Saturday 26 July 2014

Shell Hunter's Best Of Latitude 2014 - Solomon Grey, William Onyeabor Project, Future Islands

Brilliant sunshine and cold cider, pass me the festival bible. Who will make the cut?!

Add a cold cider to this, does it get better?!


deserved to be packed out

Solomon Grey - 'Firechild' (2013)


What do I do? See Bombay Bicycle Club which I probably owe to myself to see or take a chance on a band that has intrigued me recently. Well I decided to leave the group to see Solomon Grey in the tiny Alcove stage in the woods and I wasn't disappointed. Although the tent was a lot less busy than they deserved, they still pounded the stage and belted out their set like they were headlining the Obelisk stage. They started with Firechild which is my favourite song of theirs and that was it, I was glued to the spot!

William Onyeabor - 'Atomic Bomb' (2014)


Not only was this track of the weekend for me as we couldn't stop singing and humming it, but it'll be one of my top tracks of the year! This old wacky album from William Onyeabor from back in the day was performed by Alexis Taylor from Hot Chip, Pat Mahoney from LCD Soundsystem, Money Mark from the Beastie Boys and Scritti Politti to name but a few of this ever changing super group. It was the perfect setting- beautiful sunshine at the Obelisk stage and the whole group were chilled out lapping up the 'party groove'. Even Old Pa forgot about the toilets for 5 minutes!

"a cross between Henry Rollins Ian Curtis of Joy division"

Future Islands - 'Seasons Change (Waiting On You)' (2014)


I've been championing these guys for a few years now and they were up there on my definite list, despite clashing with War On Drugs which was a shame. Front man Samuel T Herring is a mighty intense guy and he can probably lift triple his body weight in anvils with one hand he is so fit. Thanks to The Swede for giving me the heads up about this performance on Letterman, you can see a very tame version of his stage style. Whether you like it or you find it a little scary, you can't deny its full of emotion and mesmerising! When Seasons came on, the crowd went wild and sang along, obviously approving their newer stuff. A short but sweet set on my favourite stage, the iArena, that left me wanting more from them as usual!

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Shell Hunter's Best Of Latitude 2014 - Solomon Grey, William Onyeabor Project, Future Islands
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Oleh

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28 July 2014 at 18:45

Glad you got to see Future Islands Shell Hunter, I'm still a bit on the fence myself. I don't think I'd've been able to pass up War on Drugs though! Would also've loved to have seen the William Onyeabor Supergroup - sounds amazing.

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4 August 2014 at 21:15

Future Islands were in my top 5 performances, and the William Onyeabor is a standout of the weekend as you say. Shame I didn't get to see Solomon Grey as I like what I hear, I guess I'm a slave to what I know

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