Festivals
Preview
Latitude 2023: underlined
The names you might have missed beneath the headliners at Latitude 2023
The last time Jarvis Cocker played Latitude he was subbing for Arcade Fire with a solo slot in 2007. The same year saw the likes of Bat For Lashes, The National, Camera Obscura, Wild Beasts and Cate Le Bon play, but none of them were anywhere near the headline slots.
As Jarvis prepares to return this year with Pulp – hogging the biggest fonts on the poster alongside Paolo Nutini, George Ezra, James, Ed Gamble and James Acaster, it’s time to delve a little deeper into the Latitude 2023 line-up to start planning the other highlights worth looking forward to.
Tinariwen
The Obelisk Arena, Friday
Latitude has a great tradition of opening the Obelisk with leading world music acts, and this year they’re spoiling us with the only Saharan rebel desert blues collective to have picked up three Grammy nominations. Frequent collaborations with Jack White, Warren Ellis and Kurt Vile have done nothing to dull the edge of Tinariwen, now nine albums into one of the best discographies in political rock.
Metronomy
The Obelisk Arena, Friday
Friday night’s run from Confidence Man to Metronomy to Pulp is pretty perfect (even if the clash with Yard Act on the BBC Sounds stage already feels painful). Joseph Mount brings Metronomy back to Henham Park now with another terrific indietronica record under his belt – last year’s Small World ready made for the Obelisk; lead single ‘Things Will Be Fine’ as good a festival anthem as any.
The Big Moon
The Obelisk Arena, Saturday
The phases of The Big Moon keep turning as the band spent 2022 making an honest, intimate, beautiful record about parenthood, and 2023 playing it loud on every big festival stage they can find. The poignant magic of ‘Wide Eyes’ and ‘2 Lines’ should sit perfectly alongside rougher garage grunge like ‘Sucker’ and ‘Cupid’ with the kind of set that pulls in crowds from all over the site.
The Beths
BBC Sounds, Friday
“The Hooks” might be a better name, not least because they usually travel with a giant inflatable fish. You’ll find The Beths playing the tent with the most people smiling in it – offering up big, bright, hooky slices of Kiwi indie rock that swims in a shimmer.
Men I Trust
BBC Sounds, Friday
Hats off to Men I Trust for naming their last record Untourable Album, and then touring it anyway. Interesting to see how this one goes down in a sunny field – all the fuzzy dream-pop vocals and lo-fi funk grooves melding into the kind of music that turns day into night; a gorgeous slow-motion disco for people who prefer dancing on their own.
Rachel Chinouriri
BBC Sounds, Friday
The stage times aren’t out yet but here’s hoping Rachel Chinouriri hits the BBC Sounds tent just as the sun is setting. Whatever the opposite of a florescent pink sheep at Latitude is, it’s this – soulful, dark, serious electro indie muddled with experimental hip hop and the sort of vulnerability that can hush an entire big top.
Siouxsie
BBC Sounds, Sunday
Latitude crowds have two main choices on Sunday night: either George Ezra grinning into the sunshine, or Siouxsie Sioux hissing at it. Buttery smooth folk-pop or jagged goth punk. Riding shotgun or wielding one. Closing the BBC Sounds stage in style, one of the most influential names in British punk is here for everyone who spent the whole day waiting for the sun to go away. The intro to ‘Happy House’ is going to bring the tent down.
Kiefer Sutherland
BBC Sounds, Sunday
Who doesn’t want to watch Jack Bauer sing? If he keeps getting bigger festival gigs we’ll maybe one day see Kiefer Sutherland play a 24 hour set in real time, or even just add in a few covers from the Lost Boys soundtrack. Until then, his whisky-rich Americana will more than do – bringing a welcome swig of country to Latitude’s last day.
The Last Dinner Party
The Sunrise Arena, TBC
Whoever booked The Last Dinner Party for Latitude probably didn’t expect them to be quite as big as they are now – or they definitely would have put them on the main stage. To be fair, the band have still only officially released one song, so no one really saw it coming. Easily the biggest draw at this year’s Great Escape festival, The Last Dinner Party (think baroque pop meets post-punk meets the early buzz of Wet Leg) will likely have half the crowd of the tiny Sunrise Arena climbing the trees just to see the stage. Get there early.
Warmduscher
The Sunrise Arena, Saturday
Latitude is a lovely place for lovely people, but Warmduscher will be changing all that. Likely taking to the stage around the time Paolo starts singing about how much he loves his new shoes, Clams Baker Jr will be screaming at everyone to f*ck off. A gloriously scuzzy mix of funk, hip hop and lounge rock, Warmduscher are playing Latitude’s after after party with treacle thick basslines and punk energy.
Fern Brady
Comedy Arena, TBC
There’s so much great stand-up at this year’s Latitude that it’s starting to feel like a comedy festival that also does music. Ed Gamble, Bridget Christie, Sara Pascoe, James Acaster and Romesh Ranganathan (who’s also doing a hip hop DJ set) are the big draws, but there are so many other great names sitting beneath them on the poster. If we had to just pick one, it’d be the incomparable Fern Brady – now back on this year’s festival circuit after releasing her bestselling memoir (which she’ll also be reading bits of in the literature tent).
Danny Robins: Uncanny Live
TBC
Festivals can be scary places – especially when you need a wee in the middle of the night and you haven’t eaten all your Pringles yet. But Danny Robins is here to make things scarier still with a live record of the best paranormal podcast around, Uncanny. Real-life ghost stories are discussed with the help of Danny’s regular guest experts (one believer, one skeptic), and the Latitude audience will get a rare chance to add their own scary experiences into the mix. Bloody hell…
Emma Freud & Richard Curtis: Suffolk Actually
On Stage, Thursday
Latitude 2023 curates another set of celebrity couple dining experiences, presenting sit-down Guest Chef menus from Marcus Brigstocke & Rachel Parris and Sophie Ellis-Bextor & Richard Jones. First up though, is Thursday night’s meal from Emma Freud & Richard Curtis, dubbed “Suffolk Actually”. Expect Andrew Lincoln to hold up the menu on big cue cards, Bill Nighy to provide the music and Emma Thompson to sit sobbing in the corner.
Photo credit: Shirlaine Forrest / Getty
