2011 Festivals and stuff - Part 1

Important, but rather dull, things first:  I've just collected the most vital things together and checked that all parts are present and correct and thus I am reminded so much of my days supervising Duke of Edinburgh Award Expeditions - there is no better way to look a fool than to forget, or lose, those things about which you have lectured everyone else.
Tent, sleeping-bag, sleeping-mat and (the thing that I forget more often than anything else when camping) a pillow. The last item might seem relatively unimportant, because a pile of clothes can take its place; well yes it can, but a cheap synthetic pillow that doesn't get damp is much better and when shut-eye is at a premium this matters. I know because I forgot mine in 2007. It is indeed a somewhat mundane task but the anticipation it engenders makes it all worthwhile!
  
Yesterday someone asked if I have a list of timings for music artists at Latitude 2011.  I'm afraid that I do not, at least currently, have such information because I'd like it too, so that I could plan my days but such is life. [If you do have some idea, even if it is only fragmentary, then please add a comment.]
On the other hand that is something to do on Thursday afternoon, official festival programme in hand, once the tent is pitched and life in the orthogonal dimension has begun!
That has just made me remember other things to take - a pencil and paper (soft pencils still work on damp paper) to make notes, either about the timings or on the acts that one sees. Add to that insect repellent - I have run out so now added to shopping list - and to check the basic first aid kit.
Planning is good but inflexibility stifles discovery. Having a preconceived plan, some structure at least, is very worthwhile even if exigencies, either personal preference or unavoidable such as changes of artist or performance times, result in last minute changes. I have never actually done exactly what I planned to do and I've never really regretted it either.  In a strange way the regrets of what I might have seen or done but, for whatever reason, couldn't just make me want to go to another festival.


Here is an artist that was certainly not on my 'to-see' list at Latitude 2010 because I hadn't even heard of her a year ago.  Impressive on the Lake Stage, although I only caught some of her set, was Alice Gold. She was due to play EOTR 2010 some weeks later, and was therefore on my want-to-hear list, but had to cancel at shortly before the event and this is yet another reason for changes of plan. The timing is now however good - her début album Seven Rainbows is released in the UK on Monday, 4 July and it is on my list of New Music 2011 that I want.

As far as I know she is not appearing at any of the festivals to which I am going this summer. The counterpoise is that there are artists, about whom I currently know nothing at all, that are. That actually matters more.

If you are going to Truck Festival 2011 then there is a very useful site, that acts as planner and clash-alert, that I found on Wednesday. More on that, and some first thoughts on the artists that I particularly wish to see there, very soon.

Latitude 2010 → EOTR 2010 → New Music 2010 - Part 17

With EOTR 2010 just a few days away and Latitude 2010 still quite fresh in my mind, it is time to tackle a few more images, expectations and hopes for the future. If the following is a little unfocussed, or simply downright confusing, then I'm afraid that this is simply an occupational hazard of 'Thoughts on Music'.  It may completely mystify but, even if not a single person reads it, writing it does make things clearer to me and that matters.
There is some overlap between acts that appeared at Latitude and those to appear at EOTR.  I used that to try and minimize conflicts when I wanted to see more than one act that was performing at the same time. Here are three such that I did at least catch some of at Latitude. Someone asked, only a few days ago, for today's thought on Latitude... 
Oh, how I wish I could but writing a daily post still remains something of a distant ambition.  These photos are probably not the best but hopefully they convey at least something of the atmosphere and the musical variety to be found at such festivals...

This was simply perchance - I admit that I had never heard of her before - but that is all part of the wonderful festival experience. It is that moment; when something or someone impinges on your musical conscience for the first time.  I think that she is a late addition to the line-up at EOTR 2010.


The foregoing is not true of this band. Canadian psychrock five-piece 'Black Mountain' are on the cusp of releasing their third LP, Wilderness Heart, and I own and adore the previous two. This one is just a little different --- and no less awesome.

Stormy High.  Black Mountain live @ Latitude 2010, in the Word Arena.

I wasn't really close enough to do this justice but, let me tell you this, Black Mountain rock.  I can't wait to hear them again at EOTR 2010. The LP Wilderness Heart is high on my list of New Music I Want.

While the music is completely different, The Unthanks are another EOTR act that I caught only very briefly on the Obelisk stage at Latitude 2010.

I think a more intimate setting will suit both them and their music to perfection but that they, and many others of folk-influenced persuasion, played the main stage says a whole lot about music today... I can't wait to see the full live set.

That, of course, is not to say that the whole scene was for ageing folk-hippies...  This act is quite the opposite but on the other hand most of the little kids, there with their parents, seemed to find this act absolutely riveting...  It was the second time that I have seen them live - and for all the chaos [and the almost inevitable premature ending] - it was better than the first and only slightly less scary as I was further away from the front than when I saw them on the Sunset Stage at Latitude 2007.

It is strange to say this but, for all the chaos and strife, Crystal Castles has the same kind of attraction that the equally tempestuous and unpredictable Libertines did (and post-Leeds/Reading 2010 now have once again). Live, while it lasts, they are totally magnetic. The album Crystal Castles II (2010) is pretty flawless; what they self-destroy while performing live is really rather haunting when recorded in the studio and never more so than when recorded on vinyl.

The list of UK bands that I have seen/want to see is growing by the day.  Here are another few pictures from Latitude 2010. I have mentioned all these acts before.

The Good Natured live @ Latitude 2010.

Yuck - as well as their album I'm looking forward to their acoustic side-project as Yu(c)k. The band is performing at EOTR 2010 too.

As I am mentioning forthcoming new music I could hardly fail to include 'Without Why', which has now been released.  Rose Elinor Dougall made a good case for it at Latitude.
If you include acts from outside the UK the list is...
to be quite frank, almost endless.