Latitude Festival 2007Arrived at Henham Park early on Thursday afternoon...this was my first ever full festival experience so I was more than little anxious. There was a huge long queue near the car park of people waiting to get their tickets checked for entry to the (again huge!) campsite. I met up one by one with our Loners/Billy No-Mates group.. I couldn't have set up an encampment with a finer and fun bunch of people as I did, so a big cheers to: Claire, Simon, Pete, Suse, Jeff, Geof, and Colin. We met more good people at the campsite bar where the Hektors Pure was my choice of ale (the only choice!) for the next few days...an excellent golden session bitter at 3.8% just right for summertime drinking!! Heading down to the festival arena I was dumbstruck at how beautiful and compact the whole place was. In fact the whole atmosphere was friendly and the vibe excellent for the whole weekend, only marred by a few thefts that slightly disturbed our groups welfare. Poetry Tent: This was a real eye-opener...Poetry in the stand-up form was both fun and highly entertaining so I ended up spending a lot of time in here..the highlight being Kate Nash doing an acoustic set here well after midnight on Friday - Bliss...how can a 19 year old write lyrics as honest and powerful as she does (Click to see my videos of Caroline Is A Victim and Foundations) Cabaret: Another eye-opener - Spent a few late nights in here laughing my head off at the Seedy bands, burlesque dancers, camp comperes, and the Vox and Roll was hilarious. This tent was wild! Comedy: What comedy I saw was outside this tent - It was far too small to accommodate Bill Bailey and Dylan Moran whom I only had glimpses of. Far better was The Guilty Pleasures nights in here which was a cheesy disco playing songs you really deep down love from the 80's and 90's (i.e Europe, Buggles etc). Great fun for boogie!! Sunrise Arena: This was beautifully situated in the middle of the woods away from the main throng. This stage opened much earlier in the day than the rest and was great for easing yourself into the day. I saw the fantastic Karima Francis here, Alberta Cross with their Neil Youngish guitar, and the utterly delightful Paris Motel as well (perfect cures for that hungover feeling!)....The atmosphere was highly charged for New Young Pony Club who headlined this stage on Friday and we were right in the middle 3 deep from the front...you had to dance. Pity their set was cut short for "crowd safety" reasons - I pity the security guy who was holding up the crowd barrier single handedly and failing!! Lake Stage: Reserved for Huw Stevens and mainly unsigned up and coming bands. The stage was perfectly situated with no crowd barrier and good to just pop along, sit down in the sun and admire some new stuff. Highlights here included The All New Adventures of Us, the hilarious Laptop fronted Mr Hopkinsons Computer and the blindingly loud and raucous duo of Blood Red Shoes. My Two Toms were however a bit pants!! Film and Music Tent: I spent a very late sweaty night here seeing the end of Mark Lamaars pick of bands - First was Alabama 3 with their dirty cowboy punk blues and then coming on 20 minutes late after sound problems at 3am were The Beat...I'm not a big fan of ska but this band are legendary and they devoted a cover of Rock The Casbah to Joe Strummer...that was class!! Also seeing Kate Nash here with a full band was brilliant Uncut Arena: I spent a lot of time in here, mainly because of the fantastic bands, it was mostly uncrowded and had just about the best sound anywhere. Highlights were Fields, a band I'd heard a little but was not prepared for such a beautiful sonic bombardment in a kind of folky My Bloody Valentine way. Maps on straight after, were another band whose music just washed over you. Later the world music style of Tinariwen gave us Bluesy Saharan grooves. Patrick Wolf headlining on Friday was great for listening sitting on the grass just out of the arena. Rodrigo Y Gabriella who headlined Saturday night blew us away with their ultra fast guitar playing and the crowd were just so into them - they were unbelievable. On Sunday the bands were even more anticipated: Silversun Pickups early in the day felt like a headlining band. It was obvious they were enjoying themselves and the huge crowd, knew all their words, the enigmatic Cherry Ghost is going to be huge; Charlotte Hatherley was simply full of charisma and rocked, she said "I've been to a few festivals this year, this is definitely the best!!". Another highlight was Soulsavers who played a short set with the absolutely brilliant singing and stage presence of Mark Lanegan Obelisk (Main) Arena: I cannot imagine this arena with the proposed tent covering it. The tent being ripped in high winds was a godsend because this arena looked beautiful in the open, flanked on its borders by hundreds of flags and either side were large screens depicting the detail of bands on stage. Highlights here included the scandinavian band Kissaway Trail opening the music on the first day. Bat For Lashes gave a most ingenius set but plagued by a faulty keyboard pedal, their set was shortened - short but very sweet! The Hold Steady loved the atmosphere and rocked in an E-Street Band manner and were thoroughly enjoyable. CSS were in party mood with balloons a plenty and Lovefoxx in a very colourful purple glittery outfit. Of course Lovefoxx was the real party animal and ended up diving into the bouyant crowd!! Best of all on the Obelisk were The National who played a blinder with all borrowed instruments after their gear got held up en route - this band lived up to all expectations and they are so modest. Finishing off the Latitude festival were Arcade Fire who seemingly performed a slightly under par performance but they were still brilliant even though the fireworks, instead of going off behind the arena would have been better in front!! So was Latitude the best weekend of my life?...very close to as good as it gets...I'm still buzzing 5 days after returning home. I honestly cannot put a finger on the last time I laughed and was entertained so much. Despite infrastructure problems and pretty woeful security I will be back next year to rock!! Have to mention the weather which was perfect apart from a few showers and those Japanese Tempura Noodles were sooooo tasty!!! Nige
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