely version of The Number One song in heaven).

This was four strong musicians trying something new and it was really enjoyed by their fans, whilst also managing to showcase how strong their tunes are. ‘Beginning of the Twist’ sounded great reworked as did the shuffly jungle book-esque take on ‘Hounds Of Love’. More power to them.

Sunday began with Niki and The Dove, an act that totally deserves to be on the biggest stage. She had the biggest sound of the weekend, a huge sense of space, a driving rhythm through two drummers and for the most part performed live. A mix of Kate Bush/ The Knife histrionics over posh pop ala Hurts. The finale of a double tempo Simian Mobile Disco style rave up was brilliant.

I can guarantee I was the only one who made the trip from that shiny pop-fest, up the road to Blacklisters. Think Nirvana ‘Bleach’ era, a little Primus, and a few odd time signatures. Really great, although their mid set confession of being influenced by Kasabian, in the way they act, and the way they dress was probably to be taken with a pinch of salt. I loved the breakdown where frontman Billy took to singing without mic over just a bassline, making the drop even louder when it came. Go see this band live and then love them forever.

Since playing ‘Okinawa Channels’ on the show I’ve been intrigued to see NZCA/Lines live. Definitely an act to bracket with Miike Snow, Hot Chip, and Metronomy’s brooding basslines. It also reminded me of some of the great eighties synth soul like Scritti Polliti.

From them to a band I didn’t see. Eh? Well, I was in a queue for a burger when a group of lads came in deliriously singing Peace’s ‘Follow Baby’,made me think that perhaps is a sign of big things to come for them.

The penultimate band was Clock Opera. A clever lot who are not frightened to embrace experimental sounds. One track had them each pounding lumps of metal thumping out a tribal beat, another track had frontman Max recording the audiences cheers to play back as the intro loop to the next song.

‘Once And For All’ sounded huge, euphoric, Max has great presence and interaction with the crowd. Musically he’s the heir to the art-pop thrones of Peter Gabriel and James Murphy.

Finally then, The Cribs with the added guitar beef of David Jones from Nine Black Alps. You know sometimes you see a band and didn’t realise how much you loved them? It was one of those gigs. ‘Be Safe’ was spectacular with Lee Ranaldo (of Sonic Youth) on the big screen. Mirror Kissers was amazing, and when you see an ocean of people bouncing in time you realise that ‘Men’s Needs’ is one of the anthems of the last decade.

Finally then, it was a great way to round off the weekend. There were such great vibes in the crowd, people starting conversations randomly, I love that! One girl, seeing my white earplugs in place, asked me if it hurt to have that bit pierced. Brilliant. Not quite up for piercing my eardrum, hence the earplugs!

So top tip from the weekend definitely Team Me and you can hear my recent chat with them here.

Presented by Ruth Barnes, The Other Woman is the only radio show in the UK with an all-female playlist.

This week TOW speaks to Saint Saviour, the angel-voiced singer who made her name writing and fronting Groove Armada’s latest album Black Light. Now she’s about to unleash her debut solo album on the world, Union. Becky Jones has a voice in a million and is a fantastic song-writer. She reckons she’s managed to please all her fans on this record, those who like her in die-hard electroclash mode and those who prefer her voice soaring over a piano ballad. It’s been a long road and now with a fresh signing to AEG Live, Saint Saviour cannot wait to get her music into the public domain.

On Tuesday Ruth went along to the Houses of Parliament to quaff House of Commons Sauvignon Blanc (seriously) alongside Bernard Butler, Martina Topley-Bird and Robert Wyatt as part of the Live Music Act celebrations. Here’s the official blurb: ‘Performances of live amplified music to audiences of less than 200 people between the hours of 8am-11pm will no longer require local authority permission.’ Big news! We’ll be hearing from UK Music CEO Jo Dipple who’s pleased as punch.

There’s a brand new single from Southampton/ Brighton uber folk quintet Moulettes, plus a radio play first for singer songwriter Sophie Jamieson whose song Harbour Wall we can’t get out of our heads. Plus we’re a little in love with Charlotte Hatherley’s new project Sylver Tongue, and whilst on the subject of tongues, we hear from The Sharp Tongues too – London via Ontario threesome who make kick ass rock ‘n roll.

There’s also new music from Visions of Trees, The Cornshed Sisters, Jenn Rawling & Barsho Parks, Zara McFarlane and more.