A one-line review of everything I saw on my Once In a Lifetime day at Latitude 2026

I was struck by a sudden fear of never seeing David Byrne play songs by Talking Heads again, and so made an ill-advised last-minute Twickets purchase to go to the Latitude Festival for the day on the Friday.

It was a lot of travel there and back from London – including an air-quotes “hilarious” interlude where I got separated from the coach taking me there and it had to turn round and pick me up – and I didn’t get home until 21 hours after I’d left the house in the morning. David Byrne, though, eh? Once in a lifetime. Here’s what I made of the day …

The four acts I really wanted to see

Adult DVD (Sunrise Arena) – I am fairly certain I first came across this mob via my ex-Uni mate and Leeds-based DJ Dan Lomax, who does fab little monthly mixes. They had a real punch live, with an aggressive singer goading a mid-afternoon festival crowd for not being warmed up enough yet. Dogs in the Sun is an absolute banger, though they could maybe do with a smidgen more variety in their set.

Dry Cleaning (Obelisk Arena) – I still don’t quite get them. When it comes together, like on Hit My Head All Day, it sounds great, and I love it. But most of the time it sounds like someone is listening to an instrumental post-punk album from 1983 in the background while leaving increasingly unhinged voicemail messages to an ex.

The Last Dinner Party (Obelisk Arena) – It was essentially the same show as I saw when they supported Wolf Alice, which was no bad thing at all. I ended up sandwiched between some over-enthusiastic fans singing and dancing to every word, and some very put-out hardcore David Byrne fans who were determined to keep a spot down the front but thoroughly disapproved of people enjoying themselves in the meantime.

David Byrne (Obelisk Arena) – He opened with a quiet string-laden version of Heaven and people around me kept on talking but once the set got going it was glorious. Yes, he had a couple of coughing fits and stumbled on the lyrics a couple of times, but those Talking Heads songs are immense, of the solo stuff he played a couple of them are things I liked and remembered, and the choreography of his entirely free-standing band is something to behold.

That one band that was a discovery

Brooki (The Alcove) – I nearly didn’t go and see them as I was flagging a bit at this point, but I am glad I did. Very sort of grunge-y with impressive soaring vocals, occasionally bowed bass guitar, and I definitely want to see them again.

Everything else I stumbled upon

The first thing I managed to get to see was The Adam Buxton Band (Second Stage) doing his silly funny songs about his dog, his wife, his phone charger and so on, then I went off to witness Clara Mann (The Alcove). She seemed like a beautiful singer, but it was very fragile and was being overpowered by noise from across the way, so I followed that noise …

[Picture caption: Clara Mann, The Alcove, Latitude 2026]

… that turned out to be The Dodge Brothers (Trailer Park) doing some fairly straightforward rock’n’roll with a proper double bass, in a bit of the venue that was full of parents propelling their kids around some activities while also getting to nod along and think “Thank God I am getting to see some music”.

[Picture caption: The Dodge Brothers, Trailer Park, Latitude 2026]

Next I went off the BBC Introducing stage, where acts were alternating between some open mic performers on the nearby Tiny Stage. I saw Ayanna Witter-Johnson (BBC Introducing Stage) who does soulful music with a really nice voice while also playing an electronic cello, and Tessa Rose Jackson (BBC Introducing Stage) who was publicising her new album that was all about death and grief, and who had a neat line in between-song banter.

[Picture caption: Tessa Rose Jackson, BBC Introducing Stage, Latitude 2026]

The open mic efforts? One was a white guy doing his own upbeat acoustic reggae tunes, and the other was a man wearing a fox tail who did a tribute to David Bowie. I saw the fox-tail guy – still with tail in tow – in the urinals later which was unedifying for everybody.

[Picture caption: Open mic man with a fox tail at Latitude 2026]

Other things I caught during the day were:

• Overpass (Second Stage), who I could see why people liked, but was a bit too much in the Stereophonics/Feeder/U2 mode for me to get excited about.
• Florence Road (Second Stage), Alice Phoebe Lou (Obelisk Arena) and Alessi Rose (Second Stage) have all merged a bit in my mind, although it did sound like I would have enjoyed Florence Road more than I enjoyed Dry Cleaning if I’d opted for them instead.
• I question Jalen Ngonda (Obelisk Arena) and his gentle soul being programmed in between Dry Cleaning and The Last Dinner Party. It just didn’t seem to make a coherent bill at all.
• I know they say “If you can’t say something nice, say nothing at all” – hence no blog post about Rod Liddle dying – but Nathanevans x Saint Phnx band (Second Stage) was fucking godawful. Imagine if Billy Ray Cyrus was Scottish, and decided to get into singing sea shanties in a Klezmer style. People were lapping it up. Wrong’uns.
• I walked by Ross Noble (Comedy Arena) just as he was performing the William Tell Overture but only using the words “monkey tits” for some reason.
• I went to see Shellectronica (The Apollo Stage), where Steve Pretty uses actual seashells to make electronica, which sounded fascinating, but it soon became apparent I was the only person in the arena not accompanying a child in some sort of educational effort, so swiftly departed.

Thoughts on being back at Latitude …

Time flies when you are having fun. At the Adam Buxton performance, the guy in front of me was wearing a t-shirt of the first time I went to Latitude in 2013, when I saw Daughter, Drenge, Everything Everything, the much-missed late Mark Lanegan and Kraftwerk doing their 3D show. I went on my own for the day and camped in the car park in a little one man pop-up tent. Oh the nostalgia.

The cunning Latitude plan of offering fractions of pennies for returned cups and cans had virtually every child between the ages of seven and 13 embarking as volunteer litter-pickers as a pocket-money opportunity, which was cute.

I do feel like there has been a loudness war between stages over the years I’ve been going to Latitude that maybe needs a rethink. I’m not sure you could watch any of the artier events being put on at the Waterfront stage without them being drowned out from two or three different sources. And I was sad to see it looked like the film tent had met its demise.

At the end of David Byrne, people were firing huge amounts of bubbles into the air and it was lovely. And then kudos to the Big Green Coach company who not only came back to rescue me in the morning, but let me swap onto a coach bound for Stratford on the way back, making my journey home a fraction easier. As the man says … once in a lifetime.

I went to a lot of gigs in July besides Latitude, including a three-day residency at Alexandra Palace wearing all the hats that annoy my partner with impunity, a gull supervising a legend in Margate, and Kylie Minogue showing up with Nick Cave in Brighton. You can find reviews of what I saw live in an absolute marathon of a month here.