Latitude 2012 - Friday

I woke up at 7.45 after a relatively good night’s sleep only woken by some heavy downpours on the tent. The rain seemed to have passed mainly through and the morning was overcast but dry. Paul & I had a leisurely morning reading the programme in our camping chairs sat outside our tents & planning our day ahead.

We headed off around midday into the arena area. First up was the Silver Seas (info here) in the Word Arena. This band was a recommendation of Paul, via Danny Baker and the Word massive, and we were right down the front for them. They were pretty good playing melodic pop/rock and definitely the right time of year for it with their 70s west coast summer rock feel.

They were followed by Lloyd Cole (info here) who did an acoustic set accompanied by his son, Will. Lloyd started off wearing an old man’s flat cap and what looked like golfing trousers which made him look much older than he actually did once he took off the hat to reveal he still had a full set of hair! As he said himself it was made worse by the fact his young son looks like he did back in the day! Looks aside it was a good set and Lloyd is obviously very proud of his son. His son also brought a very noisy and enthusiastic fan club of friends (who had American accents).

Next we were off to the main stage and the Obelisk Arena. They have some banks of seating on the back of the arena and we settled there to watch a Swedish female duo called First Aid Kit (info here). I guess best described as an alternative country band. They were ok but not really my thing. I have to say I probably nodded off in a couple of places for one of my legendary Latitude power naps!

They were followed by Glen Hansard (info here) who we went down near to the front to see . He is an Irish singer songwriter and I have been a huge fan of his band the Frames since the early 90s. They are criminally over looked in my humble opinion. He has also done a couple of albums with the Czech female singer, Markéta Irglová, as the Swell Season and they are best known for the song “Falling” which won an Oscar. He has just released his first solo album ("Rhythm and Repose") which is very good and I would highly recommend. His performance was great & one of my favourite performances of the weekend. What was really nice to see was that he had a huge smile for all of his performance and looked like he was really enjoying it. He was joined for some of the songs by a selection of Bon Iver band members.

Last up for the day were Dexys (info here) back in the Word Arena. Now the set was heavily weighted towards their new album which I was glad I had bought & listened to in advance. It is an excellent album and worked well in the very theatrical performance the band did (which included the legend that is Mick Talbot on keyboards). Kevin Rowland looked very old but considering the well documented problems he has had it is good to see him well and performing again. The single song performance of the weekend had to be their version of “Come on Eileen” which had the tent really rocking!

Sadly the day was brought to an abrupt end shortly afterwards with the theft of wallet including all my money during the Dexy's set.  I had even put it into my bag for safer keeping than in my pocket but when I went to get it out I found both the front and back pockets of my bag were open and the wallet was gone.  After reporting it we headed back to our tents for a few drinks (me vodka & orange & Paul gin & tonic!). The rain arrived at around 10pm & we bid each other good night and headed into our tents for an early night.

As a post note I have to say that all of the people that I dealt with following the theft were excellent from the Welfare tent, who very caring and sympathetic when they took my crime report, to the Suffolk Police, who must have called me at least 5 times, and the Lost Property team who returned my wallet to me in the post after it was found dumped minus the money but with driving licence still intact. My mate Paul was also a star and just went straight to the cash point and said how much did I need. Big thank you to all concerned.

(All live Latitude pictures with kind permission of Paul Waring)

Latitude 2012 - Thursday

Latitude 2012 had finally arrived!

Given the weather forecast for the weekend, and the already very wet conditions under foot after the wonderful summer weather we had recently, I had agreed with my mate Paul, who I was going to the festival with again, that I would I leave my car at a nearby location and he would drive us both in as he has a 4x4 which would get us on and off in the mud (hopefully!). Given the conditions it was the right decision.

After doing the school run for my oldest and then dropping my youngest at pre-school it was off on the car journey to Suffolk with the iPod spinning the sounds of first Weller “..at the BBC” and then the very good new Dexy’s album “One Day I'm Going to Soar”. Traffic on the journey up was pretty good and even the M25 behaved itself!

Met Paul at around 1pm and we arrived at festival at just after 2pm. A little bit of a queue to get in to the site but we were soon in and headed off to same area that we camped in last year which isn't too busy compared to some of the others as you can see from the ariel shot below!

 

We got the tents all set up in the sunshine and had a beer to celebrate outside our tents. Now before I get even more sarcastic comments on the choice of drink – this was provided to me by Paul and I spent the rest of the weekend on the proper stuff!

Then we headed off into the arena area for a wonder around and a couple of ales followed by a lovely homemade burger from the Isle of Arran. As the rain started to come down we decided to head back to the tents for a nightcap. After a quick vodka & orange the rain really started to come down so we decided to call it a night and head off to our tents for a relatively early night in preparation for the event to properly kick off on Friday.

As an aside this was the first time that I had come on Thursday (usually I had rushed up on Friday arriving at around 1pm a little stressed and missing the first few bands) and it definitely made a difference for the rest of the weekend with getting all set up on Thursday and a relaxing start on Friday before catching the first acts of the weekend. Big thank you to Mrs D who gave me the pass and permission to go up on the Thursday!

(All live Latitude pictures with kind permission of Paul Waring except for aerial shot)