nick pickles music photographer

After giving it a miss in 2009, I returned to Latitude with some apprehension, mainly due to having not camped for ages, and very little prep time. Other than knowing the headliners and that The National were playing, I had no real idea what was on offer - not helped by being at T in the Park when I found out I had a pass. Having said that, the great thing about Latitude is you can wander off and see all sorts of random stuff - not least a bit of theatre in the woods. I’ve no idea who was performing, but the above shot is one of my favourite of the whole festival.

I ventured down on Thursday, mainly because Tom Jones was scheduled to play an intimate set in ‘The Woods’ at midnight. Also this meant I had some time to sort my tent out, which had never been out of the box I’d bought it in on Thursday morning.

Click on to read more, or for a fuller set of photos click here.

As it turned out, Nigel Kennedy (he of punk violinist fame) was also playing on Thursday, which was cool apart from the cock-up which meant rather than getting the last 3 songs of his set, we got the last 3 minutes of his last song. Not a good start, and things got worse. Come midnight, we were escorted through the swelling crowds by security (the first time I’ve had that pleasure!) and subject to some pretty unimpressed looks by people who could barely see the stage. Once we got into the pit, it became clear there were certain technical problems - mainly by the man soundchecking the mic going through an episode of ‘used to be the spare, is now the main vocal. check, check’ and so on. On, infact, for nearly an hour. Sir Tom eventually took to the stage at 12.50am, 50 minutes late. He then basically played in the dark, with two side spotlights and one behind him. Still, if we weren’t impressed the punters who had waited for hours were even less impressed when he proceeded to play his new album of hyms, with absolutely no hits.

Onto Friday, and another day where the expected rain didnt materialise, and yet another festival set by Florence & The Machine. While we weren’t subject to the usual release form rubbish, a new innovation in annoying photographers has been discovered - use a curtain at the front of the stage to fill it with as much dry ice as physically possible before the act goes on! The first song’s photos looked like I was shooting from miles away on a very foggy day. Not good given I was acutely aware I had about five minutes to get my shots and get to the Word Stage for The National. (although as anyone who has ever worked a festival with me, I’m not adverse to a bit of kit, carry & run!)

It was great to finally see them again, and as ever the set was as intense and epic as I’ve come to expect. Only slight hiccup was the guitar tremelo being out of time on the last track, Terrible Love, but not enough to diminish my grin as I walked back to the press tent.

As strange as it sounds, Friday felt like it should have been the last day of the Festival, not the first. Great atmosphere, top bands and lots of sunshine. Saturday morning brought the rain, but on the upside it meant my tent stayed a bit cooler so I managed to get a few hours extra sleep! By the time I ventured out it was bright and sunny again.

Saturday brought new highlights - shooting the Maccabees from stage with a huge crowd an blue skies, getting to see Belle & Sebastian finally and a bit of a mad run to see the Horrors, Frankie and the Heartstrings and Laura Marling, all of whom went on stage at the same time. I arrived in the pit for Frankie just in time to get a song of their set, albeit in a bit of a state! I should mention I’ve still to decide what to do with one of the best shots I’ve ever taken, which features Orlando of the Maccabees stood on the drumkit, but sure it’ll make an appearance sometime soon.

Special mention should go to Crystal Castles (and not just for selling loads of records by drumming and screaming over the sound of a madly-bleeping nintendo being put through a food blender) who closed the pit and put a load of photographers (but no agencies) side of stage. When she did eventually run into the crowd (halfway through the third song) they couldnt see anything and those of us who’d been told she’d run along the barrier were left running into a scrum trying to get a frame.

In the end I managed a couple, but with the obvious qualification of heads and hands being in the way!

By this time, we’d also been made aware of the alleged rape on Friday night, which soured things somewhat. Although, contrary to the rubbish in the Daily Mail, the site was certainly not swamped with police and the fact no photos were in the papers of uniformed officers on site was not for a lack of trying to find any - I simply didn’t see one all weekend. Myself and several other snappers went hunting for some and between us must have spent the best part of half a day walking around, to no avail. The only time I came close was Sunday’s press conference with the regional Superintendent.

As Sunday began, we were then informed of another attack, and that an arrest had been made. The press conference followed another Tom Jones set, and although billed as the ‘hits’ set to make up for Thursday’s grumbles, in the end he played exactly the same set. Now that’s cahones. Although safe to say the wrath of a Latitude crowd probably only extends to a strongly worded letter written once people had got home and had chance to charge their iPhones.

The press conference certainly had a surreal feel to it, with a very sobering issue being discussed amid flags and sunshine. Not the best start to the last day of a festival, and certainly not the story I’d hoped to be covering over the weekend.Unfortunately it seems Latitude 2010 will be remembered for little else.

The final day drew to a rather uninspiring conclusion with Vampire Weekend, who played with a very minimal production, very dull lighting and yet more dry ice. I headed over to Grizzly Bear, ignoring warnings of impossible lighting simply because I wanted something more interesting than Vampire Weekend to end my festival on.

As it turned out,not only were the band on form but the lighting was great. Intermittent, but with the opportunity for a few great shots.

On the whole this was probably the most enjoyable ’small’ festival I’ve ever done, despite the initial challenge of a very high stage and the awful incidents that will colour everyone’s memories.

Ever more worrying was this was the third festival I’ve done on the trot where I’ve been really happy with my shots. Very unnerving!!