Latitude 2011 - my first thoughts...

First to mention is that the weather wasn't all that could have been hoped for. In a strange way I'm glad that I have now experienced and survived an often rather soggy festival.  I have in truth been very lucky thus far.  On the other hand I hope that the experience did not discourage those first time festival-goers from repeating the experience. Yes there was some mud, unlike in previous years, but nothing like that to be found at the likes of Glastonbury. I took no pictures of that for it was unremarkable and merely a slight annoyance at worst.

Of course good weather is better for all outdoor activities but, judging from most of the arguments that I overheard, often from within my tiny but dependable tent, it was camping in the wet that led to most of the problems and attendant arguments; it seems to lead to frayed nerves and fractiousness that results in an irrational blame culture.

I didn't take any mud pictures and few that even made the rain seem apparent simply because that is not in the spirit of the whole affair and, in any case, Friday was a glorious English summer's day!

Just how a festival should be - chilling in front of the main stage on Friday lunchtime.

  

This next one does however capture the wetness of Saturday and, because essentially solo acts on a big stage in daylight always lack visual punch, it looks bleaker than it really was.

Suffolk lad and 2011 success story Ed Sheeran performing 'The A Team' on the Obelisk Stage.  It was a very good set indeed and there was no shortage of excellent music from my perspective across all three days.

The first act I saw, on the Sunset Stage on Friday, was Montreal's BRAIDS. 

They had been on my want-to-see list for sometime but until the Thursday I had somehow neglected to notice that they were actually performing.

I have loads more to add and I haven't even looked at 75% of the pictures I took yet!
There might be a slight delay as on Friday I'm off to Truck Festival in Oxfordshire for the first time and so once I return on Monday I should have more than enough to write about for the whole of the rest of the summer, or at least until EOTR 2011 over the first week in September by which time the first Acoustic Moon will also have taken place.

Latitude - but not as you think I might know it...

This was quite some surprise. That he was quite the ultimate professional, something I had assumed, was still not enough to prepare me for this!

I'm not funny about artists, new or old, but this was something else. The BBC reviewer, to be found there and quoted on Amazon.co.uk, doesn't like "Praise and Blame" (the album) one little bit.
I'm going to differ vehemently and I'm far from the only one I think...  Here is a link to a review of the Latitude performances:  http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R16N85EJNS9YVV/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm

The photo is mine, from his Obelisk Stage set on Sunday lunch time in the sunshine, and he is singing John Lee Hooker's 'Burning Hell' as it happens! The denim clad guitarist on the left is in fact Ethan Johns, who produced the album (and also Laura Marling's latest). I was lucky enough to experience both sets in their entirety - the 'Stage In The Woods' on Thursday evening was less favoured in terms of location, weather and acoustics - and about that I agree with the reviewer in almost all respects.

The remarkable caveat is this: It was performed live by all, and only, those artists who appeared on the studio recording (but they are not all in this shot).  It was one of the best live performances of the weekend and that is saying something...

What is more, pigs have learned to fly!   NME carried a review of Praise and Blame that was all the former, an impassioned defence of the concept and execution, married to an 8/10 rating.  I rather think that this would not have happened under the old editorial diktat and all credit to Krissi Murison and her team for putting the relevance back in the magazine in less than a year.

One is just not enough.

I haven't even posted any real thoughts on Latitude 2009 yet but I will do so soon. Suffice it to say that, while it had the occasional and inevitable flaw, it was simply wonderful and so here a few photos to run with just for now.

Ladyhawke live on the Obelisk Stage on Friday afternoon.

Kap Bambino on the Sunset Stage on Friday...
Such good, if rather curious, behaviour would not last very long!

I don't think I can survive 2009 by going to only one festival... and now I don't have to because I'm going to 'The End of the Road' in North Dorset too. Even as the storm builds, a bit of acoustic never did any harm, and this was in the 'Film and Music Tent' last Thursday evening.