Latitude Festival Fan Review #1

Here is a review of doves Latituide Festival set, as sent to us by Si.

For those that don’t know it, Latitude has a very different feel to the other UK festivals. Nothing is ever too crowded, but everything draws a great crowd, no-one is ever that wasted, but plenty of ale is sunk, and everyone is polite and happy, even when it rained. It brings to mind an extremely well organised village fete, and I loved it.

It is hard to imagine a more perfect place and time to watch Doves than a summer’s evening in 2009 at the friendly and chilled Latitude festival.

Cheated out of a headline space by Grace Jones, Doves set out to show this welcoming Suffolk crowd how it’s done. As expected, Jetstream is the opener, and with the limited 40 minutes or so for the set, it is based primarily around the newer material from ‘Kingdom of Rust’, with the classics ‘Pounding’ and a predictable, but great closeout from ‘There Goes the Fear’.

Throughout, Jimi seemed charmed by one of the biggest crowds of the weekend, acknowledging with some pride the number of kids in attendance, and gently joking about the proliferation of wigs and the petite wasps flitting around the arena.

This was very much a ‘best of’ set for Doves, which meets the first rule for a festival crowd (remember you have come to their festival, they are rarely there just to see you). Fortunately for Doves, ‘best of’ brings such a quality and range of songs that any absence of hidden gems to satisfy the more informed Doves fans does not weaken the performance.

Doves finish as the sun goes down and leave the stage politely for Grace Jones. She was late, and was eventually cut short by the curphew. Somehow, you know that Doves wouldn’t disrespect the audience like that.

At a festival you always have a choice, and at Latitude the wise chose Doves (oh, and Spiritualized instead of Gracie).

Simon Lay July 2009.