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Latitude 2009

Latitude: Dylan covers! Wheelbarrows! Friday’s highlights!

Friday’s highlights, then.

Latitude: Pet Shop Boys close opening night with a cheeky Coldplay cover

Following on from user-friendly sets by The Pretenders and Squeeze earlier in the evening, headliners Pet Shop Boys brought up the rear in Friday night’s poptastic triptych.

Latitude: Squeeze O’Clock!

Check your watches, it’s Squeeze o’clock. That means it’s the goodtime singalong hour, with South London’s finest kitchen-sink troubadours offering a master class is catchy pop brilliance.

Latitude: Bat For Lashes

It’s perhaps a strange moment of symmetry, but earlier I was fortunate enough to catch some of Fever Ray’s set, also in the UNCUT Arena. Clearly, there’s some parity between Karin Dreijer Andersson and Natasha Khan. Both own a significant debut to Kate Bush, and both are convincing exponents of their own, fantastic interior world.

Latitude: Regina Spektor

Regina Spektor's set on the Obelisk stage was blighted by the first real spate of Friday drizzle, but the New York singer-songwriter put on a set to charm the fans, and doubtless won some new ones too.

Latitude: Jeremy Hardy

Hey, just a quick one as I’m on a timetable to get to Bat For Lashes in about 25 minutes, but I’ve just got back from seeing Jeremy Hardy in the Literary Arena, and wanted to get something up online sooner rather than later.

Latitude: The Pretenders

“You’re a good-looking audience,” says Chrissie Hynde, before launching into “Back On The Chain Gang”. “Just what I’d expect. This is for your dad.” It is perhaps interesting to note that a lot of Hynde’s between song banter this evening is predicated around mostly wry, self-deprecating references to her past. She dedicates “Kid”, for instance, to late band members Pete Farndon and Jimmy Honeyman-Scott, finishing with “Put the kettle on, we’re not far behind you.” It is, you might think, particularly apt then that The Pretenders choose to cover Dylan’s “Forever Young”.

Editor’s blog: Hola From Latitude

Well, here we all are. The first rain of the day is just beginning to fall, just a gentle drizzle, so nothing to really complain about and certainly nothing like last night's epic cloudburst which made me fear that when I got here this afternoon I'd find Henham Park deep enough in water to float an ark.

Latitude festival: Fever Ray

OK, I know it's early days but I might have just seen one of the performances of the festival.

Latitude festival: The Mummers

The eclectic mix of Latitude's tents and stages provided a perfect setting for the theatricality of Brighton's The Mummers, whose early Friday afternoon set lit up the Uncut Arena, but would have been equally at home almost anywhere on the site.
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