‘VARIOUS ARTISTS’ – ‘LATITUDE FESTIVAL’, HENHAM PARK, SUFFOLK 21-23.7.23
‘Latitude’ is one of the very best annual music and arts festivals in the whole of the country and has been enriching people’s minds since 2006.
Each year, in the middle of July, 45,000 people venture to the picturesque grounds of Henham Park, near Southwold in Suffolk, in order to catch the many music artists that are appearing, as well as a whole plethora of other goings-on, whether you are a toddler or someone who has been receiving your pension for a number of years, there will be something for you!
Members of the Brighton & Hove News Music Team took time out for a few days and joined the 45,000 revellers for this year’s event which ran from 20-23 July 2023. This being the seventeenth ‘Latitude’ festival since 2006 with only 2020 being missed due to the enforced covid break. Although officially ‘Latitude’ runs from the Thursday, we attended on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday only, as Thursday is arguably only there in order to get some punters in early and to get the party started.
The ‘Latitude’ festival promoters pride themselves on booking music across many different genres and this is reflected by those people in attendance. In the past they have had the likes of Snow Patrol, Patti Smith, Sigur Rós, Blondie, Pet Shop Boys, (Brighton’s lost kings of synthpop) Mirrors, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, Tom Jones, Ed Sheeran, Adam Ant, Lana Del Rey, M83, Kraftwerk, Sam Smith, New Order, Grimes, (Brighton’s adopted son) Fatboy Slim, IDLES, and CHVRCHES to name just a few! (Click HERE for a more extensive list!).
For 2023, the promoters have once again pulled out all the stops and secured the services of a whole host of decent acts from right across the music spectrum. In fact, at times, we were spoilt for choice, counterbalancing that, there were a couple of personal lull’s, but this simply allows you to wander the enormous site and to purchase the food and drinks of your choice. Other stalls were also available, such as clothing. In fact, ‘Latitude’ is just like a pop-up small town, complete with a pop-up Co-op branch, but this one has at times has a disco inside it!
There is so much good advice to be had regarding ‘Latitude’, but at the top of the list for many would be “Remember exactly where you parked the car!”. Whereas others, who have elected to stay on site, (and there are thousands of those), would say to “Remember where your tent is pitched!”. But that’s by no means wishing to scare you off, as, for instance, Glastonbury has around 200,000 people! We opted to stay off-site and drove a few miles in each day. For us, it worked extremely well, but it’s each to their own.
The music sets for ‘Latitude’ differ from that of ‘The Great Escape’ (that happens each May in Brighton), in the way that the ‘Latitude’ ones are longer or full sets, as opposed to just half hour showcases. Almost all of the live performances we witnessed at this year’s ‘Latitude’ ran to time, which was essential for us as we had carefully planned a hitlist of “must see acts”. We factored the walking time between the various stages as well, but as with many things in life, some things don’t totally go to plan. A prime example of this being the performance times of the “must see artists” occasionally clashed with one another and thus you are forced to choose just one full set. Or you can see one full set and only half of another. For this year’s ‘Latitude’, I personally managed to witness 23 sets and 20 of those were full ones!
For a majority of the ‘Latitude’ live performance, the professional photographers were limited to shoot just three songs from the sets, which are almost always the first three numbers. This is common practice in the business for larger concerts. In our case, this allowed us to visit bands that are playing elsewhere and take photos of them. Thus we have amassed additional photos of ‘Latitude’ acts that we aren’t reviewing. We have added these in for you where we can in order to give you a more comprehensive flavour of the festival.
So without further ado, here’s our Friday reviews of ‘Latitude’ 2023 ……………..
FRIDAY 21st JULY:
THE MURDER CAPITAL (BBC SOUNDS STAGE 2:45pm – 3:30pm)
We began our ‘Latitude’ 2023 venture by heading to the BBC Sounds Stage, which is a large raised stage housed within a large circus tent. This (along with the nearby main Obelisk Arena) are located the furthest away from the car parks. Our first ‘Latitude’ choice being Dublin’s finest new sons, James McGovern, Damien Tuit, Cathal Roper, Gabriel Paschal Blake and Diarmuid Brennan, who collectively are The Murder Capital, who we last covered back in January for their second album instore performance at Resident (Review HERE).
A droning sound booms out from the speakers at 2:45pm to signify the quintet’s imminent arrival. Here we go then…..The lads arrive and take their positions! Their format being vocals and shakers; drums; alternating guitar and keyboards; bass; and guitar with effects unit. They kick off with ‘For Everything’ and ‘More Is Less’ and the crowd are already well behind the band. This is then cemented even further when vocalist James McGovern vacates the stage and clambers on the protruding metal crowd barrier during their third number ‘Green And Blue’.
As far as I can recall, this is my own debut encounter with The Murder Capital, but I can assure you that it won’t be my last! ‘Thousand Lives’, ‘Crying’, ‘The Stars’ and ‘Return My Head’ were all delivered with aplomb, especially from Diarmuid Brennan on drums, who’s style and sound has more than a nod to Joy Division’s Stephen Morris. Their confident, head bobbing and foot tapping set of off kilter guitar rhythms, which almost stray into funky dance territory, continued and McGovern – who incidentally emanates a vibe akin to a mixture of Morrissey (The Smiths) and Ian McCulloch (Echo & The Bunnymen) – encouraged a moshpit to start. It did and the live feed cameras were trained on the revellers doing their thing. At 3:22pm, they are accompanied by McGovern, who proceeds to fall on top of the fans who hoist him up and he is carried around the tent for a short while. I had witnessed the exact same thing for the opening act for ‘Dog Day Afternoon’ festival at Crystal Palace on 1st July, that time it was Brighton’s Lambrini Girls. Surprisingly, this was the only time I witnessed this event at ‘Latitude’.
It was during this foray that it dawned on me that The Murder Capital were an amalgam of U2 and Thumper, who also both come from Dublin. They concluded with ‘Feeling Fades’, ‘Ethel’ and ‘Don’t Cling To Life’, after which at 3:31pm, McGovern threw the microphone and stand off the stage, as in to signify “take that f*ckers, that’s yer lot!”. This had been a truly powerful performance and I can see why several of the Brighton & Hove News reviewers have been singing The Murder Capital’s praises for some time now.
Annoying, there aren’t currently any Brighton gigs in the pipeline, but the nearest is at the Electric Ballroom in London on 15th November – Tickets HERE.
The Murder Capital setlist:
‘For Everything’
‘More Is Less’
‘Green And Blue’
‘Thousand Lives’
‘Crying’
‘The Stars’
‘Return My Head’
‘Feeling Fades’
‘Ethel’
‘Don’t Cling To Life’
THE BETHS (BBC SOUNDS STAGE 4:00pm – 5:00pm)
We remain inside the BBC Sounds Stage for The Beths, who are a quartet “out of Auckland, New Zealand”, as we are always told by their songwriter front person Elizabeth Stokes on every occasion I have seen them live. They clearly hold their heritage in high regard and why not! My record collection boasts 2016’s ‘Warm Blood’, 2018’s ‘Future Me Hates Me’ and 2020’s ‘Jump Rope Gazers’ from the band, so I’m sure you know how this review is going to go!
The Beths, who are the aforementioned Elizabeth, along with Jonathan Pearce, Benjamin Sinclair and Tristan Deck, last played live in Brighton back in April 2022, when they rocked on up at the Concorde 2 (Review HERE) but my closest encounter with the quartet was in the East Street Tap back in November 2018, where I was literally two feet away from Elizabeth (Review HERE). Today, I am positioned right on the metal crowd barrier, so I’m more than a couple of feet away this time, but still have a great view as they take to the stage bang on 4pm. As they do, a large inflatable half fish suddenly pops up behind them. I suspect it’s a trout as that’s what I think is on the cover of their covid interrupted 2022 ‘Expert In A Dying Field’ album. The giant screen behind them also shows films to accompany their 56 minute set which concludes at 4:56pm. They could have easily added in another tune in the 4 remaining minutes, oh well!
You always know what you’re going to get with a Beths live performance and that is a no-nonsense feel-good-factor boppy guitar laden set with banter kept to a minimum (“We’re The Beths and we’re from Auckland, New Zealand”). There are no gimmicks, other than the trout, whose name I didn’t quite catch, but I suspect that changes every night anyway. Elizabeth delivers lyrics to her accomplished songs in a slightly nasally tone and her three chums quite often all add in the harmonies at the same time. This sounds great and highlights that they are a close unit that literally sing off the same song sheet! Elizabeth plays guitar whilst doing this and even switches to an acoustic, the lads add a second guitar, bass and drums.
Their friend, called Amanda, is backstage and receives a namecheck, having just delivered backing vocals for one of the numbers. The earworm tunes simply talk for themselves and again we are served a tight set. Clearly Elizabeth is pleased with the crowd response at the end of the set as she uncharacteristically lets her hair down and jumps off the stage and runs along the crowd barrier slapping outstretched hands. Once again, they played and conquered, without the need of crowd surfing! From here they are off to conquer the USA where they will be staying until mid October.
The Beths setlist:
‘Future Me Hates Me’
‘Knees Deep’
‘Out Of Sight’
‘I Told You That I Was Afraid’
‘Dying To Believe’
‘Best Left’
‘Watching The Credits’
‘Jump Rope Gazers’
‘Happy Unhappy’
‘Less Than Thou’
‘When You Know You Know’
‘Silence Is Golden’
‘Expert In A Dying Field’
‘Uptown Girl’
GEORGIA (OBELISK ARENA 4:25pm – 5:25pm) (half set)
This was my first clash event of ‘Latitude’ and I had taken the decision to go and watch the full set by The Beths as they had omitted Brighton from their recent UK tour, whereas record producer, songwriter, singer, rapper and drummer Georgia is heading to Resident in Brighton this Friday in order to perform another instore performance for her forthcoming Domino records album ‘Euphoric’. She did the same for her second album ‘Seeking Thrills’ back in January 2020 (Review HERE).
London based Georgia Barnes (aka Georgia) is the daughter of Neil Barnes who is one half of Leftfield, so I guess it was almost inevitable that Georgia would be following in her dad’s footsteps. I’m sure that he would be extremely pleased that his daughter has the ‘Latitude’ fans eating out of her hand on the main ‘Obelisk Arena’, which is the largest stage of the festival and thankfully located next door to the BBC Sound Stage. This means that literally within seconds after The Beths set, that I am able to hear and see Georgia in action. I was informed that I had missed her foray into the crowd (around the third song) where she danced with some little kids with bunny ears. It was a shame that I missed this endearing encounter, but I could immediately see within a minute that Georgia had taken things up a notch. On my previous Georgia encounters – including her 2019 ‘Great Escape’ performance on Brighton Beach which was the best I saw that year – she has been a solo artist, but today she is joined on stage by Kat on bass and Shar on drums. The consequence of this means that Georgia is now not strictly tied to her own set of electronic drums and drum pads and thus can wander freely at the front of the stage like a true front-person and thus engage the punters even more.
Georgia also strapped on a guitar and gave that a little play this afternoon as well, which led into an impromptu section of Basement Jaxx’s 2001 hit ‘Where’s Your Head At’, which incidentally was my favourite song on that whole year! This afternoon, the dance tunes flowed and I noted that this crowd were notably younger than those that had been in the BBC Sounds Stage. Georgia then took it down several notches when she announced that two months ago she had lost her best friend, Imogen, to cancer. She then dedicated the next tune to her and anyone else who had been affected by cancer. This was a lovely touch. Georgia has experienced this before when as a child her football coach passed away. She had played in youth squads associated with Queens Park Rangers W.F.C. and Arsenal W.F.C. Today’s set drew to a close with 2019’s ‘About Work the Dancefloor’ single and at 5:23pm they were done.
Tickets and information regarding her ‘Euphoric’ album instore performance at Resident Brighton can be found for that HERE.
Georgia setlist:
‘Started Out’
‘It’s Euphoric’
‘All Night’
‘Get Me Higher’
‘Live Like We’re Dancing’
‘Friends Will Never Let You Go’
‘Honey Dripping Sky’
‘Some Things You’ll Never Know’
‘The Thrill’
‘The Dream’
‘So What’
‘Give It Up For Love’
‘About Work The Dancefloor’
CONFIDENCE MAN (OBELISK ARENA 6:05pm – 7:05pm)
The ‘Latitude’ organisers had thankfully planned that immediately after the Georgia performance, it was to be the turn of the wonderfully uplifting Confidence Man on the same main Obelisk Arena. We last caught up with this exciting Australian quartet (Confidence Man) in Brighton at the Concorde 2 last May (Review HERE).
It’s been five years since my favourite song from the whole of 2018 was released. That being ‘Boyfriend (Repeat)’ by Confidence Man. It literally was on “Repeat” in my house and car! I had stumbled across it on a YouTube video of their live performance at ‘Splendour In The Grass 2017’ when vocalist Janet Planet demanded the festival crowd crouch down and jump up again. That trick is now much used by several artists, but that was my first recollection of seeing it. I’ve also done it during their previous Brighton shows which is great fun! To many, Confidence Man just seems like an energetic dance duo consisting of Janet Planet and her brother (yes brother, not partner) Sugar Bones. But they are a genuine quartet, the other two one stage in dark black beekeeper outfits are Reggie Goodchild (synthesisers) and Clarence McGuffie (drums).
The Obelisk Stage speakers started blasting out ‘Macarena’ (originally by Spanish pop duo Los del Río, about a woman of the same name) at 6:04pm. The large crowd were primed and ready to go! A minute later at the allotted time, Confidence Man graced us with their presence. I noted that to our left (stage right) there were two people on a gantry that was the same height as the stage and they wore BSL Performance Interpreter t-shirts. This meant that this was to be one of several British Sign Language Interpreted Performances that were to happen on this stage and the BBC Sounds Stage throughout the festival. These are performances where an interpreter is on stage interpreting the words and songs live. They are suitable for deaf people and those with family members who use British Sign Language. I watched them several times throughout the festival and was extremely impressed how these professionals immediately picked up what was being sung and immediately conveyed it to those fans located beneath them.
There was also backing graphics for the songs, but to be honest I was so engrossed watching the perfectly choreographed Janet and Sugar, that I barely noticed what was on the screens. They opened with ‘Toy Boy’ and the vocal/dance duo came on stage with their extended coat-hanger styled jackets, but these were discarded for tune two ‘Out The Window’. Sugar was leading the vocals for tune three, ‘What I Like’, which witnessed “All the girls say “Oooh”; All the boys say “Ahh””. CM are a well oiled machine and the tunes often flow into each other like a mixtape. Even when the front duo leave the stage for another costume change, an “Instrumental Intermezzo” is served to us by Reggie and Clarence. The first of which reminded me of JX’s 1994 ‘Son Of A Gun’. JX being Brighton lad DJ Jake Williams.
Janet and Sugar returned to the stage and the flashing pointy bra cones and shoulder pads are back! During ‘C.O.O.L Party’, Sugar celebrated by opening up a bottle of bubbly at the front and spraying it over the punters at the front…“Everybody’s raving at the party of the year”. ‘Luvin U Is Easy’ followed as did another costume change (from black to white) with the second “Instrumental Intermezzo”. Oh my word, my first ‘Latitude’ tingle came next in the form of ‘On & On (Again)’ (another tune on repeat in my gaff!). ‘Don’t You Know I’m In A Band’ was next and saw the front duo giving themselves a beer rinse shampoo. ‘Boyfriend (Repeat)’ was the penultimate tune and yes we crouched down, and they bowed out with the feel good factor and my second case of the tingles with ‘Holiday’ with its earworm “I get away every day, my holiday, I’m gettin’ paid” lyrics and they both even came to the crowd barrier during this epic. At 7:04pm they were done. It was once again a truly wonderful CM experience. It’s like a drug, I simply can’t get enough!!!
You can catch Confidence Man (and many others) live in Preston Park, Brighton on Saturday 5th August as part of Brighton & Hove Pride. Ticket options are available HERE.
Confidence Man setlist:
‘Toy Boy’
‘Out The Window’
‘What I Like’
‘Does It Make You Feel Good?’
‘Now U Do’
“Instrumental Intermezzo”
‘Feels Like A Different Thing’
‘C.O.O.L Party’
‘Luvin U Is Easy’
“Instrumental Intermezzo”
‘On & On (Again)’
‘Don’t You Know I’m In A Band’
‘Boyfriend (Repeat)’
‘Holiday’
PANIC SHACK (THE ALCOVE 6:50pm – 7:30pm) (half set)
The ‘Latitude’ planners hadn’t been so kind to me for the next performance clash and I had to belt it almost right across the music site down the hill to The Alcove tent which was hidden in the woods. This was my first visit here and it’s a much more intimate affair, with the stage only being chest height and the photographer’s pit much smaller. I am here to see Panic Shack. We followed the band around last February and caught them live in London, Tunbridge Wells and Brighton (Reviews HERE).
Panic Shack formed in Cardiff back in 2018, and consists of Romi Lawrence, Sarah Harvey, Emily Smith, and Meg Fretwell, plus a session drummer. In the 11 months since I first saw Panic Shack, which was at ‘Rebellion’ in Blackpool on 4th August 2022, their career has certainly taken off! I’m actually surprised that they were scheduled to play in this compact tent, and on arriving at The Alcove I’m greeted by a long queue of fans waiting outside. Luckily we have press passes, but I was still quizzed if I was actually working by the stewards. It honestly was crammed like sardines in the tent but I somehow managed to squeeze in. It is very hot here and the girls (and drummer lad) are going down an absolute storm. So much so, that a trio of stewards are having to hold the metal crowd barriers upright, as it’s so squashed and a little boisterous.
This is Panic Shack’s first ‘Latitude’ experience they tell us, but I suspect that it won’t be their last, and certainly no longer on this size stage. It’s already half way through their set and the raw power punk tunes keep flowing, ‘The Ick’, ‘Jelly Babies’ and ‘Meal Deal’ flash by, before we arrive at fan favourite ‘Cash Piggy’, where we get the obligatory “Oink Oink” to accompany the decent rumbly bass and slammed drums. Their penultimate tune this early evening is ‘Who’s Got My Lighter?’, which benefits from sounding like the Ramones ‘We’re A Happy Family’, and the crowd barrier is now under serious pressure! They bail out with their rendition of Electric Six’s ‘Gaybar’ which actually sounds as though it should have actually been a Panic Shack own composition. This is met with great applause and at 7:29pm they are done and the trio of stewards can now let go of the crowd barrier and actually stand up straight!
You’ll be pleased to hear that Panic Shack will be playing live in Brighton as support to Bob Vylan (who are also here at ‘Latitude’) on 24th November at Chalk. Find your tickets HERE.
Panic Shack setlist:
‘Baby’
‘Mannequin Man’
‘ParTy SD’
‘I Don’t Really Like It’
‘Jiu Jits You’
‘Do Something’
‘The Ick’
‘Jelly Babies’
‘Meal Deal’
‘Cash Piggy’
‘Who’s Got My Lighter?’
‘Gay Bar’ (Electric Six cover)
ENGLISH TEACHER (THE ALCOVE 8:00pm – 8:45pm)
We were thankfully remaining put in The Alcove tent for the next scheduled act, who were Leeds indie band English Teacher, which consists of Lily Fontaine (vocals, rhythm guitar, synth), Lewis Whiting (lead guitar), Nicholas Eden (bass) and Douglas Frost (drums). They were in Brighton just a couple of weeks ago when they were on the bill with Paolo Nutini and The Big Moon at Stanmer Park on 8th July (Review HERE). Interestingly both Paolo and The Big Moon are also playing here at ‘Latitude’. Their ‘Latitude’ stage is much smaller than the one they had in Stanmer Park, but I saw them headlining one of the days of last year’s Green Door Store ‘234 Fest’ in September and they just seem to work well in my eyes in these more intimate spaces.
The quartet take to The Alcove stage bang on 8pm and entertain the punters for the next 41 minutes. Thankfully the tent has just about the right amount of folk in it this time and so there will be no manning of the metal crowd barrier for the stewards. English Teacher take the everyday, even mundane subject matter, and weave storytelling lyrics into their songs. Lead singer, Lily Fontaine, uses different vocal styles between songs and even within songs, often incorporating spoken word. A prime example of this being tonight’s track six, ‘Broken Biscuits’, which vocally falls in the same territory as Dry Cleaning. Some of their material leans towards an off-kilter post punk screaming guitars and solid drumming delivery. They can get raucous when required, with Lily even briefly playing her guitar with a beer bottle. I reckon the late great John Peel would have enjoyed English Teacher, although their name isn’t exactly the best one out there.
English Teacher have grown in confidence in the 10 months since the aforementioned ‘234 Fest’ or is it the fact that there’s quite a large amount of dry ice on offer? Mind you there also was during the previous Panic Shack set. Once again this time around they are trying out new material on the punters in order to gauge the responses. Unfortunately Lily omitted to tell us what this brand new song was called, but they have since informed me that it’s called ‘Nearly Daffodils’. It benefitted from some usual bass guitar playing where it almost sounded like a keyboard and the latter vocal section reminded me of Poly Styrene from X-Ray Spex. It appears that I find myself enjoying English Teacher’s newer material and thus they are (for me) heading in the right direction. Their popular ‘A55’ tune (number nine of tonight’s set) went down well and they bowed out with ‘Good Grief’, which has a drumming pattern similar to The Jam’s ‘Start!’. I think the biggest surprise for me during the set was that the Brighton & Hove News photographer Sara-Louise Bowrey was the only pap in the pit!
As stated above, English Teacher have recently played live in Brighton and so there are currently no plans to return. Their nearest forthcoming performance will be at the ‘Reading Festival’ where I believe they will be playing on the Festival Republic Stage on Sunday 27th August. Ticket options HERE.
English Teacher setlist:
‘Mental Maths’
‘R&B’
‘I’m Not Crying You’re Crying’
‘Polyawkward’
‘Slab’
‘Broken Biscuits’
‘Nearly Daffodils’
‘Albatross’
‘A55’
‘Yorkshire Tapas’
‘Good Grief’
linktr.ee/englishteacherband
PULP with the Elysian Collective (OBELISK ARENA 9:30pm – 11:00pm)
We round off our first day at ‘Latitude’ with the biggie! The one that will be letting off several Magicfx stadium shot II confetti/streamer cannons at the front in the pit. Hence the press photographers aren’t allowed in there, especially when they are first used as early as the second tune! It’s time for Pulp.
It seems that I’m only destined to see Pulp play live when they are in East Anglia. My last encounter was at the first ‘V Festival’ which apparently came about when frontman Jarvis Cocker said that he would love to play two outdoor venues in two days, and so Pulp’s promoters got together and came up with the idea of putting the gig into Victoria Park, Warrington and Hylands Park, Chelmsford, which is 76 miles away from ‘Latitude’.
On 17th August 1996 as well as Pulp, I saw Supergrass, Cast, Gary Numan, Stereolab and Jonathan Richman. That night Pulp performed 15 tunes and no less than 9 of them would reappear this evening for us! Also reappearing from that 1996 gig would be band members Jarvis Cocker (vocals, guitar), Mark Webber (guitar, keyboards), Candida Doyle (keyboards, organ, backing vocals), and Nick Bank (drums, percussion). Guitarist Russell Senior originally left in 1997 and bassist Steve Mackey sadly passed away on 2nd March this year with an undisclosed illness. Bolstering their numbers are touring musicians Emma Smith on violin and guitar, Andrew McKinney on bass, birthday boy Adam Betts on percussion, guitar and keyboards, as well as Rich Jones leading the amazing Elysian Collective string section.
Just ahead of Pulp’s entrance, the large screens on either side of the stage broadcast the fact that this ‘Latitude’ concert is Pulp’s 534th gig. I had no idea that they had played so many! The Elysian Collective played their strings whilst this message was broadcast and the scene was set and at 9:30pm Pulp were on stage and set off. I could hear Jarvis but couldn’t see him, and then just like the characters in the opening titles of ‘Camberwick Green’, up he popped onto the stage, with an image of a giant moon behind him. A dramatic start!
The confetti/streamer cannons exploded for tune two, ‘Disco 2000’, and the sky was filled with orange paper. ‘Disco 2000’ is one of their classic tunes and this certainly got everyone in the crowd singing along. Things are then brought down to normality when oddball Jarvis takes out a few chocolates from his pocket and throws them into the crowd. Later on a few grapes would also appear! ‘Mis-Shapes’ follows after which Jarvis takes to the guitar (or it could have been a bass) and dedicates the next number (‘Something Changed’) to his departed bandmate Steve Mackey and to anyone present who is in love.
In the next section which included ‘Pink Glove’, ‘Weeds’, ‘Weeds II (The Origin Of The Species)’ and ‘F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E.’, Jarvis strapped on a different guitar as well as coming down to the crowd barrier, which went down very well. It was getting dark and the lasers were beginning to be seen in all their glory. I noted that two ladies from the BSL team were back again and signing to those that required it. The crowd waved their arms from side to side during ‘Sorted For E’s & Wizz’, which was a great thing to witness. During an Elysian Collective string section part, Jarvis sat down in a brown leather comfy chair and sipped a drink.
Jarvis then informed us that he personally had played ‘Latitude’ before, which was back in 2007, but Pulp hadn’t. This segued nicely into ‘Do You Remember The First Time?’ and again the crowd went wild on hearing another Pulp hit single! Jarvis then began a spoken word intro which was none other than my favourite Pulp tune, ‘Babies’, the track they ended with back in 1996. The cannons went off again and this would have been an ideal tune to go off to, but they added in ‘Sunrise’, which we were told was about being up all night and so Jarvis sat on the steps at the back for a while during their quieter earlier part of the song.
They did actually go off stage after ‘Sunrise’ and as far as I recall, this was the only encore that I witnessed during the whole of ‘Latitude’. The musicians returned to the stage and at 10:49pm the opening notes of ‘Common People’ were heard. During this number, the band were introduced, which included a crowd ‘Happy Birthday’ to Adam Betts, as well as the information that Mark Webber was attacked by a seagull. That’ll teach them to stay near the Suffolk coast for this gig! The extended version of ‘Common People’ finally finished at 11pm when the cannons went off again. This had been a fabulous first day of music!
Pulp with the Elysian Collective setlist:
‘I Spy’ (extended intro)
‘Disco 2000’
‘Mis-Shapes’
‘Something Changed’ (Dedicated to Steve Mackey)
‘Pink Glove’
‘Weeds’
‘Weeds II (The Origin Of The Species)’
‘F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E.’
‘Sorted For E’s & Wizz’
‘This Is Hardcore’
‘Do You Remember The First Time?’
‘Babies’ (spoken word intro)
‘Sunrise’
(encore)
‘Like A Friend’ (shortened version)
‘Underwear’
‘Common People’ (with band introductions and ‘Happy Birthday‘ sung to Adam Betts)
The ‘Latitude’ live performances for Saturday 22nd July can be located HERE.
The ‘Latitude’ live performances for Sunday 23rd July can be located HERE.
