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Sibling's Reputation (24th Sep 2001)
Sibling have recently released their debut EP, rEPutation. The four track EP follows in the wake of a busy summer which saw the band playing a number of gigs, including Greenbelt's stage two (check out the festival's website for photos of every band who played that stage). The EP is available directly from the band and sound clips from the demo sessions can be downloaded from their website.
Fire Fly Find Beauty in Ashes (07th Sep 2001)
Among the many new releases available at Greenbelt this year was the debut album from Fire Fly, who went down well at the festival with their tight hard-rock stage two set. The seventy minute, 14 track album was made available in pre-release form shortly before Greenbelt on the band's tour of Poland and the Czech Republic and was available in its finished form at the festival.
Greenbelt: Eternal Echoes A Resounding Success (30th Aug 2001)
This year's Greenbelt Festival proved a resounding success, with the Cheltenham racecourse site filling to capacity. The last ever appearance of Dum Dums was one of the most well attended shows and was followed by a record-breaking five hour signing session, but all the shows were well attended with some bands such as Cephas ending up playing six times over the three and a half days of the festival. The site capacity will be increased for next year's event but early booking is advisable. Let us know what you made of Greenbelt this year on our newly renamed 'Events' board.
Off To Greenbelt (22nd Aug 2001)
Well Britlinks is almost all packed up and I'm heading off to Greenbelt first thing tomorrow. Hopefully there'll be some site updates over the weekend, and we should be updating the Greenbelt website each day for the duration of the fest, but to really get the latest as it happens you'll have to be there. Tickets are still available...
Superseed (21st Aug 2001)
New Britlinks additions Superseed, a four piece from Sheffield have a new limited edition EP available - reaching for the sun can be bought at gigs or by emailing the band. You can catch some of the new material on stage 2 at Greenbelt on Saturday 25th August. The band are also looking at a number of management options with a decision expected soon.
Greenbelt Relaunch Website (02nd Aug 2001)
With around four weeks to go before the start of the 28th Greenbelt festival, the festival website has been relaunched with a new look and a new section called 'Insight' which will operate as a form of webzine, with stories submitted by visitors and regular writers and then approved by an editor, and the facility for visitors to comment on and discuss those stories. Ticket sales are still strong in the build up to the festival and the festival has just announced that all the campus accommodation which was available has now been booked up (don't worry, there'll still be plenty of camping space). Check out the site at www.greenbelt.org.uk.
Dum Dums To Split After Greenbelt (01st Aug 2001)
In an open letter to fans posted on their website, Josh Doyle of Dum Dums has announced that the band are to split. He says that they've achieved their aims of playing Wembley Stadium and touring the world, and that after four top 40 singles they've decided to call it a day. The band's last ever live performance will be their headline slot on the Saturday night at Greenbelt this year.
Greenbelt Announces More Names (13th Jun 2001)
The GreenbeltFestival has announced the lineup for its second stage,which will highlight a number of up-and-coming British andIrish acts. Subject to confirmation, the lineup includes:
Elevation Showcase (13th Jun 2001)
Gloucester Guildhall will be the location for a specialshowcase for the new Elevation label and the Greenbeltfestival. The event, which takes place on Juky 27th willfeature Kato,
Elevation Showcase (13th Apr 2001)
Billing itself as "the new home of Britain's alternative Christian music", ICC's new Elevation label have announced plans for a showcase event at Gloucester Guildhall in July featuring Kato, BottleRockit and Psalmistry. Kato's Welcome To My World has been selling well at Spring Harvest and BottleRockit's new single, See You In Space Tonight single has just released as a taster for the album due later in the year. Kato and BottleRockit will be supporting All Star United in London in May and are both booked for this year's Greenbelt festival.
Dum Dums' New Album (28th Mar 2001)
As well as headling Greenbelt the Dum Dums hope that this year will see the release of their second album. The first release spawned four top 30 hits and with an increasing international profile they hope to surpass that with the followup. The Dum Dums will also be playing at a Unison benefit show in Manchester next month with Toploader, Catatonia, Idlewild and Wheatus.
Andy and Iain on Tour (18th Nov 2000)
Andy Thornton and Iain Archer begin a short tour together next weekend, taking in London, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Details in the gig guide. It remains to be seen whether Iain's new album will be available on the tour. A replacement has not yet been found for Andy Thornton as Greenbelt Festival manager.
Greenbelt Make First Announcements (10th Nov 2000)
The Greenbelt Festival has sent out its first round of publicity for the 2001 event, which will be entitled "Eternal Echoes". So far booked for the festival is popular speaker Tony Campolo, with some music names due to be announced very soon. There is once again a big discount on youth tickets after the response to last year's special offer and there are plenty of other savings to be made by booking early.
Greenbelt Huge Success (30th Aug 2000)
This year's Greenbelt Festival which ended on Monday night has been hailed as a great success by organisers and regulars alike. The attendance of 9000 was double the number at last year's festival and the new site in Cheltenham stood up well to some adverse weather conditions on Friday night. This year's festival was also Andy Thornton's last as festival manager. He has decided it is time for him to move on and will stand down as soon as a replacement is found. Anyone interested in the role should contact the Greenbelt office for more information.
Greenbelt Shapes Up (23rd Aug 2000)
The slow pace of news over the past couple of days is the result of the relocation of Britlinks to Cheltenham Racecourse for the Greenbelt Festival. Now that we're on site we can report that the festival is coming together quickly and the site is looking fantastic. Day tickets will be available on site and there are still weekend tickets available if you don't yet have yours. Look out for some reports from the festival on this site over the weekend.
Greenbelt Responds To Junction 1 Cancellation (04th Aug 2000)
Greenbelt have responded quickly to the cancellation of the Junction 1 festival. Expressing their consolation to the disappointed organisers while reaffirming their own opposition to Junction 1, Greenbelt invited the Junction 1 team to meet with them to discuss how the two organisations could work together to strengthen the festival calendar. Junction 1 tickets will be valid for entry into Greenbelt, subject to a small administration fee. One source has placed the total number of tickets sold by Junction 1 at only 400.
Expanding Fire Fly (04th Aug 2000)
Hotly-tipped post-rock outfit Fire Fly have recently added two new members to their team. After meeting the band at the group vocal recording for Delirious' Glo, Paul Monkhouse (who also works with World Without End) will be taking on the day-to-day management of the band and ex-TVB soundman Andrew "RIG" Seaton will be helping the band out with some sound engineering. Fire Fly will be appearing at Greenbelt.
Junction 1 Cancelled (03rd Aug 2000)
The controversial Junction 1 festival which was due to take place over the August bank holiday weekend, clashing directly with Greenbelt. The reason given is the disappointing ticket sales -- many reports had the number sold a month ago at only 300. Greenbelt recently announced its complete lineup and is seeing strong ticket sales for its August bank holiday event.
Land on the Radio (25th Jul 2000)
Scottish band Land have updated their website after a long gap. They have been getting plenty of airplay on America's east coast thanks to mainstream radio station WITR and are currently number 2 on their imports chart. They've also recently been played by Don Maclean on Radio 2. The band are playing with Shona MacDonald at the Room 3 Records venue at the Edinburgh festival and will be heading south to play at Greenbelt.
Greenbelt Completes Lineup (21st Jul 2000)
The Greenbelt Festival has completed preparation of its music lineup and a day-by-day breakdown of the key acts is now on the festival's website. Recent additions to the lineup include singer-songwriter Joan Armatrading, keyboards man Rick Wakeman, power-quartet Fono and chart act Belle and Sebastian who will be offering a DJ set.
Universally Booley (19th Jul 2000)
Booley's Bathroom Floor, a former Britlinks indie of the month, is to be released through Universal on September 4th, coinciding with a number of live dates in England and following on from a number of festival appearances planned for the summer. The album, currently available through ICC, is an extended version of the EP of the same name which first appeared around a year ago.
Griff's Farewell (18th Jul 2000)
Greenbelt fringe favourite Griff Pilchard will be making his last ever appearance at the festival on August 25th. The set will include lots of new material and some covers. He will also be releasing a limited edition CD entitled The Very Best of Chamberlain Brown as tribute to his time at Greenbelt.
Psalmistry Need Aspiring Film Stars (13th Jul 2000)
Psalmistry, whose new album All This Noise is released any day now and who have just been added to the lineup for this year's Greenbelt Festival, have recently received funding to make their first video. They have arranged for a director to film with them in Bristol on Saturday August 5th, but they need people to help build up a crowd scene. If you would like to be part of that crowd e-mail the band with the subject line "VIDEO EXTRAS" and they'll send you more details.
Greenbelt Resurrects Bandstand (29th Jun 2000)
News has just been broken on the Greenbelt website that the popular "bandstand" stage will return in a new guise this year. The stage, which will be set among the stables along with the visual arts programme at the site in Cheltenham, will allow musicians to register on site for a slot. It will also be used to show films and for a few seminar slots. Don't forget to check out our Greenbelt ticket giveaway.
Steve Lawson Bass Album (26th Jun 2000)
Bassist Steve Lawson has completed his debut solo album and hopes to have copies available from mid-July. Guitar magazine have described the album as "phenomenal" and a rough version of one of the tracks is included on the cover CD with this month's issue (Status Quo cover). Steve has a number of gigs coming up, including some with cellist Harry Napier. The pair will be appearing together at greenbelt.
Junction Blocked? (17th Jun 2000)
The Church Times is reporting that the Junction 1 festival, planned for the same weekend as the long-running Greenbelt festival, has so far sold only 287 tickets despite forecasting an attendance of over 7000 for the August bank holiday weekend. This low pre-sales figure follows much criticism of the event's timing. Greenbelt are reporting that so far over 2,500 tickets have been sold, including twice as many youth (12-17 year olds) tickets as last year. Based on previous years' patterns Greenbelt is anticipating an attendance of over 10,000 at the event which returns for a second year at Cheltenham Racecourse.
Andy Thornton Single (01st Jun 2000)
EIS, who manage Andy Thornton have announced that they will be releasing a rerecorded version of the title track from his The Things You Never Say album as a single within the next couple of weeks. A major distribution company has expressed interest in distributing the album if the single is well received. Andy will be making a number of instore and radio appearances to support the release as well as fitting in his hectic schedule as Greenbelt festival manager.
Caroline's Takeaway (28th May 2000)
Hotly-tipped Caroline Alexander has added more dates to her "Takeaway Tour", including a headline slot at Camden's Dingwalls. She will also play at the Water Rats on 10th July to celebrate the launch of her debut single, "Fake The Blame" produced by Dave Lynch, known for his work with Toploader, David and Carrie Grant and Spring Harvest. Caroline's repertoire includes material written by the newly-wed Iain Archer, Split Level's Adrian Thompson and Alex Legg. Her live band includes Mike Simpson of Kato.
New Greenbelt Website (10th May 2000)
The new Greenbelt website has begun to appear. Lots more content is promised very soon, including a number of discussion forums, news columns and features under the heading "art and christian living". Of particular interest to Britlinks visitors will be the music section which will include advice columns from Iain Archer and Steve Lawson.
Full Time Coastal Dune (21st Apr 2000)
Durham University will lose Coastal Dune this summer as the band graduate. They currently plan to take the band full time for at least a year after completing their exams and will be playing at Greenbelt this summer. The band will remain based in Durham and hope to continue playing the city's venues on a regular basis.
Iain Archer To Hit the Studio (12th Apr 2000)
Iain Archer plans to record his next album before the end of the year and if possible in time to release it at this year's Greenbelt festival. He has been playing recently with The Amazing Pilots, originally a Northern Irish act but now based in Eastbourne.
Junction 1 Receives Press Slating (16th Feb 2000)
The proposed Junction 1 has received a strong negative reaction from the Christian press. The New Christian Herald ran an editorial describing the festival's timing, which directly clashes with the long-running Greenbelt festival as "little short of provocative", and other sources have raised similar concerns. Greenbelt have extended their special offer on youth tickets, which are currently available for only £22 each.
Junction 1 (02nd Feb 2000)
The news has recently slipped out of a new festival to be organised by Word UK, Alliance Music, STL distribution, Oasis Trust and the Evangelical Alliance. The new festival, to be known as Junction 1 will run on the August Bank Holiday weekend in direct competition with the long-running Greenbelt festival. The organisers are hoping to bring in a range of big-selling US CCM artists to draw the crowds and help them sell more records. Greenbelt has formally requested that the event not go ahead, but the organisers appear to have ignored that, falsely assuming that there is no overlap in the target audience.
Greenbelt Gets Boost (02nd Feb 2000)
Greenbelt recently announced a strong response to its pre-Christmas ticket deals. More youth tickets have been sold already than were sold in total last year and there has been a very positive reception for the special offers from youth groups and other interested parties. The festival's organisers are in negotiations with a number of key musical acts as well as planning a broad program to highlight the best in Christian arts from the UK and abroad.
Greenbelt Eucharist (24th Nov 1999)
The Eucharist CD, featuring many of the tracks used at the extremely well received Sunday morning service at this year's Greenbelt Festival is to be released by Jonny Baker very soon.
Why? Split (29th Sep 1999)
Speed-folk outfit Why? have announced that as of the 2nd October the band will be no more! Active for the best part of the past decade, Why? has been known for its revolving door approach to members (only singer/guitarist Ant Parker has remained)and hilarious stage antics. Greenbelt will certainly be less sweaty without them.
The band's last show was as part of the Methodist church's Breakout event in Birmingham. It has not yet emerged what all the members will be moving on to, but it seems likely that Ant Parker will be making a solo career for himself. More news as and when we get it.
Greenbelt Breaks Even (05th Aug 1999)
Despite worrying initial reports, Greenbelt 99 received more visitors than expected. The estimated attendance of 6000 is considerably lower than in previous years, but has allowed the festival to break even.
Greenbelt Returns to August (05th Aug 1999)
Next year's Greenbelt Festival will return to the festival's historic August bank holiday slot. Cheltenham Racecourse seemed to be a popular move with the Greenbelt faithful, although a few complained about the atmosphere, which took a while to warm up as people got to know the new site.
Freestate Gets The Millenium Bug (05th Aug 1999)
Greenbelt and Spring Harvest have decided to postpone the Freestate festival for at least another year. The event, which was intended to encourage young people to encounter God through the arts was postponed this year as a result of internal problems at Spring Harvest. A decision as to whether to run the festival in 2001 will be taken within the next few months.
Andy Thornton Album (05th Aug 1999)
Greenbelt Festival Manager Andy Thornton has managed to find some time in his busy schedule to record a new album which was released at the festival. The Things You Never Say is available now through his new website.
Edens In A Bell Jar (05th Aug 1999)
The debut album from Bell Jar is called Secret Volcanoes and is available now. Bell Jar is a band featuring, among others, Paul Northup and Charlotte Ayrton, both former members of Eden Burning. The band's live set at Greenbelt revealed a laid back, sophisticated pop sound coupled with Northup's distinctive vocals.
Greenbelt Attract NME (16th Jun 1999)
Greenbelt's recent booking of Asian Dub Foundation to play in support of the festival's planned Stephen Lawrence enquiry inspired debate has attracted mainstream press attention in the form of an article in NME. You can read the article online at the NME website.
Freestate Cancellation (16th Mar 1999)
It was announced on Saturday that the hotly anticipated Freestate festival has been cancelled. The event was to be run jointly by Spring Harvest and Greenbelt but due to "internal problems" Spring Harvest have had to withdraw from this year's event and Greenbelt are unable to continue alone. Both organisations are eager to point out that their relationship is still strong and that they very much regret this cancellation.
Greenbelt has been quick to react by adding new youth facilities to their summer event under the banner "Humanic". The new features include a skate/bmx area, a bring-your-own-vinyl DJ booth and an extended music programme.
These events come alongside reports that ticket sales for Spring Harvest'sEaster-period events are low and that they are also extremely short of stewardsand other staff. Only time will tell how serious these "internal problems"are.
FreeState of the Web (27th Jan 1999)
Britlinks has been busy putting up some new pages about the excitingnew FreeState festival. FreeState is a festival primarily aimed at 15-24year olds. It is the child of SpringHarvest andGreenbelt and will run from the 27th-30th August. The music lineup is as yet very sketchy, but for more information visit: http://www.britlinks.co.uk/freestate/
FreeState Announces Strong Starting Point (13th Jan 1999)
The new FreeState festival, organised jointly by Greenbelt and Spring Harvest has announced a potential lineup which includes Sixpence None The Richer, Iona, All Star United, Fono, and Steve. Watch this space for more news.
Greenbelt Silence Ends (02nd Dec 1998)
The strange silence from the Greenhouse, Greenbelt festival HQ, was ended recently with the announcement that the festival made a small profit from the 1998 event and that plans are getting under way for the new site and new focus for 1999. A £12 discount is available on tickets for those who book before the new year. Contact the Greenhouse for more information on that. The new site will have a variety of indoor and outdoor venues and accommodation options. See a feature article at the Phantom Tollbooth for more information on the future of Greenbelt. The committees to organise the new FreeState event are being put together at the moment. More news on this later.
Initial Greenbelt Festival Report (02nd Sep 1998)
Just having returned from this year's Greenbelt I have quite a bit of news to add to these pages. IMHO, this year's Greenbelt was excellent. Attendances are rumoured to be up on last year and the weather held out until around midnight at the end of Monday.
Greenbelt To Continue (02nd Sep 1998)
After months of speculation, and a few months where it looked like even this year's festival would not take place, Greenbelt have announced that next year's festival will be moved to Cheltenham race course and the last weekend in July. The festival promises to keep much of its diversity, but to focus more on whatthe crowd wants and to expand its exploration of the broad spectrum of the arts.
Spring Harvest and Greenbelt announce a FreeState (02nd Sep 1998)
To many a partnership between the obviously evangelical Spring Harvest and the often-thought-liberal Greenbelt seemed an impossiblity, but the two organisations have announced that from next summer they will be putting on a new event, FreeState, aimed mainly at adolescents (however old they may be) wanting a rock/pop festival with a Christian base. A venue and sketch lineup should be announced soon. The event will focus on its music but will aim to involve young people at all levels, from organisation to performance and aims to encourage young people to encounter God through artistic expression.
Mike Scott Continues to Intrigue (02nd Sep 1998)
Possibly the hardest musician to pin down spiritually, Mike Scott (ex-Waterboys) performed an excellent acoustic set at Greenbelt. At times his lyrics seem close to expressions of Christian faith, but his interest in pagan god Pan continues. He followed the hymn like song "Everlasting Arms" with "The Return Of Pan." A new Best of Mike Scott and the Waterboys is to be released on EMI in September and a new Mike Scott solo album is due around the end of the year.
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