http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/news/review_dionne_bromfield_performs_at_latitude_festival_s_rising_stars_arena_1_965950
 
LOL
 
RISING STARTS ARENA!!
 
Referring to the Sunrise Arena as THE FARAWAY FOREST
 
LOTS OF OTHER TERRIBLE SENTENCES ABOUT MOTOWN AND BACKING DANCERS.
 
LOL
 
L
 
O
 
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/jul/17/latitude-festival-review-adam-ant
 
the guardian here with a review posted sunday morning reviewing the first two days of the weekend and saying paloma faith isn't as big as beyonce

The Sunday Times has a special on its website, but it's behind a paywall, so I'll never get to see it.

Should be some good stuff for eels, there were lots of press there!

For people who thought Daisy Lowe pressing play on her ipod was the highlight, there's heat:
http://www.heatworld.com/...nds-Latitude-Festival/

The Independent had one with the headline 'Nice festival, shame about the music' and The Times one claimed that Echo & the Bunnymen had "lost their spark" (anyone who saw their amazing set will know how ridiculous that is!). Most of the reviewers didn't seem to stay until the Sunday, so missed the brilliance of the Waterboys, OMD and Suede. The exception being a very good review in the Financial Times.

The contiuing laziness of the hacks not to either get to as many stages as the rest of us in a day (ratio of alcohol:work still wrong) or get the feel of the people who'd paid for their tickets (would be interested to know how many journos get in for free?)
As usual, it is the press who get the terrible review but somehow deflect their inadequacies....

Still, at least the Guardian redeems itself (am I alone in thinking that the last shreds of journalistic integrity lie there - or is this wishful thinking?)
http://www.guardian.co.uk...stival-roundup-theatre

Kerry1


The contiuing laziness of the hacks not to either get to as many stages as the rest of us in a day (ratio of alcohol:work still wrong) or get the feel of the people who'd paid for their tickets (would be interested to know how many journos get in for free?)
As usual, it is the press who get the terrible review but somehow deflect their inadequacies....

Still, at least the Guardian redeems itself (am I alone in thinking that the last shreds of journalistic integrity lie there - or is this wishful thinking?)
http://www.guardian.co.uk...stival-roundup-theatre

 
My review will be up soon for music-news.com (not the ones already there, they weren't me!). I bought my own ticket, so don't feel obliged to show anything but warts and all feelings about everything. I also hit a lot of the stages and tents, and a lot of the diverse stuff too.I'll put up a link when it's up.

Soothsayer


The Independent had one with the headline 'Nice festival, shame about the music' and The Times one claimed that Echo & the Bunnymen had "lost their spark" (anyone who saw their amazing set will know how ridiculous that is!). Most of the reviewers didn't seem to stay until the Sunday, so missed the brilliance of the Waterboys, OMD and Suede. The exception being a very good review in the Financial Times.

I agree with both Independent and Times. The Festival is far better than the sum of it's parts, and whilst the music just cannot be obscure enough for the geek nuclei, I would wager the majority of even Latitude faithful would prefer more contemporary and (god forbid) popular artists. Last year's line up bombed with the Forum regulars, but I'll bet the less commited were happier with the Vampires than blimmin The National (yawnsville). Frankly, I think my favourite set this year was Foster The People. They actually smiled, as did the audience.

As for the Bunnymen -  well, it has been said it was a wilfully inaccessible set. I might suggest it was an arrogant middle finger. Around 50% of the audience walked out of the tent during the set, and it was quite empty by the time they got around to The Tunes.

Alfisti, Agree with you there! (Foster the People were very good indeed)
 
And this must actually be the first post i've made in a long while without moaning! :D
 
 

I think the truth of the Bunnymens set is probably more prosaic than that; they've been touring it for the last year. I saw them in Brum before Christmas but they were far better at Latitude. Would have been smarter to stick to Crocodiles and more of the hits though as Heaven Up Here, ace as it is, is never going to win over the casual observer!

They're touring Ocean Rain again next, I guess they haven't started rehearsing it yet: hence the set we got. I liked Andy McCluskeys little dig before the OMD set.

What did he say?

Oh, the thing about playing the hits.

McCluskey got the mood spot on didn't he? That tent was full of people well up for some 80s windmilling to 15 hit singles, but very few who would have wanted stripped back versions of, say, Architecture & Morality and Junk Culture in their entirety. For what it's worth thought the Bunnymen were great too, but missed first half hour. 

The fact that the Independent and the Guardian said "Nice festival shame about the music", and only gave it 3 stars, ought to have the organisers worried especially as the people that go to latitude probably read one of those papers. I think their criticisms are spot on as well. I had an alright time (not helped by being with far fewer friends this year than normal) but I felt the lineup lacked many really special highlights

It will be interesting to see how FR respond to the (albeit mild) criticism about the music and scheduling this year.  I think Latitude is growing up and finds itself having a bit of a teenage identity crisis.  Alfistis is spot on in observing that Latitude is “better than the sum of its parts”, but the choice of music does to a great degree define who attends.
 
My observation this year is that the bands who tend to be championed on the forum are not the ones who draw in most of the crowds at the festival.  I see this since I have my own favourites (generally spanning the spectrum from what my friend calls “dark folk” to XFM friendly indie guitar rock) whereas my kids like a lot of the more mainstream “pap”.  So I end up seeing a bit of both (it’s called compromise). 
 
And the interesting things was this: artists who tend to be pilloried on this forum, eg: KT Tunstall, Paloma Faith, Paolo Nutini, drew very large crowds who on the whole seemed very happy to be entertained.  I thought KTT was absolute sh*te of the worst degree, yet still she drew a huge crowd.  Compare that with the (to my ears) excellent Bright Eyes, who played to a half empty arena to chants of “who are you” from the beery blokes.
 
Of course, occasionally it all comes together perfectly (eg: the Vaccines, Edwyn Collins) but all too often, especially on the Obelisk, I felt that things didn’t quite click.
 
So it will be interesting to speculate about next year’s line up (I’m sure someone will have started a thread already)
 
Finally, in the “Raffles” family (One middle aged bloke and three girls aged 10 to 12) a scientifically conducted poll indicates that the best act of the weekend was a tie between I Am Klute and Wanda Jackson!

Raffles



I thought KTT was absolute sh*te of the worst degree, yet still she drew a huge crowd.  Compare that with the (to my ears) excellent Bright Eyes, who played to a half empty arena to chants of “who are you” from the beery blokes.

 
This is something that appears to have got worst with recent latitudes, in particular this one. People who like the idea of a festival but probably don't know that many bands. The crowd for Hurts, who are actually reasonable popular, was embarassingly small. This may have been because of the rain and the fact that it was sunday and half the festival appeared to have gone home, but that indicates that a lot of people there left when it got a bit unpleasant

Disagree entirely about the music. Enjoyed every set I saw, with the exception of Foals (but that's more to do with the fact that it's just not my kinda thing) and the ridiculous style-over-substance of Hurts.
 
The Walkmen, BSP, Bunnymen, Carl Barrett, Waterboys, Suede, Fight Like Apes, OMD all absolutely excellent. Would have no complaints at all if Latitude had a similar quality musical line-up next year.
 
PS Can  I just say that I saw Foster the People at Glastonbury, and thought they were absolutely AWFUL. I'm surprised that any serious Latitude goers would think so highly of a wannabe American boy band clearly aimed to appeal to 13-year-old girls!

i'd usually agree about this kinda thing HOWEVER pumped up kicks is a stonking pop single and you know it

They were a lot better live than on CD, with their bad songs sounding much better. No boring effects on lead singers voice!