Why is Latitude so great? Because the organisers went for a trip inside my mind and curated it just for me. At least, it feels that way.
Two years ago, I felt truly damned to have missed the first ever Latitude. For several months before the event, a broken record lived inside my head and sporadically issued sentences, such as ‘Why the fuck am I not going to the best new festival ever?’ I felt like I would regret it in the same way that I’ve always regretted not going to ‘All Tomorrows Parties’ in the year that Belle and Sebastian were the ringmasters of a Pontins paradise of live music .
Well, in 2007, I thought ‘Fuck it, if no one I know wants to go, I'll go alone’. It was time to stop all that 'feeling for sorry for myself' business. To be honest, I was the only person getting in my way. As for going it alone, I did the same for Reading 1989 and Glastonbury 1991. I had no excuse. Me, my tent, and I. I made new friends before changing wristbands both times. 19 years disappeared. When I blinked nothing much had changed. It seems that I can still make new friends before they realise their mistake, or I could in 2007.
This year, the fine year of 2008, I had a fine array of Latitude friends to ignore, from home and away. Yes, come along to a festival with me, and let me ignore you. It’s fabulous. You’ll be free, I’ll be free, and occasionally we’ll stand side by side grinning at something amazing; it might be a band, a comedian, a writer, a poet, an actor, a light show, a freak or someone we know. It’ll be great.
Who and what did I see this year...
Rating system (from very best to very worst):
Fucking Awesome, Ear Candy, Thumbs Up, Not for Me Thanks, Hideously Awful
(number) = number of songs seen when full set not seen (sometimes approximate)
Friday, 18th July
| Robin Ince, Comedy | Ear Candy (US Foreign Policy is like the poem ‘There was an Old Woman who Swallowed a Fly’) |
| Adam Bloom, Comedy | Not for Me Thanks (well scripted and delivered, but lowest common denominator content) |
| Gravenhurst, Uncut | Thumbs Up |
| Slow Club, Sunrise | Fucking Awesome (Anti-Folk brilliance) |
| Animal Kingdom, Sunrise | Fucking Awesome (Sun soaked loveliness. No dark guys are following these guys) |
| The Aliens, Obelisk (3) | Ear Candy |
| Bearsuit, Lake | Fucking Awesome (For the costumes alone!) |
| aPAtT, Lake | Fucking Awesome |
| Jonquil, Lake | Thumbs Up |
| Emmy the Great, Sunrise | Ear Candy |
| Natty, Sunrise | Thumbs Up (Twice in two weeks gave me ‘pop’ overload. The screaming girls didn’t help) |
| Clinic, Sunrise | Ear Candy |
| Death Cab for Cutie, Obelisk | Not for Me Thanks (that Seattle sound seeps through) |
Franz Ferdinand, Obelisk | Ear Candy |
Saturday, 19th July
| Billy The Kid and The Brothers Barbaylios, Sunrise | Ear Candy |
| Golden Silvers, Uncut | Thumbs Up |
| White Lies, Obelisk | Fucking Awesome |
| Bill Bailey, Comedy | Thumbs Up (but could only see screen outside of tent so left half way through) |
| Fanfarlo, Obelisk | Ear Candy |
| I am Kloot, Obelisk (5) | Fucking Awesome (but clashed with SoKo) |
| SoKo, Sunrise | Fucking Awesome (I laughed until I cried tears, quite literally) |
| Punch Brothers, Sunrise | Not for Me Thanks |
| Voluntary Butler Scheme, Lake (1) | I wished I watched these; bad call. I only caught one song and it sounded great. |
| The House of Love, Uncut (5) | Thumbs Up (but appalling sound) |
| This City, Lake | Thumbs Up (fantastic audience interaction) |
| Johnny Flynn, Sunrise | Thumbs Up (brilliant final track: Tickle Me Pink) |
| Cheeky Cheeky and the Nosebleeds, Lake | Thumbs Up (fucking awesome audience: kids as young as ten were crowd surfing) |
| Sigur Ros, Obelisk | Fucking Awesome |
| Darren Hayman, Literary (1) | Fucking Awesome (apparently he played two songs in the Book Club; I caught the second) |
| Club de Fromage DJs, The Woods | Intermission of air guitar mayhem on The Woods. |
| The Buzzcocks, Film and Music | Thumbs Up (mainly for the three hits: What Do I Get?, Love You More and Ever Fallen in Love. The rest was a bit dull, but they really put the effort in, so that’s just me.) |
| Director Gurinder Chadha with Alan Davies, Film and Music | Ear Candy (amusing interview with film clips) |
| Sam Isaac | Ear Candy |
| We Dream America, Film and Music | The Broken Family Band say they’ve dropped their fake American accents. They can’t work out why a blogger - who saw them more recently - criticised them for still faking it. I hope they don’t read what I said about them at Latitude last year. |
| The School, Lake | Ear Candy |
| Those Dancing Days, Uncut (2) | Not for Me Thanks |
| Noah and the Whale, Uncut | Fucking Awesome |
| Luke Leighfield & Tim and Sam's Tim and the Sam Band, Lake | Ear Candy |
| Esser, Sunrise | Thumbs Up |
| Patrick Watson, Uncut (2) | Not for Me Thanks (bit wanky) |
| The Breeders, Obelisk | Hideously Awful (I had to walk away. I so wanted to love the Deal sisters. I felt embarrassed for them, but they looked like they were having fun.) |
| The Cock ‘n’ Bull Kid, Lake (2) | Thumbs Up (but not as good as I anticipated) |
| Lykke Li, Sunrise | Fucking Awesome (for her amazing stage presence) |
| Grinderman, Obelisk (6) | Fucking Awesome (better than expected) |
| Interpol, Obelisk | Fucking Awesome (but I occasionally wished the punch was harder. This is the band I’ve been looking forward to seeing the most all year. I wanted my insides to be wrenched out, trampled on, and to watch my body being mutilated in an ecstatic trance. Perhaps I should have got closer!) |
| Dickie Beau, Film and Music | Fucking Awesome (you can check out a rough and ready recording on YouTube, or just check out these clips from Judy Garland’s tapes courtesy of www.fiveoclockbot.com: Obvious Nazi Machine and Get the Hell out of My Life) |
| Death Ray Trebuchey, Film and Music (4) | Ear Candy (late night get your knees up gypsy punk) |
| The Broken Hearts, Film and Music | Great 50s music DJing |
| Lautrec vs Sonver (Soundtracking 2001 Space Odyssey), Film and Music | Fucking Awesome |
Slow Club – When I go (courtesy of www.acertainromance.com)
SoKo - I’ll Kill Her (courtesy of hotlinkfiles.com)
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