It’s like Christmas for adults, counting down the weeks and
then days, the excitement grows then its finally here. I love Latitude and so
does the lil lady. This is our fourth
year so we have a little experience to help us get the most out of the festival
experience. Latitude is friendly and
familiar but each time we’ve been, the weekend has been unique; we’ve loved the
festival for different reasons.
We know we’ll have a mile walk from the car so don’t take
too much stuff. We do have a bloody good
tent with loads of room and big enough to stand up in. We also have pillows and an inflatable
mattress because rest is important. Our
other comforts are a couple of small folding chairs and a stove + kettle so we
can make a brew. Finally we each have an
‘Ergolife’ roll up seat for back support in the arenas. After that everything we pack is
essential. Good walking boots for when
it’s dry plus comfortable wellies for when it rains. Clothes that can be layered plus a good pack
away waterproof jacket enable us to cope with all the British weather can throw
at us. All our kit is carried on our
backs or on the Carp barrow, the only time it gets used each year.
We set off a little after midday on Thursday for what we
knew would be a slow drive through the beautiful Suffolk countryside. Unloaded the car into the fierce heat and set
off for a heavy hike. We took our time
but had our tent set up and comfortable by mid-afternoon. After a couple of hours spent just chilling
in the sun we strolled down the familiar “Hollow Tree Way” into the equally
homely village then on into the arena for a slow lap finding everything where
we expected. The Latitude vibe doesn’t
hit you right away, it creeps up and slowly surrounds you and eases its way
into your soul.
There were a few things going on to ease us into the
festival. We caught one song from Miles
Hunt (formerly of the Wonderstuff) in the Literary tent before Alex Horne came on for a mad hour of
Comedy that featured a replica of the kids game ‘Mousetrap’ made mostly of
stuff he’d bought from Wickes. There was
loads of audience participation making a very clever, funny show. Chilling on the grass by the lake we saw the
end of a set by “the Irrepressibles”,
not my kind of thing really but quite nice in the setting. A quick mention for the beautiful sunset that
descended upon Henham park, a splash of colours ranging from pink and orange to
blue and lilac, a natural light show amongst all the manmade stuff.
There’s usually some kind of mad arty stuff on the lake,
last year ballerinas on 20 foot swans, this year it was called “Iltopie” and was bollocks. As usual for the first night there were many
groups of over excited teenagers who haven’t learnt how to pace themselves with
the booze. We had a cruel chuckle
knowing how bad they would feel in the morning.
We wandered off again and had a dance at the ‘Disco shed’ and another in
‘the Woods’ where ‘Goldierocks’ was
on the decks. She was good but we were
knackered so crashed around 0100.
Once again the weather on Friday was dry and very hot which
is great but tents heat up quickly and you can’t enjoy a nice lay in. So it was up and out for a comfortable crap
in the arena toilets, the only place in the world where you can “enjoy” a sauna
and a shit at the same place. Festival
toilets are no longer the horror houses of the past but they aren’t always
comfortable either. After that we had a
nice bacon roll for breakfast, can’t remember the name of the stall but it had
a black & white front and the staff were Scottish.
We treat each day as if we were going hiking in the
countryside. Food is fuel so we eat
regularly, drink loads of water and pace ourselves with the beer. If there’s nothing going on that catches our
fancy we’ll go back to the tent and just crash out for an hour. We may miss out on a few things doing this
but we can extend our days well into the early morning.
Our first stop of the morning was the comedy tent where we
saw Tom Rosenthal (OK), Roisin Conaty (not bad) and Josh Widdecombe (pretty good). That was the only time we made it inside the
comedy tent all weekend. We did try on
another couple of occasions but it looked too packed and we wandered off elsewhere.
Elsewhere ended up being the main stage AKA Obelisk arena.
Here we caught the last few songs of Paul
Heaton & Jacqui Abbot’s set which consisted of Beautiful South and
Housemartins tunes finishing with a cool version of “Caravan of love”. The band sounded great and we wished we’d
been there earlier. We’d gone to the
Obelisk to see Billy Bragg who
started with “Sexuality” and finished with “New England” which were great. Unfortunately in the middle Billy descended
into Americana country stuff which really isn’t my thing. The banter between songs was great however
and there were enough good things to make us glad we’d seen the show even if we
were a little disappointed.
We hung around to see Kelis
who we’d seen on Jools Holland’s show earlier in the year. The classic R&B sound was great, the
crowd swelled and danced and Kelis looked fine and sung well. The newer soulful stuff was first class and
the older hits were given a bluesy revamp, the milkshake really did bring the
boys to the yard. Kelis was class and surpassed
expectations.
After a brief stop off at the tent we met with our beloved
friends Mr & Mrs Green + kids who were experiencing Latitude for the first
time. No time to catch up as we were
straight into the Big tent to see Goat
at Mr Green’s recommendation. I’d only
heard a couple of tunes on You tube so didn’t know what to expect but Goat were
absolutely brilliant. What is Goat? To begin they are a rock band but the rhythm
has a hypnotic, drum heavy African feel, the chopping, wailing guitar sounds
like Hendrix and the duelling female vocalists chant and scream adding an extra
layer of sound as well as much as delivering a set of words. Visually it’s mad as the band all wear crazy
costumes and a dead pan mask looks strange when you’re used to gurning
guitarists. The music is high energy and
the performance matches this, especially the vocalists who are nonstop. I loved Goat and bopped all the way through.
Goat finished and we all legged it back to the Obelisk to
see Rudimental who were the surprise
guests. They were pretty good in the
tent last year and played a bouncing set today which was made even better
because we’ve become so familiar with the tunes over the last twelve months. The crowd sang and danced along and it was
impossible not to join in. Next up were
The Editors who sounded to me like
typical coldplay clone safe rock music, if a little better than some. I recognised a couple of tunes and they
weren’t bad but not my thing. We did at
last get the chance to catch up with Mr & Mrs Green while they played. We all went our separate ways for food,
chicken noodles for me which was OK. Bondax were playing nearby on the Lake
stage and I liked what I heard. There
was another fantastic sunset which looks all the better in a beautiful setting
like this. We all managed to meet up
again to see Lily Allen who was a
last minute replacement as headliner.
The plan was to watch a few songs then slide off and check out the other
arenas but Lily was actually pretty good.
She might not have the strongest voice around but she can carry a tune,
her lyrics are clever and the songs catchy.
We ended up watching the whole show, say no more.
The show closed and we wandered off. The lil lady and I had lost our dancing feet,
not so surprising as we’d seen eight bands during the day and half of these had
been really good shows. What a start to
the festival! However we were thoroughly
knackered so decided to go back to the tent.
A good night’s sleep would charge up our batteries for the following
day…Or so we thought.
We got to sleep alright but it didn’t last. Some of our newer neighbours returned and
made sure of that. I suppose we were
about due for a noisy festival night because this was the first and only time
we’ve ever had a really disturbed night.
That’s the rough and the smooth of a festival I suppose, not worth
getting wound up about and we’ll never let anyone or anything spoil our
festival. However one thing niggled me,
this group were old enough to know better, had they have been kids I could
understand it more. By morning every
tent in the vicinity knew these peoples sexual preferences and how good the
ching was. There was a storm and showers
during the night and it was actually easier to get to sleep when the rain on
the tent drowned out all other sound.
Back to the arena area around midday and after breakfast and the
bog run we tried to get into a too busy comedy tent but ended up at the obelisk
where we saw the African rhythms of Tinariwen
who were nice enough but didn’t really move us.
Booker T Jones followed and
he started well and got better and better.
Authentic rhythm & blues; the “Stax sound” including a many familiar
tunes from Booker’s career but the highlight was the cover of “Hey Joe”. Can’t remember who the guitarist was but he
absolutely nailed it. Superb! We hung
around the main stage to see James but as there was a bit of a break decided to
lie down and rest our eyes for a while.
Upon rousing we saw the notice on the screen telling us that James were
stranded somewhere and had been rescheduled for the following day. Disappointing but what can you do? After that we wandered off for food and
seeing as there was no events that took our fancy we went back to the tent to
crash for a while.
After a couple of hours rest we felt refreshed so wandered
off again. We made it to the main stage
in time to see Bombay Bicycle Club. We’d enjoyed them in the tent a couple of
years back but tonight they couldn’t hold our attention so after half or dozen
or so songs we took a slow stroll around the arena in the direction of the big
tent. One of the acts we’d looked
forward too was the Royksopp & Robyn
‘Do it again’ collaboration. We saw
Royksopp playing some chilled dance beats, followed by Robyn doing a bit of
electro dance/pop then finally Royksopp and Robyn blasting it out
together. The setting was hot and stuffy
but the show worked. The music was
hypnotic and we didn’t stop dancing, apparently the lightshow was great but I
hardly noticed. We got our money’s worth
too as the show was over two hours long and we danced for every minute of it.
As the tent began to clear it became apparent that not only
was it raining, it was absolutely pissing it down. A huge electrical storm had engulfed the area
and wasn’t going anywhere fast. We
donned our waterproofs and headed out into the storm, unsure of what to do
next. Fired up by the Royksopp show we
definitely didn’t want to go to bed. The
donut stand called us, as it tends to do at this time of night, for some sweet
sugar fuelled energy. Then the DJ on the
Lake stage played Fat boy’s “Praise you” and called us back to dance.
Dancing in a soggy field in a thunderstorm at
midnight may not be anyone’s first choice activity but for us, at that time and
place it was the only choice. An hour
later we were still dancing in the rain with beers in hands, smiles on faces
being wowed by the music and the awesome natural lightshow provided by the
storm. We were wet but loving it. However there comes a time when wet and warm
gives way to cold and shivering, we were sober enough to be aware of this so
decided to head back to the tent while we were still enjoying ourselves. Ironically by the time we were cosy and dry
in our kip bags the rain had just about stopped but at least the camp site was
quiet.
Before I move on to the next day it has to be said that the
food at Latitude was piss poor this year.
Every previous festival we’ve managed to find decent food that is
enjoyable to eat. This year our
breakfast rolls or burgers from the Scottish stall were okay as were the chunky
chips from next door. We had a
reasonable chicken noodle meal and a curry that was adequate despite the naan
bread being cardboard. The chicken shack
looked like a really good deal but in actual fact it was barely edible crap and
a rip off. These will be avoided at all
costs in future.
Before we knew it Sunday had arrived. We had a decent night
sleep but once again the heat in the tent had us up and about earlyish. The heavy rain had muddied the ground up in
places so it was a welly day today, luckily my Muck boots are as comfortable as
any other footwear I own so no hardship there. After a brew we set off for our
morning routine, down to the arena for a bog stop and breakfast. Afterwards we
went off to the big tent to meet the Greens and see a band I’ve loved for over
twenty years but had never managed to see live, James. They started with a few
songs from the latest album, the first was a mellow tune, this was Sunday
lunchtime after all. After this the
songs got more up tempo, despite being unfamiliar they sounded great. As the set went on a few older tunes were
thrown in which lifted the atmosphere of the packed tent. The hour passed too quickly and with a
rousing version of “Sometimes” with the crowd singing along the set finished on
a high. I’d waited years to see James,
it could have been an anti-climax but it was great.
No time for reflection as we all hot footed over to the main
stage to see the Atomic bomb band. Really good synth dance music (featuring
members of Hot Chip and LCD sound system) had the crowd dancing in the sun and
a good time was had by all. We all
chilled out at the Obelisk arena while Phosphorescent
and the Jayhawks went through their
paces. Neither managed to rouse me into
a standing position, in fact had we not been enjoying the company of my friends
I’m sure we would have wandered off to check out what was going on
elsewhere. Chrissie Hynde was next up playing a pretty good set including many
familiar hits from the Pretenders. I’ve
never been a fan but quite enjoyed it anyway, maybe Gran rock is the thing of
the future?
After that the lil lady and I made arrangements to meet Mr
& Mrs Green back at the Obelisk then went off for food followed by a lie
down in the tent to recoup some energy. A
group of morons wrecking their own campsite did not deter us. After a couple hours of much needed rest we
set off in fading light and made it down to the Obelisk to meet the Greens and
get in position for the final headliner of the weekend, The Black Keys. To begin with the sound didn’t seem right to
me but they either got it nailed or I stopped noticing. It didn’t matter, the crowd was up for it, and
the atmosphere was great, the Black Keys were bloody good and we boogied right
through the rousing set. Highlights were
‘Gold on the ceiling’, ‘Fever’ and ‘lonely boy’.
We said goodbye to Mr & Mrs Green + kids who were going
back to the tents but we weren’t done yet.
This was the last night at Latitude so we were determined to make the
most of it. We ended up down at the Lake
stage dancing with the kids, mostly old soul funk tunes which kept us bopping
till our old legs couldn’t take it anymore.
After that we sat on a bench, watched, listened and tried to absorb as
much of the Latitude vibe as we could.
Around 0300 the security began to clear the arena so we slowly took a
last walk around the lake and up the hill towards our campsite. We sat outside our tent for a while watching
the sky in the east grow lighter, we had planned to wait for the sun to come up
but we didn’t last, sleep called.
Latitude 2014 was a fantastic year for music with great
performances every day. Goat were a
massive musical surprise, Royksopp & Robin was the performance of the
weekend, James turned back the years and the Black keys were polished,
professional and excellent. Kelis, Booker
T Jones, Rudimental and even Lily Allen deserve a mention too.
Monday morning saw us slowly tidy our camp site before the
yomp back to the car. There is something
special about the Latitude festival that goes beyond the music, dancing,
comedy, arts etc. After five days and
four nights we leave the campsite in dire need of a long hot shower but there
is a special magical vibe that relaxes the mind and soothes the soul. Our
fourth Latitude festival was over and once again it had been a brilliant
weekend. We would now begin to count the weeks till
next year.
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