Latitude is a music and arts festival that takes place near the east coast of England in Suffolk. Now in its fifth year, Latitude presents a popular yet relatively niche collection of established artists from a very broad and respected spectrum.

I’m currently on a 100% attendance rate and it’s been a real pleasure seeing it mature into the celebration it has become. Unfortunately my veteran status didn’t stop me from taking every wrong turn on the way there, thus turning a three hour trip into a four hour slog.

I digress. Once I had exposed the lying wench within the satnav, I spent a glorious few days in almost unprecedented thirty degree sunshine and in the company of (among very many others) – Empire Of The Sun, Laura Marling, Corinne Bailey Rae, Richard Hawley, Wild Beasts, Chief, Hockey, Yeasayer and a fresh-out-of-retirement Belle And Sebastian.

Empire Of The Sun - Latitude 2010

Check out these photos from a glorious festival weekend, and have a look at the official site to see more of Latitude.

Image credit: John Williams Photography.co.uk

I reckon it’s really important to travel. Whether its in a Rolls Royce or with a rucksack…
Travel gives you perspective and frees you up from the day-to-day. For me it gives me a kind of sense check of what you are doing, where you are going and what’s really important.

Even though I’m in my late 30’s… I am a hopeless case with spending at least part of my holidays on one (or many) of my favourite artists. There is always music involved. I can’t see that ever changing… Add in some of your favourite people in the world and I’m pretty damn contented.I’ve done most musical festivals in the world but for me, Coachella is the best and most intelligent. Goosebumps on multiple occasions. Hairs on arms standing up – check. Really – it’s that good. Imagine, a dream line up… backdrop it with a lush green space in the middle of the California desert. Surround that with palm trees… Then back drop it with an intense mountain range. Cap it with some snow at the very top just off in the distance. Then add a picture-perfect blue sky and you are getting close. This is music lovers festival heaven. At night the palm trees are underlit with different colored spotlights…and 5 massive Hollywood-style spotlights are planted around the parameters of the festival shooting into the sky and meeting up in the middle of the festival space. The sunset at the end of each day is something to behold as the sun rests for the night behind the mountains. And when the bands play, they play to a surrounding backdrop of palm trees or a hint of desert… it’s hard to explain in words but hope you are feelin’ me on how good it was. Although there were 60,000 people each day, it doesn’t feel suffocating or over-crowded. It’s clean and well-run. Yep. It’s pretty impressive. And if you believe in energies and spirits and those kind of otherworldly touchpoints… well I think it has all of that going on as well. But most importantly, I have never seen so much incredible music and such a musically-forward line up as this year. I highly recommend it. More at coachella.com but here’s my round-up: LCD Soundsystem Gorillaz Jonsi The Middle East Hot Chip Deadmau5 Yeasayer More tidbits and Radiohead Read the rest of this entry »

If you’ve not heard today’s incredible 10th anniversary Splendour In the Grass lineup, have you not a computer / radio / phone / ears / eyes????

OK so camping tickets are $450 (ouch), but we’ve done the math & it turns that makes each set $5.55… Five and half bucks to heard the new LCD album live!? The full lineup is below, with our favourite acts on the LHS. (Full disclosure, they’re all ours!)

In your pre-Splendour research mode, we’re willing to help you out even further by giving you:

• Laura Marling Ltd Edn I Speak Because I Can CD/DVD with 5 free downloads, postcard artwork, and lyrics booklet
• Jonsi blockmounted poster featuring Go album art
• Operator Please signed 7″ vinyl of Logic / Logic (Dolby Anol Remix)
• Ben Harper & Relentless7 signed blockmounted poster featuring White Lies… art
• Gorillaz limited edition Plastic Beach CD/DVD
• Hot Chip One Life Stand double gatefold vinyl
• Goldfrapp Headfirst collector’s edition cassette

Just head to our sister store at theinsong.com/splendour, buy any of the singles or albums to receive competition details, and tell us in 25 words or less how you plan to warm up for Splendour.

Hands up who has been waiting for a new Yeasayer album since the stereo died down after spinning 2007/8’s magnificent middle-eastern-infused-brain-melter All Hour Cymbals for the first time?
“More tunes!” we said… “More tunes now!”

It’s been a torturous wait, but we were richly awarded late last year when Yeasayer delivered Ambling Alp, a very different percussive electro-pop number off the new album Odd Blood. If All Hour Cymbals was an album for lazy afternoons evaporating in a haze of smoke, spirits, and sitars, then Odd Blood is a wholly different drug-induced haze – a LSD-laced sun-bleached space trip. The landscapes in the Ambling Alp video make me think that this is exactly the type of quirky pop listened to on David Bowie’s desert homeworld from The Man Who Fell To Earth.

Now it’s time for single #2 from Odd Blood, which the band are kindly giving away using the widget below. The track O.N.E follows in the same vein as Ambling Alp – catchy vocals, sunshiny synth melodies, and a serious pop sensibility. Go forth and download: