Uncut

So, I'm happy now! I got my first taste of the music at Latitude and I like it. For a gentle start to the day I decided to lurk around the smaller arenas, blinking in the sunlight like a frightened nocturnal animal. Luckily there was plenty of shade in the woodland setting of the Sunrise Arena and I was happy to see Edinburgh band Broken Records and north England's version of The White Stripes (or so my programme informs me), Slow Club.

Slow Club and Broken Records storm the Sunrise arena

Afternoon all. You join us at Latitude in the company of the entire Alternative Cabaret scene, a giant. flying chunk of the Edinburgh Fringe, some frighteningly coloured sheep and, lest we forget, some excellent bands. Three exciting bits of news: it's not quite raining; I'm clear this year that we're in Suffolk, not Norfolk: and Michael Nyman is playing while I write at the back of the Music And Film Arena.

Batman: back in the black

The legend gets a standing ovation: Read the Uncut review here!

So softly intoned is his music, and so privately consumed is it by his fans, the idea of a Leonard Cohen arena show is possibly a little bizarre. 43 dates into the summer leg of his world tour, as he addresses the 20,000 crowd in London's O2 Arena, it's plain that the 73-year old is well-attuned to the ironies in the situation. "Thank you for joining us," he says, "at a place just the other side of intimacy…"

Suffolk-ing fun is go!

The reconnaissance branch of the Uncut team arrived at Latitude Festival yesterday and realised almost immediately that we were not alone in wanting to hit Henham Park Estate early this year. Thousands of music fans poured into the site a day early to set up camp and drink in the atmosphere before the serious business of deciding what to see on the packed line-up!

Brooklyn heroes confirmed for August 20

Annual event is launched by John Mellencamp