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)

It's the Riff....

The latest challenge has been thrown down by Mr W....

"Right, after a lot of indecision and prevarication, the next challenge is out there.  And it's the Riff. The guitar line (and it has to be the guitar line) that turns a good song into a classic.  I want your top ten riffs.  No more than two or three bars. Played to death by young boys in guitar shops. Long of hair, behatted and beaded, no doubt.  I'm not talking solos here, I'm talking riffs. Ba-danga-danga-da-dang dang. Ba-danga-danga-da-dang dang.  You know what I mean."

Firsly lets start with one that always tops riff charts and won't be in my list .... step forward Smoke on the Water. Sorry but I find this song so boring and if I ever hear the story behind the song again I think I will scream!!!

Now that I have that out of my system let's go!  So in reverse order....

10. Last Night - The Strokes

For a period at the start of the new century they were the hottest band around.  A great first album that they have never been able to match.  This is a great song and if you looking for riffs this certainly has one of the all time greats.  Simple but so effective and drives the whole song.

9. Doctor Doctor - UFO

Now I could have a top 10 of riffs just featuring UFO songs and the riff meister himself Michael Schenker.  This is one of their best and still gets the crowd bouncing to this day.

8. Seven Nation Army - White Stripes

Now strictly this is part bass and part guitar riff.  But this cannot be left off the list as Jack White's riff drives the whole song, along with Meg White's wonderful minimal drumming and is a great example of how less can be more.

7. Paint it Black - Rolling Stones

Now most top 10 riff lists will include the Stones but it will be (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction.  However I believe this another great example of how a riff interwoven with the drum track can really make a song move up to the next level.  Always loved this song with it's Eastern flavoured riff.

6. House of The Rising Sun - The Animals

Now Paul's challenge suggested songs played by young boys in guitar shops and when I was a lad and all my friends picked the guitar for the first time this is the one that they all learnt to play first.  The riff is basically the song and love the way that the Hammond organ comes in and follows the guitar part.  Another example of simple is best and a timeless classic.

5. Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne

Featuring the sadly missed and legendary Randy Rhoads.  A song that features at least two classic riff lines - nothing quite matches the opening riff when the main part of the song kicks in - the Crazy Train is off and running!

4. Smells like Teen Spirit - Nirvana

The grunge riff classic. Had a whole generation of young boys in the early 90s learning Kurt Cobain's classic riff.  Unfortunately led to bands like Bush so maybe not such a good thing!

3. Can't Stop - Red Hot Chili Peppers

Great riffs should have the ability to get under your skin and this one from sublime, and under rated, John Frusciante certainly does that. I think I couldn't get this out of my head for about two years!

2. Sweet Child O' Mine - Guns N' Roses

One of the most memorable and famous riffs in the last 20+ years.  Probably one of the greatest starts to any song ever and all thanks to the excellent guitar work from Slash.  Their greatest song by far and the heights were never matched again.

1. Paranoid - Black Sabbath

This is the riff bar none from another of the masters of the riff Tony Iommi.  A staple of every rock club in every town and never fails to get a floor full of blokes all pretending that they can play guitar.  A true classic.  Here it is in all its glory....

So there you have it!  As ever a really difficult task of narrowing down my favourites and some narrowly missed out so I have to give a few honourable mentions to ones that nearly made it including Purple Haze - Jimi Hendrix, Ever Fallen in Love - Buzzcocks, This Charming Man - The Smiths, Down Down - Status Quo, Spirit of Radio - Rush plus many more that I haven't got time to list here.

Over to you now Paul!

What *were* you thinking?

As can be found on Paul's blog here I throw down another challenge.  Albums you have bought but now you just ask yourself why???  Well here is my list. I am not proud and actually very embarrassed about some of these.  All I can say was that I was young at the time....

1. She's the Boss - Mick Jagger

I have no idea why I bought this album.  I hadn't really liked anything the Stones had done since the early 70s so why I went out and purchased this I cannot recall.  Given that the credits has a talent list to die for including Jeff Beck, Ray Cooper, Sly Dunbar, Bernard Edwards, Rabbit Bundrick, Herbie Hancock, Nile Rodgers, G.E. Smith, Tony Thompson & Pete Townsend this album is just dreadful.  I have really tried to like it and once a decade I try again but sorry it is still almost unlistenable.  I repeated this all over again with his next solo album Primitive Cool which is just as bad if not worse. Don't ask me why I repeated my mistake - I must have been having a memory failure at the time!

2. Hooray for Boobies - the BloodhoundGang

Bought on the strength of the single "the Bad Touch" which I did find funny at first, probably on the strength of it's video.  The album is basically the same joke over and over and over again ("A lap dance is so much better when the stripper is crying", "Magna Cum Nada", "Yummy Down on This" to name just three "classics"!!!).  It lost it's novelty after one and half plays and after that it became very unfunny and just tedious.  Not to be recommended....

3. Pocket Full of Kryptonite - Spin Doctors

Another album I bought on the strength of one track I loved ("Two Princes" - which I still like today).  Allmusic describes the album as "full of the loose, leisurely three-chord pop/rock jams".  Yes there is that dreaded word "Jams".  A jamming session may be fun for a band and it's mates down a small pub/club on a Sunday evening but not as a full proper album.  This album is not in anyway offensive but it is just so completely boring and seems to go on forever!  Every time I have tried to listen to it I just lose the will to live way before the end....

4. Heartbeat - Don Johnson

I can't believe I am admitting owning this album!  I have no excuses or mitigating circumstances.  I just went out and bought it.  It is average at best and completely awful at it's worst.  If I remember correctly a song called "Coco Don't" would end up on trial for crimes against music!  I haven't played since the 1980s and that is the way it is going to stay - I haven't been tempted in over 20 years to dig out the record and put it on the turntable....

5. The Return of Bruno - Bruce Willis

My god it just gets worse and worse!  I am so ashamed.  I liked Moonlighting and Die Hard but it is no excuse for paying hard cash for this.  At least I wasn't the one who commissioned and released it - step forward Motown!!!  This album has nothing to redeem it and features Bruce murdering classics such as "Under the Boardwalk", "Young Blood" and "Respect Yourself".  No more to say really - I will get just get my coat and leave....

6. Rhythm and Stealth - Leftfield

I really don't like Dance/House Music.  Nothing personal but just isn't my thing.  So why I bought an album that features just that I have no idea.  I can't even remember buying this album but yet it is in my record collection just sitting there staring at me and collecting dust.

7. Release the Stars - Rufus Wainright

Does anyone actually really like Rufus' music or does no one want to admit it?  I downloaded this album on the back of strong reviews at the time and was interested to find out what all the fuss was about.  I quickly found out that I really didn't like his voice or the theatrical pop opera music.  It got played once and may never be played again....

8. The Miracle - Queen

It is very sad when one of your favourite bands releases a really poor album and this is just such an example.  I remember RAW, a short lived rival rock weekly to Kerrang!, reviewing this and raving how it was a return to their 70s best.  Trust me it wasn't....

9. St. Anger - Metallica

Another example of decline in a great band.  To be honest Metallica's albums had been getting worse for most of the 90s and it reached this low point in 2003.  The recording of this album and the band's near implosion is captured in the classic music documentary "Some Kind of Monster".  The album itself is almost totally devoid of anything that can be described as a tune, has a very weird drum sound mix, has no guitar solos and is just relentless mess of noise.  Avoid at all costs but watch the documentary - it is a classic!

10. Permission to Land - the Darkness

Now I should never let curiosity get the better of me!  I had the misfortune of seeing the Darkness before they broke big playing a small pub/venue the Monarch in Camden.  My friend Jim's band at the time (International Jetset) had been supporting and I was told I had to see this lot.  I walked out after three songs as I hated the preening idiot lead singer/guitarist for both his stage antics and his really annoying voice! I should just have walked out of the store when I saw this album on the display racks in MVC.....

Now for the top 20 favourite songs...

Now I have laid down the challenge for Paul ... top 10 songs! Same criteria, only one per artist and as before not what you think should be the greatest songs but the ones that mean the most to you personally.

Having thrown down the gauntlet I felt that I had to pick it up myself.  Failed miserably to cut it down under 20 (and still needed to make some hard choices!). These are the songs that always come to the top of my mind when thinking of something to search for and play. They may not be the best technically or the greatest songs ever written but they are what appeals most to me. As before only one entry per artist allowed! Here goes in no particular order….

1. Motorcycle Emptiness – Manics

In my opinion one of the most perfect songs ever written with a fantastic opening. Still makes the crowd go mad at their gigs. Reminds me of a holiday with the lads to the Greek island of Ios.

2. London Calling – the Clash
If Paul celebrates his local area this is the one that captures my home town. Played at QPR before games. Mick Jones a big QPR fan. Enough said!

3. Don’t Stop Me Now – Queen
This song just creeps up on me every now and then and I can’t get it out of my head for the rest of the day and have an urge to spin round the room!

4. Babe I’m Going to Leave You – Led Zeppelin
Just builds and builds and love the sound of Mr Plant singing away from the mike that is picked up on the remastered versions.

5. Help! – The Beatles / Tina Turner
The original is my favourite Beatles song (just!) but I also love the slowed down soul version of Ms Turner that sounds like someone looking back over their life.

6. My Hero – Foo Fighters
A great song with a fantastic drum track. Also works really well as an acoustic version.  Also great for a sing a long in the car!

7. Ace of Spades – Motorhead
The metal song and the heaviest bass sound. Should carry health warning for playing in car though as always have urge to drive faster and more aggressively!

8. One – U2
Change of pace needed. One of the great slow songs. Used to be played a lot when drunk late at night after getting home after the pub.

9. Last Goodbye – Jeff Buckley
What a voice and another track that just sounds great. 

10. If I Can Dream – Elvis Presley
If you want to know why this particular Elvis song please read one of my previous blog's here.

11. This is not America – David Bowie & Pat Metheny
I know this is not an obvious choice for Bowie (from an obscure film “The Falcon and the Snowman”), comes from the artistically wilderness years of the mid-80s and a song that I took years to find a copy of after not buying at time (pre-downloads). Just love the vocal.

12. Try a little tenderness – Otis Redding
One of the great sing in the shower songs!

13. Across 110th Street – Bobby Womack
Another song that often creeps into my consciousness and a great soul track.

14. Tom Traubert's Blues – Tom Waits
Vocals you either love or hate … I love them – my parents hated them! A great story telling song. However if you want to remain my friend never ever mention or play the Rod Stewart version to me….!!!

15. Goldfinger – Shirley Bassey
Had to have one Bond theme on the list and this one is has a strange reason! A friend, Phil, used to sing it when drunk backed by a human chorus doing the orchestration. He then did this at one wedding reception and it then became a tradition – if Phil hadn’t sung Goldfinger it didn’t matter what the Vicar or Registrar had said you weren’t properly married! Phil even sang it at me & Mrs D's wedding reception.

16. Sympathy for the Devil – Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones at their best and most dangerous before they became an “institution”!

17. Super Trouper – ABBA
Can’t have a list of great songs without ABBA! Reminds me of Sunday afternoons as a kid after Sunday lunch and before the Big Match with Brian Moore.

18. What a Waste – Ian Dury and the Blockheads
Altogether now …. “Because I chose to play the fool in a six-piece band, First-night nerves every one-night stand. I should be glad to be so inclined.What a waste! What a waste! But I don't mind.”

19.Enjoy the Silence – Depeche Mode
Could have been my theme tune at one point. Great lyrics and music.

20. Our House – Madness
Reminds me of being at school and school discos! Another London song.


There we go! I have even more on my list and looking back over the list I can't believe that, for example there is no Jam or Bruce in it, but you have to stop somewhere!!!! If I was to do it again I would probably come up with a different 20! 


Over to you now Paul….