Latitude 2012 (Day Two)

The rain splattering the tent doesn’t feel like the soul reason for the arena being quiet on Saturday morning. As children, and some early risers, are left to create plastic cup deposit schemes (£3 pounds a pop, who can blame them?!) the remainder of festival goers reflects on the general lul created by Friday’s headliners. Granted, the mud from the previous night’s downpour adds to a daunting walk around the site, but it feels like the music of day two at Latitude will have to work much harder to impress.

Dingus Khan takes on the difficult role of welcoming weary revelers and seemingly assumes cramming five guitarists and three drummers onto the Lake Stage will be the best way to shock passers by into a more appreciative state. Their brash style seems to pay off as a respectable crowd stay to Paul Thomas Saunders unveil their Bombay Bicycle Club-on-sedatives style indie folk before Lianne La Havas continues her charm offensive of the festival circuit. Perhaps excused by checking the chart progress of her debut album ‘Is Your Love Big Enough?’, La Havas sticks to the Latitude theme of arriving fashionably late on stage, not that anyone remembers after the first flash of her dazzling smile. An emotional set leads the captivated audience by the hand through the highs and lows of her release whilst staying in total control of a soaring vocal. As she makes no effort to shake off an ever growing smirk, the jazz influenced singer clearly enjoys her role amongst an array of modern day storytellers on the bill before handing over the fine mane baton to Esperanza Spalding on the Obelisk. The American bassist introduces sophistication to the swing permeating its way around the main arena and proves the line-up is not made up solely of crowd pleasers.

A wave of scats and trills spreads as far as the iArena to find Of Monsters And Men providing intimacy through their brand of twee folk before the distraction from the music stages is enforced by Sadlers Wells’ waterfront performance, sealing off the main bridge to the arena. The alternative route back includes getting lost in the Faraway Forest before being guided back to (relative) normality by the siren like harmony of sister act The Staves.

The main stage begins to build up its fair share of camping chairs with the finest weather of the weekend as Michael Kiwanuka struggles with a larger than normal crowd. A surprisingly nervy set from the BBC Sound Of 2012 winner is contradicted by Kwes’ Lake Stage set that’s personified by lead single ‘Bashful’. This slight blip sees the lesser stages flourishing as Laura Marling slots into a now obligatory Obelisk appearance with fairly generic yet endearing results.

The Word arena reaches every man for himself status as SBTRKT works the tent into a frenzy, frantically tweaking and reworking his self titled debut. A worryingly instinctive sense of rhythm adds new elements but can easily go unnoticed thanks to a finely tuned vocal from session-turned-hypeman, Sampha. Taking an entirely electronic album to the live environment is always going to be a risk and the set suffers slightly when Jessie Ware’s sample on ‘Right Thing To Do’ fails to make an impact in an already busy mix. However, it doesn’t hold back the festival’s younger guests from letting off steam during their only real daylight exposure to a heart pounding bass line. Los Campesinos! frontman Gareth also capitalises on a dip in energy on the main stage by euphorically throwing himself in a God-like manner onto adoring Lake Stage fans following a cherry picking of the band’s back catalogue.

Perhaps he’d taken notes from Guy Garvey. “We’re not going to be together for another twelve months so we have to make the most of it!” jokes Elbow’s singer, highlighting the predictability of the headline booking. As he strolls out on a self indulgent ramp extended in front of the Obelisk Stage, it becomes apparent that, since becoming festival regulars, the band have heightened their list of demands. That said, they’ve become a solid staple, delivering all the ‘I hope they do that ones’ from across their fifteen year career in a largely entertaining set. An unexpectedly early ‘Grounds For Divorce’ allows some to head over to The Horrors’ set at the Word Arena. There’s a disappointing lack of cramming but an overwhelming response to the likes of ‘Changing In The Rain’ as they work a set made up mostly of latest release ‘Skying’. To be fair, they don’t have fireworks. A suitably expensive looking display reflects the collective relief of the hordes who have waited for ‘One Day Like This’ to bring the day’s music to a close, as an array of seductive glitter and vinyl scratches emerges from the woods and Comedy Arena to attract those not so fond of sleep.

Guilty Pleasures provide a welcome break from music snobbery, but a four hour sequin and dolly patron fest is only bearable in small doses. Thankfully, the weather holds off enough to allow exploration of late night acts. The Poetry Tent plays host to a rare stripped back spoken word set from Scroobius Pip, while squeezing into Literary Tent is rewarded by Robin Ince’s Late Night Revolution with musical comedy closers Jonny & The Baptists offering a multi-lingual, topical set to keep the grey matter up to speed.

A luminous warpaint fuelled rendition of ‘You Can Call Me Al’ signals that it’s time for bed as Latitude’s busiest day is awaited on the other side of the sunrise.