This weekend I went to my first proper festival, camping and all, Latitude Festival in sunny Suffolk. It really was sunny, despite there apparently being house-shaking thunderstorms where my mum was in Nottingham, so we were extremely lucky weather-wise, and this made the camping a far less terrifying prospect than expected. The festival is a bit more grown-up and cultural than many others, with as many bands for the Mojo-reading dads and Radio 2-loving mums as chart acts and upcoming indie-poppers for the teenagers. There were also many other ace things such as comedy, literary, poetry, cabaret and theatre tents, the literary one being my home between bands. Here are the bands I saw (some full sets, some just a few songs) with commentary where necessary or at least a mark out of 10:
Friday
Midlake – 3/10
Tinariwen – 5/10
Magic Numbers – 7/10 – very jolly
The Rumble Strips – 7/10 – only heard Motrocycle but it was good
Les Rita Mitsouko – 5/10 – very dull, only get points for being French
New Young Pony Club – 8/10 – The Bomb was ace and very Sounds-esque
Patrick Wolf – 10/10 – extremely energetic and didn’t chat much, but it was a good Patrick gig cos the pushy kids weren’t in such high attendance as usual and he even sang Umbrella!
Saturday
Passenger – 8/10 – lovely! They said we were the nicest audience they’d ever had and we just sat and clapped politely so I felt a bit bad if they’d never had better, but Do What You Like was great anyway & they still sound like Tracy Chapman meets Kate Nash meets Magic Numbers.
Herman Dune – 4/10 – I missed I Wish That I Could See You Soon and only caught their boring last song so their score suffered greatly for this
Bat For Lashes – 9/10 – gorgeous and lovely! I want to be her! More songs like Prescilla would be good as others were less good
Remi Nicole – 8/10 – Go Mr Sunshine and Rock’n’Roll are brilliant, but I’m not sure she’ll be a huge star
CSS – 10/10 – full of personality and colour and super-aceness! Their music sounded great and got everyone in a party atmosphere in the sunshine
I’m From Barcelona – 100/10 – yes that is meant to say 100, as IFB were absolutely amazing! Everyone agreed and there was a huge crush for merchandise at the end, with everyone from young children to their dads walking off looking dazed by the brilliance and grinning from ear to ear saying things like “absolutely outstanding!” and “best band of the festival!” – I think that was a success then!
The Good, The Bad and The Queen – 2/10 – awful.
Sunday
The Hoosiers – 5/10 – boring except Worried About Ray
Hello Saferide – 10/10 – surely the least ugly band in the whole world? Brilliant lyrics and catchy tunes too.
Scouting For Girls – 6/10
Charlotte Hatherley – 7/10 – turns out I wad right not to bother with anything but Bastardo and Kim Wilde, as the rest were quite average compared to their aceness
Cold War Kids – 4/10 – even Hang Me Up To Dry wasn’t all that exciting
Camera Obscura – 7/10 – like last time I saw them they wasted their 2 best songs (Lloyd… and If Looks Could Kill) by playing them together in the middle of the set, those 2 track being amazing but the rest a bit boring
The Rapture – 2/10 – the music is OK but ruined by the singer and the lack of hooks or any distinction between one song and the next
The Hot Puppies – 8/10 – ace new band in the vein of Long Blondes, will definitely be keeping an eye on these ladies
Jarvis Cocker – 7/10 – didn’t do any Pulp songs but got everyone singing along with Cunts Are Still Running The World and a cover of Eye of the Tiger!
Arcade Fire – 10/10 – a band I’d wanted to see live for ages and they didn’t disappoint, with Rebellion being completely amazing and Tunnels and Wake Up were great too, especially with the crowd doing the “OHHH-OHHH”s in the latter – a perfect last song for the festival!