Nah tbh I have no idea what the wine guys look like as their pictures have red blobs on their faces. I posted enough pics of me in the run up to the festival though but didn't have anyone come up to me with wine.
 
Gonna go to bed now as I am very tired. GOODNIGHT ALL, LOTS TO DISCUSS IN THE MORNING XX

Get well soon Maddix.

Well, I had a fantastic time but that was an extremely strange festival.

(Allegedly) 4 rapes, missing children and fights everywhere. I was really gutted as I'd spent the past 3 years explaining to my friends that Latitude is not like other festivals really and that it was civilized but it was basically Reading on the campsite this year.

I'm not going to blame Florence and Mumford & Songs, but it was probably their fault so let's leave it that.

Here is a vaguely chronological bit about who I ****ing saw and was notable, yeah.

On the Friday, Nigel Kennedy and Tom Jones. Kennedy is an absolute beast and his set was great. It wasn't the ideal place to be watching orchestral arrangements of Duke Ellington songs and I was dubious that he was going to pull it off but everyone seemed to be getting into it and having a great time. Funnier than most of the comedians I saw as well. Tom Jones was the most depressing thing ever and I don't want to really relive it as I waited about an hour and a half to get in to be polite to my friend and it ended up with some dude from Preston getting off with a massively cute russian teenager who I had fancied for at least a whole 20 minutes.

Friday early on was a bit of a wasted opportunity as I watched basically a load of mediocre comedians and bands, including Steven K Amos who had an almost word perfect recreation of last year (including someone using the same heckle, ffs) and I Blame ****ing Coco, after the Sunrise Arena times got ****ed up after it collapsed (!!) in the morning. Villagers were decent, to be fair.

Then I watched Islet's heroic set on Friday, which got shut down about 10 minutes before the end. This didn't stop them playing though as they carried on drumming and dancing in the crowd as the kit was taken apart. Fun inventive and challenging rock music, I'd love to be one of those weird fanboys that follow them around the country like them Britsh Sea Power ones that have some faintly nazi name.

The National really nailed in the tent as well. I'm not a nerd like some people and don't really think they're the best band ever but it was pretty special. Lovely lovely crowd as well, proper 'up for it' and the screams of FLORENCE ****ING WHO cheered me right up. Great set and played everything that I've heard of.

After they finished I got the beers in, yeah, and watched Part Brut destroy the poetry arena with basically all Eddie Argos' best hits. That was my Friday.

Saturday was probably the best day. I started it off with a surprisingly good Active Child and the gigantic queue for one of the Daniel Kitson previews, which I managed to skip my seeing my English teacher from year 10 and his mates who were basically the nicest people ever. I later overheard him descirbe me as "one of his favourite students ever" which is definitely the greatest way I've ever been talked about and left me smiling all the way to the Literary tent, where Easton Ellis turned out to be the most entertaining author ever. "I don't wanna talk about the book - this hangover is definitely the most important thing in the world right now." Then it was over to the Comedy Arena for Angelos Epithemiou who was definitely the best comedian of the weekend.

After that done finished it was Zun Zun Egui on the Lake Stage, who were pretty enjoyable but not as amazing as I hoped. I mainly gave them another paragraph as I later found out that after the performance BeeRose (I think?) went up to someone I was speaking to and asked them if they had just spoken to "grouchland from the official forums". **** that mate, not cool at all. Just say hi please instead. Anyway, Obelisk after that for the evening where James overrun rudely and got cheered for it. Maccabees were about as good as I hoped for but next was something really quite terrible.

THAT CRYSTAL CASTLES SET WAS THE WORST I HAVE EVER BEEN IN THE CROWD FOR OUT OF ALL THE COUPLE HUNDRED SETS I HAVE SEEN. There's having a bit of fun in the crowd then there's it being violent, uncomfortable and dozens of people being dragged out from fainting. It's ok to start punching people and calling the crowd pussies when you have two people who travel with you just to take out people who you manage to **** off by stamping on their shoulder isn't it. **** Alice Glass and her terrible group! Please can these horrible horrible people be banned from the country. I will NOT be going to the UEA in October but I may wait outside and twat the bitch with my camping mallet. ****s sake.

Of course, it was just about worth standing through for the MAIN EVENT BELLE & SEBASTIAN wasn't it. Oh my days. Might well be the best thing I have ever seen, though their set wasn't easily long enough it was an absolute perfect headlining set and they pulled it off in so many ways that  people weren't expecting. Fun, charming, perfect, every over good adjective. Incredible.

I ****ed off to the campsite to get drunk again after that whilst the ever more noticable LAD population which ruined everything apart from the acts ran around throwing rubbish everywhere and screaming BANTER in people's faces.

I was feeling kinda depressed the whole of Sunday after finding out about the ****ing rapes. Seriously, I doubt I'll come back to the festival for a whole weekend after this. They were just the tip of the iceberg though really. It was little things the organisers did as well, like having an exclusivity deal with The Times and there being no sense of any times being stuck to on the music stages. Allegedly ~60 local teenagers taken off site after drinking too much and I even heard there was 2 small children missing very early Sunday morning but I guess that had been sorted out. Still, this year was far from extremely enjoyable and I was gutted that it has been ruined by, who I like to refer to as, the ****s.

Onwards and upwards though, and Sunday had some great acts. I started it off with the Early Edition which is really not suited to the Comedy Arena at all. Still Rufus Hound turned out to be OK in real life. When that finished I walked around before seeing The Antlers who weren't as terrible on record but, like The Coral later on in the evening, just happened to exist in front of me. That was ok though as next on was Jamie mother****ing Lidell playing his transcontinental smash hits and getting his groove thang on. What a set! Just imagine if we had a load of cool stuff like that on instead of 'Mumford & Sons'. Are they even real?

Here is what I did to avoid that (I heard the most packed set of the weekend):

- watched Jamie Lidell take his gear off stage
- had a ****
- walked all the way to the woods to have a ****
- walked back to the Uncut
- watched the first The Big Pink song (terrible)
- walked to the campsite supermarket to try and get cheap pasta (they had none)
- had another ****
- ate some chips

For some bizarre reason the Obelisk cleared out after that letting me get basically right to the front for Dirty Projectors, who were the second best band of the weekend if we're honest. Demented, ****ed up, pop music and ridiculously tight prog sections. Longstreth looked like a mentalist and the rumoured 13 hour practice sessions paid off. Yet again, though, I ended up depressed after some **** in the crowd shouted "COME BACK TO MY TENT, I'LL PAY YOU ONE POUND" and no one near bothered to headbutt him.

That incident combined with post-Mumfords based ennui left me in a bit of a groove which wasn't helped by Emo Philips last night. He's an absolute legend, and I wanted it to be his amazing comeback show and I think everyone in the tent wanted him to be brilliant but it was terribly uncomfortable to watch and he basically died a death as The Temper Trap blasted from the mainstage. Really gutted about it - partly because I missed Yeasayer and These New Puritans for it and partly on a personal level because he travelled all this way and it was quite sort of depressing. Nearly had a little cry about it during the dullards The Coral who I watched next.

Jonsi was great as expected. I was expecting the full live show like Fever Ray got last year but he did even get the projections. Nice costume change though and it was epic, to be fair. Still about 10% as good as Sigur Ros in 08 though.

Finished the weekend off with Vampire Weekend headlining who I was quite surprised with to be honest. Worth missing Grizzly Bear for, definitely, and a lot more entertaining that I was bracing myself for. They've got plenty of hits, haven't they, and I like the little touches like mention Bret Easton Ellis and that. Good show, lads.

So, to recap, I had a great weekend but I doubt I'll be going back in future unless there is some kind of measure brought in to keep out knobheads, though I'm not sure what that would be.

Just to say, the Times exclusivity deal really, REALLY annoyed me as well.  I was staying in the Tangerine Fields (much much quieter in comparison to the rest of the campsite! wow.) and they had a "Times babe" in there every day hawking the paper.  Yesterday she actually went up to the queue for the shower saying "Anyone waiting for a shower want a copy of the Times and a free bag?"  Yeah, I'm going to use it as a towel, lady!  I resisted my urge  to say something about not giving Murdoch any more money. 

I am a long term forum member but infrequent poster but I do feel compelled to join in here.

I enjoyed the weekend and caught some great acts but it was spoilt by drunk, arrogant youngsters who believed themselves to be the only people at the festival.

I have never known the campsite as noisy either. There was very little respect for other people.

Highlights for me (being a main streamer) were James and Vampire weekend. Andrew Lawrence in the comedy arena also deserves a mention.

Sorry to sound like an old fart (only 38 honestly) but i really will be thinking long and hard before returning next year. Latitude may have run it's course for me.

Glad you had a great time, Grouchland, and - though you have very little chance of becoming a missing child now - I take your point. I noticed the change in the Latitude crowd last year –when some sick fukk said he’d never heard of Nick Cave and couldn’t believe that anyone would attend anything other than The Gossip.
 
The answer, as you intimate, is simple: Latitude can only be different to the other festivals (crowd wise) if it shuns the ilk of Mumford and Florence. Maddix's report of kids barricading themselves in the campsite till they came on is very depressing. Despite some good (but few - if any - great) acts, there really was far too much V guff this year.
 
Obviously, rapes and attacks can happen anywhere, but latitude would do well to avoid the mainstream crowd. Commerciality is still possible, perhaps enhanced even, without it.
 
I know people had a terrific time (as festivals are enjoyable – I even used to enjoy Leeds Fest back in the year), but I would urge the likes of Grouchland and Maddix to retain their critical voice else the music-booking policy beak-dives.
 
 
How did you get back so quickly, G?

The National were all that I hoped for, and I was very suprised by Vampire Weekend, who I thouroughly enjoyed.
The XX, not for me, but I really enjoyed the Coral.
 
Will have to think long and hard about going for the 5th time, as I left on a sour note with the kids next door staying up ALL night, so I left site at 6-30am.
 
Commerciality comes at a price, maybe this is it. I saw it happen at V, and fear the worst for Latitude.
 
And to top the lot, JPS fags FFS!!!
What happened to Marlboro.

Mr Moochoo


 
How did you get back so quickly, G?

I was awoke at about 5.30 by some arses about 3 metres from my tent attempting to blow up a can of deodorant and burning a welly.

Mr Moochoo


_{Sounds good, but it's deeply depressing that every fool and his frog flocked to see fukking Florence and manky  Mumford and Sons. The crowd at Latitude seem to prefer run-of-the-pit chart guff to the masked men proffering something a little different. It bodes ill for the future. What's the point of opera and theatre if Kasabian are headlining?} 

 

Although they aren't to your taste, why does enjoying F+TM and Mumford mean that you wouldn't like something a little bit different too? I think it's a bit daft to put a direct correlation between the two!
 
I really liked Mumford and Sons and thought Florence did well, but also enjoyed going off and finding different bits and bobs around and about.
 
I've never been too keen on the theatre but i do love the cabaret and comedy...it would be a massive shame if latitude ever lost it's wide array of different genres.

Because Mumford & Sons are everything that's wrong with mainstream British pop music and Florence isn't far behind?

LMAO Grouchland - CRYSTAL CASTLES. Omg. How awful!! She was vile and was probably on every drug possible. Had a pretty good weekend though, belle and sebastian were amazing ;D just wanted to give em' a big squish for being so awesome.

I wonder if those rape allegations were true - bit of a worry really. FR have got too greedy and therefore the amount of people they are letting in are messing up this festival BIG time. Seriously, CIRCA 2007, COME ON! Oh and, I knew people would be letting chinese lanterns off while Vampire Weekend were playing. So much for the ban.

I've got high hopes for next year actually. I do feel a little sorry for FR, last year they got moaned at by tons of people for havign three headliners over 50 and a load of bog standard older acts lower down the bill such as Squeeze, Pretenders etc so this year they booked tonnes of young acts and got a load of rowdy drunk kids, rapes and a feel of Reading/Leeds.

Hopefully next year they'll go for a more sensible happy medium of the two that appeals to both adults and kids but feels more like their Sunday tabloid in a field kinda vibe they were after. The way to go is established but interesting bands with critical acclaim, your Flaming Lips, LCD Soundsystems etc. The oldies will love it, the kids will love it but you'll be less likely to have people getting out of control and rapey.

Last year was perfect and the best Latitude.

Least I got a good phone signal this year..

They did get a lot of stick for it though in the run up to it, ourselves included. And they did appear to listen to the complaints, probably way too much if we're honest. I think they'll do the same again this time and will obviously be wanting to get away from the rape side of things. I wouldn't be suprised if we had quite a safe lineup next year, not in terms of safe and boring musically but bands whose fans won't get stupidly drunk and rape people. More Belle and Sebastian type acts plz.

Fleet Foxes would be good for headlining next year as theyve got a new album coming out. They were incredible at End of the road (much better than Latitude now as capacity is only 5,000 people, everyone is pleasant and lovely and not up there backsides). Some silly little kid who's living off mummys and daddys estate and his girlfriend decided to stand right infront of me and my boyfriends friend (were both quite short) while watching Belle and Sebastian. They were doing the encore and they were shouting out songs which had already been played!! Basically, they were trying there darndest to be annoying and theyclearly hadn't been watching there set. My boyfriend told them to jog on in a nice way but he wouldnt budge, So my boyfriends friend whistled right down his ear. Not a flinch! it's teenage coonts like that, that really spoil latitude festival for me.  Enough said.

I thoroughly enjoyed this years fest. Perhaps not the best for me (the music line-up was a little weak) but far from my least favourite.

Thursday was a bit manic really, seems like there was a much higher percentage of weekend ticket holders than day ticket holders, many of whom wanted to be in the campsite as soon as the doors opened. Got in OK, tent up, bbq then into the arena for Robert Forster (lit) and the RSC (Theatre).

Friday was a strong day for me, with Black Mountain the early highlight of the festival with a storming set. Tokyo Police Club were very lively in the sunrise, but came up with the goods and the National were superb. Really interesting to see how they've progressed since their previous latitude appearance, and the crowd were loving every minute. Quick beer tent then back to the Sunrise for a chance to dance to Losers and then some nice tech-house.

Saturday took a bit of time to get going (not helped by my lack of sleep after a high energy finish to Friday!), John Grant, School of seven bells and Frightened Rabbit all did well. Zun Zun Egui were good fun, looked out for various forum regulars there (thought I saw Grouchland, but wasn't sure). As is traditional, finished the day in the company of Mark Lamarr who provided the two highlights of the day for me in the form of Skatronics Jamaica and The Jim Jones Revue.

Sunday I spent the day battling dehydration. Seriously, after my morning "visit" I didn't need to go again until I was just about to leave the campsite to go home - 14 hours and at least 3l fluids there.

Anyway, started with Tom who I thought was pretty good. The obvious touchstone is Johnny Cash's American Recordings albums, and although the new material probably isn't as good as american 3 or 4, it certainly bares comparison with the first couple.

After that, had a lazy hour in the literary tent, had my on fanboy moment of the weekend getting Kristen Hersh's sig on her album/book mashup - Crooked. Jamie Lidell next in the Word arena (loved it) then took advantage of the big crowd for Mumfords to get some food without having to queue too long. Back to the word for Kristen Hersh again then Obelisk for Midlake and Temper Trap before finishing my festival with the Coral and Jonsi.

My big worry pre-festival was that the non-music stages would be too rammed to get into, this didn't seem to be the case (apart from the really big acts which I guess is understandable).

Will I be back next year? Hopefully, real life permitting.

The National will headline Glastonbury when their next album comes out.

BTW how come you didn't see Chris Morris grouchland? I heard it was rammed, wanna hear a report from someone as to what it was like.

I wanted to get a good spot for The National and when I'd looked over at the Music & Film throughout the day there seemed to be queues. It was worth it though. ISLET were as good as I hoped, probably the best Lake Stage act ever.