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- The Guardian, Sunday 20 July 2008
What began in 2006 as a glorified village fete has become a serious festival contender. Latitude may not have Glasto's epic sense of adventure, but 25,000 people - very ABC1, lots of parents with kids - have come to see a diverse lineup on neatly arranged stages, close enough together that you can flit between each with ease.
Black Kids are the first must-see; people are humming their songs around the site long after their set has ended. Many of the weekend's highlights are the new bands, although Johnny Foreigner aren't one of them - their cloddish electro-pop recalls Jesus Jones. After the camp travesty that is The Smiths: The Musical in the cabaret tent, Julian Cope is a relief. He looks like a druid Hell's Angel, and his loony rants and Krautrock boogie are energising. Errors, all bleeps and FX, sound like a riot in the BBC Radiophonic Workshop while, deep in the forest, Crystal Castles do Blair Witch techno, Alice Glass' screeches chilling the warm night air.
The crowd is so densely packed for Franz Ferdinand, there are people climbing on to the portable toilets for a view, but the hits don't ignite and the band's mooted Afrobeat direction is hard to detect. Ironically, Amadou & Mariam, appearing at the same time elsewhere, effortlessly deliver on the fluid, polyrhythmic voodoo-pop front.
On Saturday, Wild Beasts and the Irrepressibles are hard to choose between, both offering baroque pop with neo-operatic vocals. Liverpool's the Maybes? finish with Promise, one of the weekend's peaks, then it is a downbeat climax. Sigur Rós achieve an ecclesiastical solemnity, but it is like watching time-lapse footage of an iceberg in slow motion. They do, however, provide soothing lullabies for all the kids.
