First Green Man Festival, 2003 – Previously unseen footage.

I am so thrilled to have been sent this! In 2000 Adam Fuest ran the Twin Peaks recording studio with Adele Nozedar. It’s Jo & Danny recorded our ‘Thugs Lounge’ album there, right at the top of the Brecon Beacons near where where we lived. It was an incredible place.

In 2003, when the first Green Man Festival took place, Adam was there to film it. The festival was created and organised by myself and Danny Hagan and we had given ourselves the slot third from top.

We forgot about the filming until Adam got in touch late last year to say he had found all the footage. He no longer had the camera, so we tracked one down on eBay and Adam was able to transfer and master everything for me.

I’m going to put some sort of film together at some point, but for now, I’m so happy to share ‘Love Expression’ by It’s Jo & Danny.

Jo Bartlett – Vocals & guitar

Danny Hagan – Bass guitar

Mathew Priest – Drums (Dodgy / The Yellow Moon Band)

Richard King – Electric guitar (Author)

Lee Goodall – Saxophone (Van Morrison band)

Gary Aylesbrooke – Trumpet (Super Furry Animals live band)

Filmed by Adam Fuest.

Watching this clip was hugely emotional for me. Danny and I had just completed a rather lonely tour of the UK with a lap top providing backing tracks for us to play and sing over. We were promoting our ‘But We Have The Music’ album. For this gig, we asked some friends to join us on stage – we had no time to rehearse and so just went for it. Our family and friends were in the crowd and I’m told my Dad was in tears throughout. The track builds up as various musicians join in and when Mathew starts to work his magic, it gets really exciting. I love the bit where Danny and I nod a welcome to him at 3:32. I remembered it had been incredible, but seeing it for the first time, knowing what it taken to get to this point – actually playing our set after all that organising, was a tremendous feeling of achievement. The reaction we got, this moment really is the starting point of the Green Man Festival.

Danny and I knew we had started something special and when the festival got a four star review in The Times a couple of days later, we were walking on air.