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Thom Yorke

Latitude Festival 2009

By Richard Haugh

大象传媒 Suffolk will broadcast two live shows from the 2009 Latitude Festival, with special live performances and interviews. The festival is returning to Suffolk for a fourth year at Henham Park, near Southwold.

Drivetime with Stephen Foster will be broadcast between 1600-1800 BST on Friday (17 July), providing a mix of news and music with a taste of the festival.

Golden Silvers

On Sunday, between 1400 and 1600 BST, Foz will co present a special two hour show with Richard Haugh, with live guests and exclusive acoustic performances from bands including Golden Silvers, Ruby and her Whorses and The Cheek, who will be returning to Latitude after a successful year touring the world.

大象传媒 Suffolk's website will have photos throughout the weekend and video on site from Monday. We'll also be sending regular Twitter updates:

Twitter: 大象传媒 Suffolk >

The 大象传媒 is not responsible for the content of external websites

You can listen live via the website using the link on the right, or catch up the following week using the iPlayer.

大象传媒 Look East will also be at Latitude - switch on to 大象传媒 One on Friday night at 1830 BST to see Dawn Gerber's live reports from the site.

It's not all about the music...but

Thom Yorke, The Pet Shop Boys, Grace Jones and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds will be the musical headliners at the festival, which will also feature the Royal Shakespeare Company and poet laureate Andrew Motion.

The iconic trio top the list of musical acts to perform on the Obelisk Stage, while debut appearances from the RSC and the Royal Opera House are amongst the highlights elsewhere.

A surprise addition to the bill is a solo set by Radiohead mainman Thom Yorke. With one solo album under his belt (The Eraser), he'll be appearing on the main stage at noon on Sunday.

Yorke is filling the 'Joanna Newsom' time-slot. The harpist's early performance was one of the highlights of 2008 has started a trend of potential headliners appearing at the bottom of the running order to get things started.

"Joanna last year was something that came about by accident in truth," said music programmer Jon Dunn. "But to see 15,000 people head over to see Joanna on a Sunday lunchtime, and the set which she produced, was absolutely unbelievable and it's something that's now integral to Latitude."

Under canvas

Bat For Lashes and Gossip will headline the Uncut Stage, where Spiritualized, Mika, Squeeze and Newton Faulkner will also play, whilst Doves, Editors, Turin Brakes (playing acoustically) and seminal 70s band Magazine will also appear over the weekend of July 16-19.

White Lies will play Latitude for the second year in a row, and joining them on the Obelisk Stage will be The Pretenders, Phoenix, Flashguns and The Chakras.

Regina Spektor returns to the festival on the Friday, having played at the first Latitude in 2006, whilst one of the most blogged about bands of 2009, Passion Pit, will play the Sunshine Arena on Saturday.

Jeffrey Lewis will appear in both the poetry tent and the Music and Film arena.

大象传媒 Introducing will once again have a strong presence at Latitude, with Huw Stephens selecting the Lake Stage line up. Golden Silvers, Pulled Apart By Horses, Marina and the Diamonds, Post War Years and Slow Club are amongst the highlights.

Charlie Dobney, Cheeky Cheeky and the Nosebleeds

The Cheek return to Latitude

Suffolk band The Cheek will make a celebratory return to the Lake Stage in 2009. After headlining in 2008 the band have been invited to open the stage on Saturday - giving a nod to the support received by 大象传媒 Introducing during the earliest stages of their career.

Ed Byrne, Sean Lock, Sean Hughes, Mark Thomas and Adam Hills are amongst the first comics to be announced for the hugely popular Comedy Tent. Latitude will also be running a New Act of the Year competition run by Jack Whitehall, who will introduce six new comedians on the Saturday morning.

"I'm really, really pleased with our headliners," Festival Republic's managing director Melvin Benn told 大象传媒 Suffolk. "Pet Shop Boys are one of those acts where it's easy to say 'ah, they're a pop act', but they've been there, they've done it, they've embraced art, they've embraced culture.

"Grace Jones is an icon above all icons in some respects. She's a fearful lady, an amazing lady. She knows what she wants in life, she knows what she wants on a stage. She knows what she wants to present, and that's a wonderful purposefulness.

"The amount of bands who want to perform with her is immense. Agents are ringing up and saying 'you know my band really likes Grace Jones, can they be on the same bill' and we're like 'yeah, we can talk about that'."

Nick Cave

Nick Cave will be at Latitude for the second successive year, following his performance with Grinderman in 2008.

"Nick Cave loved Latitude and saw that it was a great place for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - he was mega keen to come back and play.

"It's a nice feeling when an act of such quality as Nick Cave plays the festival in one guise one year and actually really wants to come back in his true guise the next year. It's fantastic."

大象传媒 Radio 2 and 大象传媒 6Music will be broadcasting live from the festival for the first time, 大象传媒 Radio 4 will once again record some of their popular shows in front of a live audience and BAFTA will also be present.

Likewise, Mark Lamarr will again curate a section of the festival.

Dance, poetry and a spot of Shakespeare

Sadlers Well's will once again perform dance by the lake, the RSC will mix Shakespeare and flowers, and outgoing poet laureate Andrew Motion will be in the poetry tent - much to the delight of Melvin Benn.

"Andrew Motion, who reads poems to the Queen - can you believe that? And he's coming to read poems at Latitude.

"I think there will be an awe with Andrew Motion - the poet laureate playing at a festival, it's just great.

"As for the RSC - these are proper people. These aren't wannabe rock and rollers, these are proper people who understand literature, who understand theatre, history and it's wonderful they want to come and perform in a field to a festival audience.

"It's great because they want to see and present to an audience who ordinarily wouldn't necessarily watch the RSC. That type of thing is genuinely what Latitude is about."

The success of previous Latitude Festivals has resulted in an increase in the capacity - up year on year to 25,000 people in 2008. But Melvin Benn confirmed this number won't rise again in 2009.

"I'm delighted to keep it at 25,000 people.

"Some of the challenges with that are that it's very expensive to do so I've put the price up a little. But the compromise on that is there will be no more people."

Booking bands for Latitude

As in previous years, Live Nation's Jon Dunn was responsible for compiling the long list of musicians to perform on the festival's main stages - with Huw Stephens the exception in his role overseeing the 大象传媒 Introducing stage.

Grace Jones

大象传媒 Suffolk caught up with Jon at the glitzy Latitude launch event in Covent Garden and began by asking about how the three headliners were chosen.

"Grace Jones was someone I wanted to play Latitude," said Jon. "She's an artist beyond most other artists - iconic.

"I thought Latitude Festival should be a festival that's brave and should push some boundaries. She was my first choice at this particular time.

"The Roundhouse shows in London were unbelievable. I've never experienced so many texts or emails from people saying it was the most amazing show they've ever seen. Visually, musically and artistically she's absolutely perfect for us.

"Nick Cave was again another icon - we've got three icons at the top. After the response from Grinderman last year, Nick Cave was always going to be someone we looked at.

"Pet Shop Boys were the icing on the cake to be honest. The time feels right for them, it feels like they've come full circle. They've always believed in the arts, they've crossed over in almost every art form and as for the show, what a fantastic show."

Pet Shop Boys

All three acts topping the bill began their careers in the 1980s - was it a conscious decision to opt for more experienced artists?

"It wasn't by design. These iconic acts were available and were acts that we wanted.

"I do think it goes on to a bigger conversation in terms of us, as an industry. Are we breeding as many headliners as we were? But if you look at all three of their back catalogues you can't argue against it.

"But Latitude is about the whole bill and we've got 121 other acts and they'll be a mix of contemporary, some more niche acts, and as a mix it works."

last updated: 14/07/2009 at 13:21
created: 23/03/2009

Have Your Say

What do you think of the line up?

Jamie Corning
Newton Faulkner alone was worth the 4 hour drive - stunning. Best live performer I've seen, if you like real music!

Ian Prosser
Well having been to most of the summer festivals on and off over the last 20 odd years, this year鈥檚 Latitude was a first for me and my teenage son. In all honesty we were not sure what to make of the line up pre festival although all I can say now is the whole arts, music mix coupled with the stunning Suffolk location made it a truly fantastic event. We spent much of our time in the theatres, comedy shows as well as the small and large music stages. The relaxed atmosphere, friendly event staff, excellent camping and free parking... Oh and simply the cleanest festival I have ever been to make for us a winning formula. To the event organisers more of the same please for next year. If you go down the road of all the other festivals with the big international crowd pullers it would no longer be latitude.

Matt
Without a shadow of a doubt the highlight of the festival will be the show that Future Cinema will be showing on Sunday. They have the Gypsy Folk band Taraf de Haidouk performing before the Film and during the film Black Cat, White Cat. The Romanian cult classic. They are starting the show at 11pm on Sunday with a recreation of the Wedding seen on the river then at 12.30 they introduce the actual film! This will be a great way to end the festival once the music has finished! hope to see you all there with me!

Craig
After weeks of contemplating whether or not to buy a ticket this year I casted my mind back to last year's festival and began to reminisce of not only great music but also some great comedy acts. Even though the majority of the Arts is lost on a philistine such as myself the beautiful settings of latitude and the friends I am going with will surely make it an unforgetable event. The antecedent opinion of many is that the line up isn't as strong as previous years and at the moment I'm also in that camp but who knows? I now hold my ticket with excitement and will be spotted throughout the weekend with my pitcher of Pimms and bag of wine in tow. It's what YOU make it.

Sophie
Oh my god, some people are such morons - why buy a ticket to a festival without knowing who's going to play & then b*tch about who's playing when you find out it's not who you wanted? ... maybe if you people listened to something more adventurous than Radio 1, you'd realise that Latitude has picked some awesome acts - Regina Spektor is THE best singer songwriter around, St Vincent, Phoenix, Fever Ray, Scott Matthews, Little Boots...all awesome! When a festival's got hundreds of acts, I don't care who the headliners are, I don't care for Grace Jones, Nick Cave or the Pet Shop Boys, but that's not a problem for me because I know I'll have an amazing time seeing acts that apparently a lot of narrowminded NME types will miss!

Simon
Disopointing lineup for such a steep price, if i wanted to go to a mixed arts and folk festival i would go to the Green Man which isn't as comercial and a bit cheeper. I think i'll be heading to Benicassim in spain, they have Oasis,Paul Weller,Kings of leon, Franz Ferdinand and The Killers confirmed. Much better value for money even with the flight!

CALLEN [The Voice]
I am going to add to the voices of discontent. Its hard to please all at a festival like this and I think the organisers havent really got a 'target' audience in mind. Grace Jones really is a 'niche' act and I think they picked her for visual effect and the Pet shop Boys....oh dear. is this the mddle of the road act of yesteryear slotted in to please mor mums'n'dads? I belong to the wide opinion that they have indeed been playing the same song for 25 yrs an got away with it. opportunity lost I think this year at Latitude

Mary
Anyone who saw Debbie Harry last year would know better than to dismiss a band just because they've been around a while. And what degree of arrogance makes someone think that 15-year-olds have a monopoly on festivals? As has already been said, Latitude is NOT just another festival and if you want all the usual suspects, don't bother coming - all the more opportunity for people who enjoy something a bit less predictable. I'm looking forward hugely, not just to the music but the fantastic range of other stuff especially the literary tent where I had a great time last year.

Jen
More acts along the lines of Regina Spektor and Passion Pit please Latitude!! x

Luke
The latitude lineup this is is abysmal...I had been looking forward to the announcement after the awesome lineup last year! Interpol, mars volta, foals, guillemots...but this year...they seems to have lost the plot...maybe they have 1 or 2 good acts but... really lost for words... I just hope they didnt pay a lot for those bands.

mary
tom "the line up is pretter damned awesome"one of the most incorrect and wrong things i have heard in a long time and i'm not just talking about the grammar lol!

Tom - aged 20
Just to say to george - why should the target age be 15? Go to any of the other festivals that are aimed at that age group if you don't fancy Latitude! Besides, the line up is pretter damned awesome, and if you think that Grace Jones would be willing to perform in your town hall you clearly don't have a clue who she is...

Bob
Not that amazing really. Was hoping for some better, more up to date acts like last year..Have my ticket though, and hoping for improvements!

RJP
Wow, how many myopic people are posting here? If you don't like the music, go to another tent. It's an arts festival, folks, not a music festival. I spent more time in the poetry arena last year than anywhere else and the only headliner I bothered with was Franz.I think it's great that I'm going to get to see some artists I've never seen before, rather than the same old indie-shmindy doing the rounds at most festivals. If all you care about are 3 headliners, why are you going to a festival?

Real music fan
I thought the whole point of Latitude was that it was completely different to the main stream festivals (Reading, V, Glasto etc)Grace Jones is known for her flamboyant and theatrical performances, as are the Pet Shop Boys. Nick Cave is a force to be reckoned with, as anyone who has seen him perform in the past will know.For those people who want to see Oasis, Radiohead, Coldplay and bands of that ilk - go to one of the other festivals. For those people who are musically adventurous and open minded, come to Latitude - I know where I would rather be!

George
First festival.Bought tickets.I'm 16.Pet Shop Boys and Grace Jones.WTF, I saw last year and thought, Franz Ferdinand, foals, noah and the whale, guillemots and they give us acts that wouldn't even make the main hall at my local venue!I expect better acts in the coming months.

.
Truly dissapointed. You target age should be 15, not 50!!!

Flobbs
Massively disappointed. Latitude have completely alienated their fanbase in one single act of cheap, pretentious self-indulgence

lucy
Really looking forward to the Pet Shop Boys - I hope they will be putting on a great visual performance too

Sebastian prendergast
all i am going to say is;WTF

Eileen
A truly awful line-up for the big 3. They're going to have to pull something pretty impressive out of the bag for those sales to kick in. Maybe they're deliberately lowering expectations because they could never top last year?

Will
Ok anyone even contemplating weather these bands would please the crowds at latitude should log on to the latitude forum. A very bad decision in my opinion. What about those who are under the age of 60?

radiohea_d
Grace Jones?? hmm. Not exactly the most exciting headliner to date. As for Pet Shop Boys, I feel as if they are not the type of act people would like to see perform a headliner slot at latitude. Nick Cave was a brilliant idea, as Grinderman was one of my many highlights of last year. Also, the Gossip in my eyes are no headliners for the Uncut Stage. I will have to really think about whether I should attend this years festival.

Ben
hahahahahahahahaha is this really the best they can offer hahahahahahahahaha. Did they decide to do a Bond convention on the Friday instead?

harry
latitude you should be ashamed truly horrendous headliners and everyone ive spoke to agree aswell as message forums.change it change it now!

Stew Ruffles
3 Headliners over the age of 50, is that a first for a festival? What crowd are they trying to attract? Nick Cave Yes, but the other two are not headliners (not in 2009 anyway). Not really sending out a very exciting message now is it?

Andy Parker
As an early bird ticket buyer who has been at Latitude for the last 2 years, I have to say that I am HUGELY underwhelmed by the headline acts chosen for 2009. Mick Cave appeared last year, albeit as Grinderman. Where is the imagination that the festival is famous for in rebooking an act on consecutive years? As for Grace Jones and Pet Shop Boys? Well, frankly, they're a joke. She has built success on her image not on her talent and who wants to watch a bloke twiddling with his k**b behind a bloke who can't sing fifteen years after they had any impact on pop culture? I feel hugely let down by this announcement after seeing bands such as Arcade Fire and Sigur Ros who are truly innovative at previous Latitudes. If I had not already paid for my ticket, I would not be attending this years festival. Let's hope that the Uncut tent is large enough to support the exodus from the Obelisk stage when these headliners are due. It certainly wasn't last year!

Latitude Loves Me!
Love the line up!!! Bought tickets without knowing the line up. This festival is an arts festival first and foremore (ref Rob Foillard). If you don't want to see Grace Jones - go and watch something else! Sames goes for any of the headliners! Plenty of tents to choose from!!

J
I think they will regret the headliners and I'd be surprised if it sells out this year (unless the line up improves) One 80's band to headline, maybe. But all three? Bad bad bad decision.

Unbelievable
Nick Cave's a safe choice. The Pet Shop Boys could be interesting, although only if they're given free reign (and the budget) to put on a visual extravaganze. Grace Jones, however, is by no means iconic. A handful of minor hits 2 decades ago, appearing in the worst Bond film and slapping Russell Harty don't make an iconic act. Blondie, who performed last year, is an iconic act. Grace Jones isn't. If you want proof of this, just look at the sales of her latest album. She might be able to sell out the Roundhouse in London, but that doesn't mean a thing outside the capital.

Kiri
The Latitude lineup so far is terrible! Aside from Nick Cave there is no-one who really grabs me or anyone I've spoken to thus far about it. That said, I've got my ticket in the hope that the lineup improves! I'm very supportive of the diversity of genres, however I think that the actual acts selected are not great. There are amazing bands, poets, authors, acting troupes... Yet so far the lineup seems rather generic.I tell you what WOULD have been nice - someone like the Chicken Shed Theatre Company or another theatre company made up of people with learning disabilties. If Latitude wants to be an integrated and diverse festival, then maybe the show of faith by the inclusion of that sort of group would be just what they need. Not to mention someone a bit better than Grace Jones and the awful Pet Shop Boys.

Robin Folliard
I've been going since the first one and I've never really considered Latitude to be about the music - above all it's an Arts festival, so much more to do than watch bands. PSB will be amazing I'm sure.

Peter
Nick Cave is great. But Grace Jones?? Pet Shop Boys?? er...would not ever be my choice. Even in the 80's! :)

mandy
i am more than a little dissapointed. Pet shop boys?? as opposed to Franz Ferdinand last year. could see better people for less money in thetford forest. Brought tickets on the back of last years festival but am beginning to wish i hadnt bothered.

Jack Cobbins
Pretty poor headliners, but Nick Cave could be great. Really disappointed after loving last year, but they'll pull some good stuff out of the bag. Magazine swing it for me.

Suffolk BOY
perhaps the locals may get in! but it is expensive and transport is better to get there from London than within an 8 mile radius

Siobhan Gibson (SG)
I'm disappointed, only because none of the headliners are bands that I'm hugely keen on, and it's a shame not to have that sense of excitement. But I know how amazing Latitude is, and I'll still be going!

chris Anderson
been to the festival since it started. I'm a little bit dissapointed to say the least. cant see Grace Jones being a crowd puller myself. will still go though, as it's a great weekend.

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