So, I got my proverbial butt in gear after the cancellation of the Norwich gig and got myself down to the Latitude Festival last night. On what was a sunny, yet cool summer’s night, we entered the site, set in the grounds of an English stately home near the Suffolk coast. My first impressions were that this was going to be quite a dignified affair, mixed in with a gentle blend of “hippie-ness” and literary culture. Once we were on the main site, we sought out the Uncut Arena where Scritti were playing and checked out Saul Williams performing his brand of hip hop poetry set to dark, angry beats. Took a while to get into but I ended up enjoying it.

We then scanned the rest of the site to get our bearings, checking out The Lemonheads in the main Obelisk Arena. After purchasing some beer (not black), we headed back to the Uncut arena and caught the last half a dozen or so numbers from Saul Williams and then, when that crowd had departed, got front row centre and waited for 8:30pm.

At about 8:15, the curtain at the rear of the stage was drawn and we could see Rhodri and Alyssa wandering around, helping set up gear before it was wheeled on stage. Dickie was breezing around too. And then, if almost ironically wearing a green hoodie and Adidas white & green trainers, Green wandered into view ! Ralph and Dave then appeared and the gear was moved in, connected and tested. Everyone seemed quite relaxed, especially Green as some guy rushed the stage and said in a voice that revealed his disbelief, “Are you really Green Gartside ??”, to which Green acknowledged with a “Yup, hi” and a wave ! I have to say it did feel kind of hard to believe that only a few yards from me was the guy responsible for the soundtrack to some of my most formative years and a musical hero of mine. I’ve only ever felt like that when I went to see Prince a few years ago and got in to the soundcheck as part of the fan club, and he came down to the audience, sat and chilled, chatting with anyone who was there. There I was standing and talking to probably the greatest musical genius of the 20^th century, it was almost dream like. And so it was, observing Green, the man whose songs and musicianship had such a profound effect on me.

So, eventually, 8:30 came and the band took the stage. They kicked of with Snow In Sun, much to the displeasure of some drunken 40 something local idiot who only knew the C+P Scritti and was expecting some cheesy 80’s revival type thing. His constant whinging and moaning was only slightly assuaged when The Sweetest Girl kicked off, and that was only because he thought it was The Word Girl !! By the end of the gig he had about half a dozen of us wanting to cause him physical harm !

The band seemed pretty damned tight, given the lack of confidence expressed by Green these past few months. No more bum notes or missed cues than any other band I’ve seen. The acoustics of a festival arena meant that certain musical elements got lost in the tent but overall, that voice was superb, Green was chirpy and the set was extremely good. Here’s a list….

Snow In Sun

Robin Hood

After Six

E11th Nuts

Come Clean

Dr. Abernathy

The Sweetest Girl (massive cheers for this one !)

Hands Up

Cooking

Road To No Regret

D To The O

Skank Bloc Bologna

The Boom Boom Bap

Degradation

And with a swift thank you and goodbye, they left the stage. The audience, including Mr Local Idiot, started to depart and I hung on for the encore that never was L I stood there saying, “Don’t worry, they’ll be back to do Wood Beez” until Dave, Ralph and the roadies came on and started unplugging stuff. I must say I was a bit gutted, but the previous hour had certainly been very impressive. Dr Abernathy was a great performance, Sweetest Girl was an utter joy, Cooking (my fave on the new album) was superb, Hands Up was great (I don’t care what others think, Green can rap pretty good !), Skank Bloc was amazing after all these years and everything else was well above par and very well performed.

After the Norwich cancellation, I thought I was destined never to see Green and the gang and see and hear “that voice” in action for myself, but I’m glad last night came off and will have to get along to another gig, if only to hear Wood Beez !!

As for pics and stuff, my camera phone struggled in the arena lighting and Green’s music stand kept getting in the way !

If anyone else was there, I was the guy right at the front in the white shirt, slap bang in front of Green. There were plenty of proper fans there, split between those who know his whole career and those that remembered him from back in the day.

Oh, and I got a copy of the set list (Dickie’s to be precise) but no-one hung around long enough to get autographs and stuff. I saw Ralph later, briefly, but my hopes of bumping into Green somewhere in the middle of the park were never fulfilled.

We ended the evening with some Thai food and watched Snow Patrol in the main arena until 11:00pm. I say watched, we could barely see, the arena was that full, but they rocked as they do and it was good.

So until next time, thanks to Double G and the Traitorous 3+2, and see you again soon J

Rob.