After a series of stupid events resulting in many acts being missed including 5 different sets of rules running around the security walkie talkies, it wasn’t until The Pipettes that I actually got to see anything. Although a mention has to go to The Veils and their bluesy-rock swagger; their sound is very alluring and hypnotic, but sadly loses pace after the umpteenth white stripes cover.

The Pipettes are good pop fun and the perfect summary festival band, with their trio female lead harmonies and 50’s Esq. Themes and songs. Most of it is fairly dull though and seems all a bit “for the sake of it”. There wasn’t really any hooks, and it’s hard to decipher whether they are being serious or not. So leaving, not really sure how I should be leaving, I find a completely different act in the sleaze-funk of Irish sextet ‘The Republic of Loose’ whom, particularly the vocalist, act like a characteur of funk bands and a glowing undercurrent of sleaze that has been always evident, really.

On my first tripe to the main stage, Steven Fretwell was playing his Coldplay-but-less-whiney, folk-but-good collaboration of music with great atmosphere but unfortunately to little response. The audience, by the way, are a strange bunch. Nearly all middle to upper class, some actually taking this simply as an opportunity to camp and maybe go see the obviously good Snow Patrol, others including chavs, hippies and maybe if your lucky some music fans, all generally ignorant and/or indifferent, as this set sadly shows.

It didn’t really get kicking until Saul Williams took stage and tore the “Uncut Arena” apart. His sharp-as-a-knife combination of socio-political driven poetry, hip-hop and particularly emphasised tonight; drum ‘n’ bass is particularly exciting, but for any newcomers to Saul Williams may not have been able to see the full mastery of his work. His live act is very enjoyable though, whether to dance to or to be politically and intellectually motivated, there is something for everyone here. Sadly Zach de la Rocha was nowhere to be seen but Williams’s DJ was happy to fill in for their storming rendition of ‘Act III Scene 2 (Shakespeare)’ which really shows all the punk rock energy that goes into his music and performance. Wrapping things up with the fantastic ‘List of Demands (Reparation)’ Williams finished one of the best performances of the weekend.

Last tonight though headlining the outdoor ‘Lake Arena’ were space-rockers The Early Years. With a beautifully painted sunset as their backdrop, they rip through an impressive set in glorious colour, with their Kyuss meets Mogwai with the charm of the Secret Machines dropped in for good measure sound; really uplifting and exciting performance.

If you were wondering, I saw about two minutes of Snow Patrol and walked out again. A) Because they are crap. B) Because he can’t sing. Instead, I went over to check out the poetry tent, where some excellent acts and moments came and went, including getting my own poetry set from Saul Williams and chants of “Fuck Snow Patrol!”

Saturday.

So after waking up and finding I have had 35 pounds stolen, I wasn’t really in the best of moods for Day 2… let alone the toilets smelling a little worse for ware and having a splitting headache. My mood continued when for similar reasons as the day before, I missed a few bands; apologies to Polytechnic who sounded excellent from where I was standing and I’m sorry I couldn’t give a full review. Das Wonderlust however was probably the noisiest act of the weekend so far with their brand of spazz-rock meets pop with bizarre cockney female vocals. I spent most of their set wondering if I was actually enjoying this or not. Turns out the answer was no, not really.

So, a nap later I decided to venture out and check a band I had been advised to see before coming; Lords. And luckily they, finally, lift my mood. The first thing to notice about Lords (sadly, without swords) is that they sound like a big band playing Jazz songs. It is then, very impressive that there are only three members and do not use bass guitars ala John Spencer Blues Explosion. Lords follow the groovy esque writing skills of Mr. Josh Homme – elements of both Queens of the Stone Age and Kyuss are evident here – except using more dischordant and obscure rhythms. On top of all this, they are incredibly tight and great fun. Result!

And the good music and feeling just kept on coming from then on when the Howling Bells came on. Their sound is a combination of atmospheric, space-rock collided with bluesy, dirty rock n roll and even country, all sometimes in the space of a song; and better still, it feels completely seamless. The female lead vocals from Juanita Stein are wonderful and fit the music perfectly. It is the atmosphere of their sound that carries them through though which gives them a Muse-like aura and are definitely to look out for in the near future.

Peeping Tom keep things going in riotous fashion as the legendary Mike Patton took stage with his new hip-hop collective. The only one of the guests from the self-titled debut album was world known beat-boxer Rahzel, but that didn’t matter because the full band brought together for the live act was fantastic and got the whole tent moving. Even the fairly cheesy ‘Mojo’ manages to sound just as sexy and devious as the rest of the set. The band is extremely tight, with fantastic drumming, whereas Mike Patton himself was his usual egocentric self, taunting the partly indifferent audience that I had by now got used to.

The day was wrapped up with Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly whose brand of acoustic meets electro meets pop sends the day off with a big smile with him charming and intelligent songs and lyrics.

Sunday.

So the final day comes and waking up to the sound of Mogwai sound-checking was a fairly uplifting feeling. This is the day I’ve been waiting for; this is the band I’ve been waiting for. Hearing ‘Hunted by a Freak’ from a far distance at my tent played brilliantly made me want 9:30 pm to come right now.

Sadly though, as I have not mastered the art of time travel just yet I had to see a few nice but fairly dull acts on Sunday lunchtime. This place needed some volume, some balls, hell, just some waking up! So, at 4:10 on the main stage, four fairly sheepish looking men walked on, appearing a bit suspect. And then, it happened. The sonic assault of Part Chimp began. Oh yes. Why the generic-indie-for-the-middle-classes festival of Latitude put on a desert/sludge band on – particularly on the main stage – is completely beyond me. Maybe they thought they were being diverse and filling the ‘heavy’ quota with this one band. Perhaps, they though the name “Part Chimp” promised some arty-obscure-indie band. Who knows who cares. What matters was that Part Chimp were incredible and finally, I had something different to listen to.

Part Chimp essentially sound like early Pelican with the aggressive grooves of Iron Monkey but with a more “fun” edge with the occasional energetic bursts of My Bloody Valentine, and they pull it off brilliantly. The sludgy heaviness, the obscure time signatures were great but the sadly ‘off’ sound levels means there are no bass guitar or vocals on offer today – making me begin to worry about how Mogwai will do later on this stage. But they sound fantastic anyway and just get better and better as the set went on. Few people got it, some pretended, and most stayed in genuine intrigue for this fantastic, yes misplaced band, regardless of the security guard at the front who looked like he was contemplating his suicide to this gloomy music. Cool as fuck.

Criminally, the increasingly indifferent crowd TALKED over Jose Gonzales, further making me anxious about Mogwai. At this point I hoped everyone who doesn’t care leave or that Mogwai play so loud that you can’t hear anything else anyway. Gonzales though, for all his efforts, is brilliant even if he has to put up with dozens in the audience who were just politely clapping and only really caring when he played “That Sony advert song.” “That song” for the record, is performed with stunning vigour and possibly the best atmosphere of the whole weekend (despite some of the crowd’s best efforts) and was the essential Sunday evening act. Perfectly show by, for instance, the beautiful ‘Crosses’. The best moment comes with his finale though; finishing with a simply stunning cover of ‘Teardrop’ by Massive Attack. Luckily at about this point people started taking notice, but it was hard not to with this gorgeous rendition of an already beautiful song.

But of course, it would be a festival without the over hyped NME band of the week. I am of course talking about The Mystery Jets, who although admittedly is far more interesting and unique than most of the dull NME crop, are still not very good. But, I cannot fault their performance; they put on a great show for their fans and in general. It just annoys me that far more deserving acts get far less attention.

But what did I expect? This was always going to be an odd festival and it was just that. But for me, it was an opportunity to see the final band, and I do not regret it one bit.

At 9:30 pm, Mogwai took stage on the Obelisk Arena.

There was always going to be risks making Mogwai the headliners of the final day on the main stage. For a almost completely instrumental band to be playing to a mostly indifferent crowd it was a strange mix. Luckily, Mogwai have enough experience in this field to hold the audiences attention and keep it, and the organisers obviously trusted them, putting them ahead of the legendary Mercury Rev on the bill. Ironically, ‘Hunted by a Freak’ ends up being one of the weaker performances of this otherwise flawless set; it takes a few songs for the Scottish five-some to find their pace. But Mogwai’s music is subtle, abstaining from reverting just to ‘wall of noise’ all the time, and once they hit that place, it’s just stunning right until the very end of the set.

‘Friend of the Night’ is stunning, as is ‘Folk Death 95’ as the band just get better and better the more and more they play their stunning music. Old favourite ‘Tuner’ for instance is played with heart-rending emotion, full of the summer romance this festival perhaps always wanted to market itself upon. The atmosphere for this performance is just incredible, and easily blows away all competition for the whole weekend and is everything I hoped; the perfect end to a very enjoyable weekend.

Overall this festival screams potential in every way. My review may seem overly positive in some ways but you have to remember I’m picking out the best of a bad bunch. Every other band I saw or knew was playing I didn’t enjoy or just found ordinary which took up at least ¾ of the festival. Now this has had its ‘test year’ as such, which overall was a comparative success, more interest will come next year and, with a bit of luck, a better and more varied line up. It may have just been me, but for all the ‘indie’ festival this was supposed to be, almost all the bands I thought put on the best performances were not the ‘indie’ acts.

Band of the weekend? Well, Mogwai goes without saying, so that’s a bit unfair to just blindly say them on the other bands parts. There was nice surprises to be had; Part Chimp because they shouldn’t have been here but I love that they were. Discovering The Early Years to a Friday evening sunset was great too. Loads were just brilliant, whereas seeing not only Saul Williams’ fantastic set but also later that night his poetry set was, for the better word, special.

Overall, much more enjoyable than I feared I might, but there are still massive improvements to be made for this to be really special.

Words: Adam Turner-Heffer
Photos: Ashley Pickering (view website)