Latitude Saturday

Saturday is the quietest day for yours truly, bands wise. Time is spent in the Literary, Film and Caberet tents sampling some of the other delights Latitude has to offer... learning to play the ukelele in under an hour, hearing poetry about drugs and watching a film about... well I'm not entirely sure as I missed both beginning and end!

So far as bands go I start off with French songstress Soko who is delightfully ramshackle. With backing from Johnny Flynn and the drummer from his band she sings songs which mostly seem to be about failed romances and how much she likes peanut butter.

Next up is Malcolm Middleton. His former band, Arab Strap, are long time favourites of mine and his solo work has also been regulars on the stereo round these parts. With a tight backing band and playing songs from the last 3 albums his set is one of the highlights of the weekend. Blue Plastic Bags from the recent album "Sleight of Heart" is a standout.

After ten minutes of Elbow frankly I'm bored so I head over to the Music and Film tent of Mark Lamarr's God's Jukebox evening which turns out to be one of the best evenings of any of the 3 Latitudes so far. Not just the bands, but the music played in between which keeps me dancing into the small hours.

First on is Pete Molinari who mixes rock n roll with early Dylan to good effect. After a set drawn almost entirely from his most recent album he finishes with a cover of Folsom Prison Blues which goes down a storm.

Next up is The Heavy an energetic funk rap crossover act, seemingly at odds to the rest of the bands on. They seem to have a lot of fans in just to see them and the tent is full of people having a great time...

Midnight hits and the third act comes on, R&B revivalist James Hunter. Less energetic than the Heavy, Hunter and his band keep people dancing with their bluesy soul.

The highlight of the evening for a soul fan like me comes with the next act, Eli 'Paperboy' Reed and the True Loves. Great soul with more than a nod to legend James Carr they blow me away with some of the best grooves heard in many a year. Despite having not had a beer since the start of the evening (beer or water!) I'm still dancing throughout and really I can pay no higher compliment.