Live Review

Latitude Festival – Suffolk

• 24th Jul 2012

With the British summertime never seeming to start, Latitude Festival is always one to make it feel like the summer has begun, and this year, mud aside, was no different.

The site opened on the Thursday, with colourful sheep aplenty (is it animal cruelty?) and the festival ciders started flowing. With a tour around the seemingly never ending site, it was clear there was lots to experience, and as we explored more we were overwhelmed by the magic of the site. Does that sound cheesy? It deserves it.
Friday came and there was sun in the sky and no sign of the wet weather that had been warned, and once we’d found company with those camping alongside us we decided to go and watch some music. First up was We Are Band, who were brilliant, this summer could be their making, next year, mark my words, they’ll be back on the word arena at least. Tearing myself away from such a good show was difficult, because with the large amount of entertainment on offer, I did not want to miss Twin Shadow, and I’m glad I made that decision. A packed out shelter in the woods, and an atmosphere that stuck it’s middle finger up at the fact that the rain had begun, they were the best band I’d never heard of of the weekend.

Next up was Alt-J. Not heard the fuss? Get involved, spine-tingling vocals and a vibe that got the whole place’s attention captured (I also learnt that when you press Alt and J on a Mac it makes a triangle). Even sprinting at breakneck speed (not true) to the Comedy Tent to try and see Tim Minchin was not fast enough to get in to the packed-out tent. From what we could hear outside he was full of his normal wry humour in-between songs and excellent comedy songs, including one from his Olivier Award winning musical Matilda.
Next up, after table service from the benches by the bar (you wait, it gets more middle-class), we caught the end of Janelle Monae’s very jazzy set and set up to see Metronomy. They were fantastic, a real party atmosphere, good interaction and they seemed to fill the large stage space they had, be that in matching mustard chinos or not!

Now, picture the scene, it’s dusk, everyone’s tipsy, and on a high from Metronomy, there’s no rain, and the stage is filled with some sort of creeping hangings with different projections. And then Bon Iver take the stage. It was magical. Even new songs that people weren’t familiar with went down well, the air seemed to be filled with silence and respect. Their 2 drum kit set-up was a hit (no pun intended) and it was an incredible high to a brilliant first day of the festival, soundtrackde by an absolute anthem from White Lies last song of the set. But for us young party animals (ha!) the night did not stop there. After losing my phone, and it being returned to me by three beautiful young ladies (thanks Imogen and Harriet!!) we accidentally wondered into Summercamp’s last minute unscheduled set in the Film Arena, and it was a great set, so much noise from just 2 people. We wondered into the Woods and danced the night away to some MCs that ruined some of the great tunes they were playing, and then the night stopped. Now, normally I wouldn’t dwell on that, but at most festivals, the night goes on until the morning, but at Latitude, when the music stops with the license at 3am, everyone goes to bed. EVERYONE that is except the guys on the food stall and the security guards!

Saturday morning, and with our seemingly early night we were raring and ready to go, avoided the queues for a full English breakfast, and following some recommendations went to one of the more boutique restaurant stands. (wait for it…) Having entered the Giant Robot and armed ourselves with Bloody Marys, we overheard the best snippet of a conversation ever “I want the lobster for lunch I think”. Lobster? At a music festival? See, I told you! Saturday started off excellently. With NME’s soon to be band of the moment Theme Park playing on the lake stage it was excellent, think early Friendly Fires, with the same sort of vibe. Unfortunately for Tall Ships who followed them straight after, it was a more depressing, not quite fitting of the time in the afternoon set, followed by Low it seemed like we were on for a downer day of music in comparison to the day before.

Soko picked up the tempo in the iArena, with her friendly French upbeat Be Your Own Pet-esque, leave a child to play with their instruments and give her an audience kind of way. Django Django kept up the dancing and was the first band that I noticed people saying were brilliant afterwards. It seemed the day was picking up. And then we went to see Elbow. The place was packed, busier than it was for Bon Iver, but it seemed that Guy Garvey was not going to let his sombre music ruin everyone’s spirits. The rain kept away and he seemed to be exceedingly drunk, making the huge audience pray and sing a mantra to the moon (that no one could see). Opening with The Bones of You, and smashing out Grounds For Divorce within the first 4 songs, so that Guy Garvey could stop playing the guitar and start smashing extra drums and walking down his catwalk style walkway lit up like an airport runway, into the crowd! It was, however, epic. Great stage set up, great banter and great stage presence. From there we went off exploring, into the fairytale forest, where we came across the brilliant balls on the trees with messages in, watched the fireworks from a magical spot between the trees by some water (not sure if it was supposed to be there or was just from the rain) and it seemed that Latitude was back in its finest place. And then we went to see some cabaret. Duckie’s show was excellent, her patter and interaction was next to perfect, but we were not expecting full frontal nudity, on a woman with a mannequin’s head dancing to Nirvana with the contemporary dance first piece. However, Myra the children’s entertainer lifted the spirits of all the parents whose kids were still up in the tent! We danced the night away at Guilty Pleasures, all the greatest pop tunes in one tent, perfect!

Sunday, and the hangover hadn’t quite arrived, so we meandered over the lake, to the extraordinary piano playing of the great Lang Lang. Now I’m not a classical pianist but that man has got some serious finger skills! Rufus Wainwright took the main stage down a long and seemingly dull road, but he managed to keep quite a crowd, but Chilly Gonzales and his jazz funk was magnificent. A funny, intelligent and mildly geeky set, in the chilled out perfect arena, just a Canadian half-jew and his piano. perfection. Followed by Battles, who could have gone either way with their new vocalist. It was a strange set. Very short (about 5 songs), a mixture of older and newer songs, but the impressive drummer still smashing his cymbals about 6ft in the air above the rest of his kit. It was epic, but too short for a late afternoon festival slot! M83 were magical, as were the final act of the weekend, Wild Beasts. Once again Latitude blew every other festival out of the water in regards to the amount of things to do, see, experience in terms of art, poetry, culture, comedy, music, and kids with diablos. A fantastic weekend, make sure you do it next year, it’s set to be a sunny one!!