latitude 2011

haha same. was muddy as fuck this year though, especially in the campsite. several times i thought i was gonna slip over and go arse over tit but luckily stayed on my feet with a bit of a slide.

was enjoyable weekend again though will post a list of who i saw in a bit

ok so who i saw...

got there on thurs and had a few beers and food, went into the arena and chilled out in poetry tent and stuff for a bit but a fairly low key night overall.

friday i saw..

braids 8/10 good opening band and nice shoegazey stuff going on. better live than the record suggests

avi buffalo 7/10 pretty good, the frontman was a bit too enthusiastic though. again more enjoyable live than on record. left a couple of songs towards the end to have a piss and get a pint ready for the next act,my main event...

edwyn collins 10/10 fucking loved this. was right at the front centre stage. proper emotional, grown men around me were crying at the end. big times.

wanda jackson 8/10 knew this would either be terrible or great and luckily it was great. was nice to see so many teenagers in the crowd seemingly loving it and wanda was having a great time too. did a couple of elvis covers and a winehouse one too along with her own stuff. good times.

fools gold 6/10 were next.t hey were ok but nowt special.

crocodiles 9/10 my third time seeing them and as great as always. proper frontman and proper tunes.

wanted to see caribou next but my mate had just arrived onsite and i had to go give him his ticket so did that. then we went and saw...

jonny 7/10 euros childs and norman blake from teenage fanclubs band. similar to the lp really, a couple of great moments but some dull ones too. pretty enjoyable though.

the vaccines 8/10 still feel like a bit of a guilty pleasure to me but im really growing to love the lp and they were excellent live too.

the national 8/10 lots of people were saying this was amazing and 10/10 and all that but i must admit i wasnt as convinced despite enjoying it a lot. i think i preferred them headlining the 2nd stage last year and at times they felt slightly lost on the big open main stage. the encore was amazing though, so pleased to hear about today live as its one of my favourites of theres plus they did vanderlyle crybaby geeks acoustic in the crowd which was a special moment.

friday night it then rained shitloads which led to the site being a bit of a mudbath for the rest of the weekend. also i got a text message from our mate who had given us a lift there and was meant to be giving us a lift home. he'd had to leave early due to a family emergancy so i had to give the bird a call and see if she'd come pick us up sunday night. told her it would be fine to collect us about 8ish as she had work monday morning and id only miss eels and james blake and could cope with that.

saturday i saw...

adam ant 8/10 went along to this out of curiosity more than anything but really suprised me. was great fun and he played all the hits.

tripwires 7.5/10 were who i saw next. not really heard much by these but knew they were shoegazey so thought theyd be up my street. was a good set, very early 90s influenced and similar to stuff like yuck. finished with a neil young cover. looking forward to their album.

the walkmen 7/10 my mate thought these were the worst band of the weekend but i thought htey were pretty good. great to hear the rat live finally, monster tune.

british sea power 9/10 directly followed the walkmen and despite having a short timeslot played a huge set. really are a stunning live band and never let me down. think that was my 7th time seeing them. ended up with some in crowd action too which was good as theyd not done that the last few times ive seen them.

seasick steve 4/10 we checked out next. thought it was pretty shit though but may have been cos it was pissing it down and we were quite far back.

got down the front after seasick for THE CRIBS 9/10 and luckily the rain started to clear. they played a huge set that felt like hit after hit. kids were loving it and flying over my head crowdsurfing throughout. ryan wore a lovely purple wig for the whole set too and looked beautiful.

echo and the bunnymen 8/10 were next, played the whole of the crocodiles lp then a few greatest hits. was loads better than i expected and really enjoyed it. one of those bands who have played tons of festivals ive been at but id never checked out before, glad i did now.

didnt bother with the headliners (foals and paulo nutini lol) so went to a different tent and caught..

hypnotic brass ensemble 8/10 these were cool as fuck and had a great atmosphere, tent was banging and people dancing all over the place. great stuff.

mark lamarrs night followed and we saw...

the zizaniques 5/10 didnt really work following hypnotic brass ensemble, average.

the kalakuta millionaires 7/10 picked things up a bit and got the place moving again.

barrence whitfield 8/10 the main one i wanted to see of the lamarr thing. great stuff.

SUNDAY NOW....

started in comedy for marcus brigstocke and co doing the early edition going through the papers etc 8/10 always love this at latitude, wasnt the best but always funny.

then went to literary tent to see stuart maconie 6/10 who was ok.

instigate debate was on after and i got a spot right down the front for this. was a question time style debate and the panel included peter tatchell, david davis, john cruddas and some daily mail journo and a rep from ukuncut. 9/10 really enjoyed being part of this and was good that there was no bands on i really wanted to see during the time this was on.

carl barat 7/10 was the first music of the day i saw. was good, solo stuff is fairly pony but did a mixture of stuff from his other bands which was excellent. finished on dont look back into the sun too which was hugel pissing it down outside so he had a huge crowd in the tent.

sea of bees 8/10 nice suprise these were. the main bird is weird as fuck and sounds a little like joanna newsom. had read press compariing her to a female sparklehorse and i kinda get what they mean.

os mutantes 7/10 still not really sure what i thought of this. was nothing like the classic records, just all felt a bit cheesey and poppy where as the lps are cool as fuck and weird and psychadelic. still had a good time though and pleased i saw them.

clock opera 4/10 dont really know much about these but saw them whilst sat eating some noodles. seemed pretty dull.

ghost poet 8/10 got involved for him. had a decent crowd considering hes pretty unknown and it was raining. set started slowly but soon was banging. hope he gets big soon as theres some great tunes on the lp. cash and carry me home sounded amazing.

glasvegas 4/10 saw most of their whiney set in the rain then went back to take the tent down etc so the bird could pick us up.

overall a great time again. obviously a bit shit about the mud and that our lift fucked off early meaning i had to miss eels/james blake but tbh by sunday night i was done over anyway.

10/10

WHY DID YOU IGNORE MY TEXTS JP. WHY.

far too shattered to do a proper run down. got very big this weekend, indeed. best band of the weekend were the walkmen, probably one of the best festival performances i have ever seen tbh. literally have no idea what your mate is on about jp cribs were very good, especially without marr but the poor sound hampered them somewhat. anna calvi was tops, bright eyes was fantastic, avi buffalo were decent. my morning jacket battled against the rain well and laid down a very good set. deerhunter were surprisingly good considering i find them boring on record. gold panda was self indulgent but got better towards the end. i enjoyed james blake a lot more than others seemed to. what i saw of carl barat was as expected...a bit dull with the libs tunes lifting it a million miles. villagers were also dull and sounds like approximately four trillion other bands. BSP were top notch and eels were a huge amount of fun - i forgot how bluesy and vital they can sound. caribou were excellent although i remember little of them. gabriella noble was really fit, sweet and pretty good. the national were good from what i remember, agree with jp that the end of their set was a pretty special moment.

dylan moran was absolutely fucking sublime in the comedy tent, up there with chris rock as the best stand up i have ever seen. alan carr was pretty good and jason byrne was a lot of fun to watch. brendon burns was real good and nathan caton was decent. saw some others that i can't remember, but none of them disappointed.

in terms of general drawbacks, there's too many kids, not enough drugs, too much rain, inability to sleep well and far too many people watching bands whilst standing perfectly still, arms folded, stone-faced, no doubt to write about it in their shitty fucking blogs rather than enjoying themselves in the moment. general positives included a ridiculous amount of fit, chatty girls, truly superb food options all in all, good toilet maintenance (it's very important to me ) and a friendly vibe which overcame all the mud. a fantastic weekend and a good headspace to be in. I LOVE FESTIVALS.

shagged and feel like shit now though.

10/10

festivals are for average cunts. you're part of it.

forgot to mention that i saw grouplove in my original post. they were alright, colors is a tune.

sorry for not replying to your anna calvi text baz, was sat in the lit tent right at the front for the debate thing booing tories and daily mail journos, kinda felt in my element and dont really get calvi. meant to reply once id done but completely forgot.

the only other text you sent i think id just got back to my tent, plus it didnt really make sense

almost certain i saw you in the queue for the bar on friday night though, i think it was just before the national came on and you were wearing a white tshirt. you were just out of reach though and i didnt wanna lose my place in the queue also i didnt want to shout at you as i was pretty pissed and was paranoid it wasnt you.

You horrible cunt JP

yeah that was me, i was pretty wasted by this point. would have been an emotional moment next time, eh.

just looked back in my phone and saw the text "im here and o feel u" literally no idea mate, sorry

i want it to be last thursday again

yeah you looked proper monged in the queue, pretty much asleep id say. remember being almost certain it was you eventually as i could see your bitchtits

i've been cultivating them to match your belly

haha

How much were beers this year? Still the plastic cup malarky? JP, has the capacity increased much since I last went?

I'm 90% most probably gonna automatically go next year due to their being no Glastonbury. I'd love to say I'll do something like Bestival but I know I won't be arsed to travel the extra ground to go there.

beer was 3.90 a pint.

and yeah still the deposit for the plastic cup which i think is good really as v is shit with the ground covered in paper cups everywhere. not too much hassle holding onto your plastic one. tends to encourage me to drink more actually as if im holding it it may as well be full.

capacity is 35,000. theyve made the site a little bigger since you last went though and now have two bridges. didnt feel too crowded this year, think they have the size spot on now really.

hope you do come next year bruv, its been a while xx

Thank you JP. My mate Flacko is getting married next July. Best not be during latitude the cunt. I don't mind the plastic cups either really, just shove it in the birds bag once I'm done with it.
They still only search bags on the way through to the arena? No body searches?

yeah no body searches so was able to get quite a few tins in, especially as it was raining so everyone was wearing jackets.

lets hope 2012 is when the flaming lips finally play.

They've done every other festival going so I can't see why not.

Gutted you missed Eels I think you'd of loved them and come back & listened to nothing but Eels for 3 weeks. The same thing happened to Krburg once he finally listened to me & checked Eels out. He's obsessed with them now.

What's that keeping your cups thing?

basically when you buy your first pint you pay 3quid extra as a deposit on your cup. then when youre finished you can get your 3quid back.

it basically to try and be a bit greener and stop people dropping their cups on the floor as soon as theyre done.

i think it works pretty well.