On 26 April 2024 Green Man Festival founder Jo Bartlett is to release her new album ‘Ghost Tapes 1 to 9’. The album will be preceded by a single ‘Drawing The Line’ on 26 January, with a second single from the album to follow.
"‘Ghost Tapes 1 to 9’ is a very personal album.” says Jo, "The lyrics and themes all relate to either stories from my past or right up to my current day. ‘Drawing A Line’ is about that awful feeling which can wake me, blushing at an e mail I sent and regret or social media post I made and can’t wait to delete! When I finish recording new music, I always feel the need to share it with someone. Sometimes it makes me embarrassed as I feel like I’m forcing people to listen. It is an isolated process, particularly with this new solo material, and to have a friend listen (and hopefully love it!) can be very therapeutic – or very embarrassing – especially if they don’t reply."
Jo Bartlett on ‘Ghost Tapes 1 To 9’
"It’s always been about my band and my music. When I was a teenager, I started The Buzz Club so I could support some of my favourite artists. I ended up booking The Stone Roses, Suede, Blur, Primal Scream, the Happy Mondays and loads more. Later, I started a label so I could release ‘Lank Haired Girl To Bearded Boy’ by It’s Jo & Danny. We knew this music had to be heard. It got wonderful reviews and Jo Whiley championed it on her BBC Radio 1 show. We signed to RCA.
‘A defining record’ NME 8/10
‘Ferocious joie de verve’ Q 4 stars
‘Spellbinding’ The Times 4 stars
I got dropped by RCA but still wanted to play festivals, so I started one. Danny and I started the Green Man Festival in Wales, from nothing. We had no label, Danny was now a student teacher, earning his PGCE, we also had two very small children. Over nine years we grew the Green Man from 350 people for one day to 15,000 for 4 days and nights. Booking Robert Plant, The Flaming Lips, Bon Iver, Four Tet and many, many others along the way. We moved on after the 2011 festival. (A small sentence which could cover a book.) We adapted to life without Green Man. I went into the studio and released a solo, acoustic album, ‘Upheaval’. Recorded in an afternoon, it got 4 stars in ‘Mojo’.
I started to learn Logic, recording, experimenting and generally having fun. ‘The Cut Up’ was released in 2022. Recorded at home, cutting up various cassettes and putting beats, synths and guitars under them. I did some vocals, holding my SM58 microphone.
Andy Bell (Ride / Oasis) included the track ‘Greener‘ in his 20 tracks from 2022 for ‘Brooklyn Vegan‘ where he said ‘Jo made a super cool album this year called The Cut Up, this is my favourite track from it.’ Boosted by this and the confidence of people enjoying my blog, I started writing lyrics for the first time (previously all my songs had been written with Danny). I improved my Logic skills, recording vocals and acoustic guitars properly, still with my beats, synths and bass guitar.
The first of these recordings, ‘I Don’t Want To Hear Any More Music’ was released on my own Indie Through The Looking Glass label in early 2023. It got plays on BBC 6 Music, BBC Radio London & Wales, Radio X which I enjoyed very much. I recorded eight more tracks, finishing in December 2023. I did everything myself. Played all the instruments, wrote all the words, told all the stories, recorded everything on my laptop at home."
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