It's Official, Drew Is A Wendy pt 2

I awoke early on the Friday morning, around 06:00 struggled out of the orange coloured condom described as a sleeping bag and opened the tent to glorious sunshine which immediately put me in a good mood. It was now time to check out the amenities so I went for a wander around our part of the site bought a couple of bacon rolls, a tea and a coffee,  nearly had a heart attack when the guy behind the counter asked for fourteen quid. I know, I have just reinforced another racial stereotype but fourteen quid is fucking steep and no bloody butter on the rolls!

After rallying the rest of the troops it was time to take a gander at the festival site itself, which is really quite impressive once you go down through the woods and across the lake. First stop was the children's area for fun on the helter skelter and carousel,  finding out all about bees and honey and chilling out with Leo in the toddlers chill out area which was magic and then it was time for lunch and a meander up to the Obelisk arena to catch another emotional set by the ever improving Edwyn Collins and a backing band that are absolutely brilliant.

It was decided that we would remain camped where we were for the remainder of the afternoon to witness a great performance by Wanda Jackson who still knows how to have a party, even after finding god. I was not so impressed by Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan who I thought gave a rather lacklustre performance which could have had a lot to do with the fact they were on the main stage when their music really needs a more intimate venue. Although some banter with the crowd, well acknowledging that they exist for a start may help. When I went back to where L and Max were, Max said to me "that man (Lanegan) scares me dad"  and I suspect that Max isn't the first person to feel that when in Lanegan's presence.

L and Leo decided to stay where they were to take in KT Tunstall who was attracting quite a crowd. Max and I wandered over to catch Deerhunter at the Word Arena, who were on blistering form I thought and who in Max's opinion were "not bad". However I still don't get the Fall influence which is repeatedly mentioned in the music press.

Then it was time to re-group for some dinner after which L decided to take the boys back to the tent to get changed as by this time Leo was filthy and stripped down to his simmit.

This allowed me to watch Bright Eyes on my own.  Oberst and Co were very good but a good deal heavier than the last time that I caught them live, which granted was a few years ago and I was also surprised at how easily Conor Oberst has taken to rock star posturing. The version of Gillian Welch's Wreaking Ball was particularly note worthy especially with the guest vocals from Jenny & Jonny who were playing the Lake Stage later. By the time Bright Eyes had finished with a rousing version of Road to Joy the family were back and it was time to head over to the Word Arena yet again to see the most anticipated band of the weekend by half of the family at least.

"When are they on?" was the question Max interspersed the last 20 minutes of Lyle Lovett's set with at regular intervals and looking around he wasn't the only one waiting in anticipation as the tent quickly filled up with lots of teenagers and younger children with their parents, so much so that when The Vaccinnes eventually took to the stage they were not greeted with a roar so much as a high pitched scream. The band proceeded to play their whole album pretty much in order. Max had the time of his life.

Are the Vaccines the saviours of indie rock? Not especially. To me they are not that far away from the Pigeon Detectives with the sing along choruses and songs of teenage exploits, the Pigeon Detectives were also very entertaining live. But looking around the tent everybody and I do mean everybody seemed to be loving it. Even an old cynic like me at that moment didn't care how derivative they were or the fact that there are virtually no lyrics to their songs,  it was just life affirming to see so many people having so much fun listening to music with not a posturing scenster in sight or maybe I just had too many over priced pints of Magners.

We had one more stop to make on the way back to the campsite and that was to possibly the coolest stage at Latitude. Tucked away in the trees at the side of the lake was the Sunrise arena which due to the fact that the sun was down and the area was illuminated by over sized fairy lights took on a really intimate and quite magical feel.

We were there to witness for me what was the highlight of the day, Cat's Eyes. I was curious to see them live as I had bought the album on the strength of all the good reviews that it had received but had hardly given it a listen. From the first notes I just knew that they were going to be good, and not being that familiar with the album I cannot tell you what they played but they did cover an old psych song I had on a compilation tape years ago but which I can't remember the name of but has lyrics about black cat's and the like.As I watched the band L sat and relaxed, Max ran about the woods and Leo slept.

Once they had finished it was back up to the campsite passing those on there way back down for the late night revelry and thinking about what Saturday would bring as Friday had been so good.

Cat's Eyes - Over You

Latitiude, We're On Our Way

By the time you are reading this the car will have been packed, possibly a fair bit of niggling will have gone on and we will eventually be on our way down to deepest Suffolk, an eight hour drive at least, the joys!

We will be out of Lanark for,  at the most twenty minutes before Max first asks "Are We There Yet?" and probably another ten before he states "I'm burstin' you will need to stop so I can do a pee".

And so it will go for the duration. Still some good bands and artists await us over the weekend.

I am not the only person that has been derogatory about festivals in the past, here is Edwyn Collins with his take on festival going. I wonder if this will be on the set list for Friday?

Edwyn Collins - The Campaign For Real Rock

Northern Soul Revival?

At the weekend there was an article in The Guide in the Guardian about Northern Soul. When I picked it up over the kitchen table on Saturday morning and saw the cover I gave a kind of cynical grunt. Here we go again, some misguided souls are trying once more to turn the scenesters onto northern soul. It is a prospect that fills me full of dread, people who last month were into crunk or whatever the media had fed them as the sounds to be heard talking about listening to, will be going down the charity shop trying to find an original Adidas or Gola holdall which they can then fill with their vest tops, high-waister trousers and dodgy cd compilations.

I had to check myself, as that alter ego of mine the music snob was coming to the fore. Didn't I post more than my share of northern tracks on my blog in order to turn people onto the pleasure that can be attained through listening and dancing to the 4/4 beat of tracks like What, Seven Days is Too Long and Love Factory to name but three. Am I not being just a little bit hypocritical here? I asked myself.

I really hate when I start to act like a holier than thou music snob, it really isn't a trait that endears you to anyone except others who like to think that their taste is that much better than everybody else. The type that believe that in knowing who produced the b-side to a long deleted, over rated, obscure , only ever available in Detroit for 2 short months during 1965 7" inch single puts them on a par with Einstein. So I will try to be a little less cynical and agree that anything that turns people on to the joy of northern soul is a good thing and it means that some people may eventually receive the plaudits and royalties that they deserve.

However, we have all seen this phenemenon before, every couple of years somebody thinks that it is time for Northern Soul to become hip and we have to endure adverts for shit chicken, dodgy banks and even dodgier wine being soundtracked by one northern soul classic or another.

There is hope however.

Not one of these campaigns has been that successful, yes there have been the extremely shady Now That's What I call 100 Northern Soul classics cd compilations and the obligatory Keep The Faith T-shirts on show but the fad never seems to last.

I have a theory as to why this happens and it is that you can't just poke your big toe in northern soul you have to immerse your whole body in it. There is that much of it that it will take you a life time to get to grips with it and it is not something to dabble in. The other reason is, and I'm not being a music snob about this but it is an acquired taste. I have friends who like most of the music I like but who don't see the fascination in the 4/4 beat or the endless lyrics about love and loss and baulk at the idea of paying anything from twenty to hundreds of pounds for a 7" inch single. I sometimes pity these individuals but cannot condemn them for not liking it.

So hopefully after a few months of the two films on the subject being released and some toe curling use of some classic tracks in adverts or even worse music to accompany footage of over priced footballers with not an ounce of the talent of say, Jackie Wilson, putting the ball in the back of a net, northern soul will go back to doing what northern soul does best hyping up old soul tunes to stupid buggers like me who will pay over he odds for singles that are older than  a lot of the people buying them.

Anyway here is Edwyn Collins' homage to all things Northern

Edwyn Collins - Keep On Burning

How Festivals Conquered the World

Excellent article from Sylvia Patterson on the state of festivals from the only Sunday paper in Scotland worth reading

How Festivals Conquered the World

Edwyn Collins - The Campaign For Real Rock