Critiques

Thu 12 Jul – Latitude

Full review will be up on http://www.DirtyZine.co.uk soon, this is a pre-cursor as such mainly for myself.

FRIDAY:
The Whip - 4/10 - Extremely dull start to my Latitude '07 experience. Play one good song, then repeat until saturation point.
Midlake - 7/10 - Despite major sound issues do extremely well to pull off an entertaining set.
Wilco - 9/10 - Band of the day, absolutely stunning performance.
Patrick Wolf - 7/10 - A fantastic festival performer, particuarly for his adoring fans that are scattered across the audience, couldn't help but wish for Explosions In The Sky though.

SATURDAY:
Annuals - 8/10 - Somehow manage to not play recent fantastic single Brother and still put on an amazing set, and to not an awful crowd for the time of day either.
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - 3/10 - Absolutely appalling. I came to give this band a fair chance and they were just dreadful. The only moments that showed any promise were the ones where "frontman" Alec Ounslow concentrated on guitar.
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Thu 12 Jul – Latitude

THURSDAY

16:00 – Arrived at the Henham Park site, set up tent (we were stopped at the door because we had glass bottles so we had to pour ALL OUR BEER into plastic bottles)

Lake Stage
19:00 – Screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘The Lodger’ accompanied by live orchestra, conducted by Robert Ziegler (Introduction by Mark Kermode)

Back to the tent for BBQ

Poetry Tent
22:00 – Aisle16 & Friends

We check out a really cool ethnic instruments stall

Music & Film Arena
23:00 – Beautiful & The Damned DJ’s
1:00 – Daft Punk’s Electroma

I trip over a log, then we go back to the tent


FRIDAY

We pass a small stage on the lake with an acoustic duo covering Bob the Builder

Uncut Stage
12:30 – Grace (short visit)

Comedy Tent
12:00 – Kevin Day
13:00 – Jon Richardson
13:30 – Russel Howard
14:30 – Mark Steel
15:30 – Paul Tonkinson
16:30 – Bill Bailey
I got ham but i'm not a hamster

Obelisk Stage
17:30 – Midlake (Sound problems so a really really short set)
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Thu 12 Jul – Latitude

As last year, a fantastic laid-back vibe and lots of sunshine. The musical line up was somewhat stronger this year, with many highlights for me...

Friday

Cake - One of the bands that I stumbled upon by accident and then was suitably impressed to stay for the whole set. Note to Glen: buy a Cake record sometime soon.

Midlake - Poor sound didn't prevent the quality of the The Trials Of Van Occupanther songs shining through.

Wilco - A fantastically cohesive set from a band that I've always wanted to see live. Probably my favourite set from the weekend, Spiders was immense.

Saturday

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Great performance, and a good bass-heavy sound.

CSS - Fantastic fun, a perfect band for a Saturday afternoon in the Sun. First signs of crowd-surfing at Latitude!

Sunday

Andrew Bird - Incredibly talented multi-instrumentalist, the looping strings and songs worked fantastically well.

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Thu 12 Jul – Latitude

Though it's run by omnipresent festival fat cats Mean Fiddler, the Latitude Festival is part of the growing number of smaller, more peaceful festivals in the UK. Set in Henham Park, Suffolk against a backdrop including a lake and multicoloured sheep, the quality of bands this year was extraordinarily high. Only in its second year, Latitude has proven itself to be one of the finest British festivals, thanks to its line-up (both music and comedy, literature and theatre), setting and complete absence of burning portaloos.

Friday

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1440/830296467_66b04bad50_m.jpg
Youthmovies and Jonquil (Music and Film Arena, 1.15pm)
Fittingly considering Latitude's stance as a festival which encompasses music, film, arts, literature and poetry, Oxford bands Youthmovies and Jonquil kick off Friday with a collaborative set with visuals from their favourite teen films. It's an odd choice, as scenes from Dodgeball and Bring It On aren't the kind of films I'd associated with sprawling post-rock. …

Thu 12 Jul – Latitude
Up there as one of my favourite festival experiences: Mostly good weather, excellent bands that were chosen for their quality rather than going for the lowest common denominator audience, not over commercialised, and lots of thoughtful touches (e.g. deckchairs by the lake, loo roll outside the portaloos).

The two stages in the middle of the woods were wonderful, like a fairy grotto, but it was hard to get a good view from the side of the Sunrise tent because of the lack of a level surface and bad placement of the stage.

There were lots of people in Fancy Dress for some reason, and quite a few families with kids - something for everyone it seems. I have some pictures here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=8835&l=76a73&id=529461625

For me, the highlights were Patrick Wolf, Bat for Lashes,Metronomy, Midlake, CSS (the singer is completely fruit loops, but you had to agree with her when she said everything was "beautiful" and "marvelous". …