Latitude 2011 @ Henham Park, Suffolk

FRIDAY

The sixth Latitude festival kicks off on Friday afternoon with brilliant sunshine and the legend that is Edwyn Collins. Not too shabby.

Mr Collins and his band (which includes the Sex Pistols’ Paul Cook on drums, and for one song his young son on backing vocals) play an abridged history of his solo and Orange Juice stuff, starting with last year’s stomping 'Losing Sleep' and finishing with his ‘90s classic 'Girl Like You'. Can we call him a national treasure yet?

Friday’s other highlight for me is Bright Eyes, although alarmingly Conor Oberst seems to be metamorphosing into a cross between Bono and Lawrence from Felt. “This is for anyone trying to have sex with a guy in a band tonight!” he announces before one song. He brings his fellow countrymen Jenny and Johnny on stage for a cover of Gillian Welch’s 'Like A Wrecking Ball', before playing 'Road To Joy' accompanied by no fewer than four drummers.

Jenny and Johnny later reappear as themselves, on the bijou Sunrise stage up in the woods. It suits them and their cute guitar pop, and 'Big Wave' still sounds beautiful. This is, they tell us slightly ominously, their last show for a “long, long time”.

SATURDAY

Saturday starts with heavy rain, and my mood is not improved by folky types Villagers. Maybe they’re not suited to the cavernous Word marquee, or maybe they’re just dull, or maybe I’m too grumpy to enjoy it. On the other side of the lake, Diane Bromfield briefly lifts my spirits with her chirpy soul-pop and backing dancers (who get bonus points as they’re all wearing the same t-shirt as me), although her habit of asking us if we’re having a good time every five minutes starts to grate after a while.

Sometimes, British Sea Power are exactly what you need. Their repertoire of weather-beaten anthems like ‘Remember Me’ and ‘Waving Flags’ are the kind of thing that work well in a huge tent (that’s meant to be a compliment). The day continues to get better with the demented indie rock of Fight Like Apes, who just might be my favourite Irish band ever.

I’ve already banged on about CocknBullKid quite a bit in Artrocker, but her set on Huw Edwards’ Lake Stage – made up entirely of stuff from her recent Adulthood LP – is (predictably) a highlight of the weekend. She draws quite a big crowd for a small space, and announces this is the best festival she’s played (aah!). Could she be performing on the main stage this time next year? If my track record of predicting these things is anything to go by, definitely not.

Controversially, we give main stage headliner Paolo Nutini a miss, and go to see Foals instead. I trust that you, our loyal readers, will approve of this editorial decision. They’re great, anyway, and the well-heeled Latitude types go bonkers for their dance-music-played-with-guitars. We notice that one of their songs has the exact same beat to the theme from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

SUNDAY

Anna Calvi begins proceedings on the main stage on Sunday. It’s a fairly mimalist set-up, as it goes: Anna on guitar, plus drums and percussion. All very nice but I’m not sure this sort of thing works very well at 1pm in a windy field.

What emphatically does work well is Kele, who brings, as they say, the noise. His set of solo material, with a couple of Bloc Party songs thrown in, does an excellent job of getting a bunch of hungover people dancing in the rain, and he is as delightful as ever.

Later, Suede will close the festival with a workmanlike run through their hits on the main stage; but the band of the weekend for me is Canada’s The Hidden Cameras, who play in the small BAFTA-sponsored Film and Music Arena.

Not wanting to miss out on one of their only UK shows this year, Team Artrocker arrives a good hour ahead of schedule; we needn’t have bothered as it turns out, as the place is half empty (admittedly, they’re up against some pretty stiff competition, including Hurts and Lykke Li).

Well, more fool everyone who isn’t us, because they are amazing. They play a string of highlights from their decade-long career ('B-boy', 'Music Is My
Boyfriend', 'Awoo') and delight us with their on-stage antics, which includes blindfolds, synchronised jumping and dragging a fan on stage to play tambourine. Bravo, The Hidden Cameras!