Latitude Festival Recap: A Day in the Life of Battle

With a lineup that has us slavering like a bunch of canines, we were disappointed we couldn't personally make it to Latitude this year to catch heaps of our favorite bands rocking out in the middle of a field in muddy ol' Great Britain. So we decided to do the next best thing: we enlisted one of our favorite London-based, budding indie bands Battle (not to be confused with the equally awesome, though more electronic, Battles), who just so happened to be playing the festival, to report.

Bassist Tim Scudder and photog pal Ian Miller give us a documentary of the day in the life of a band playing a festival… which apparently involves food. Lots and lots of food. Ah, rock 'n roll excess...

Jason Bavanandan (guitar/vocals) | Oliver Davies (drums)

Latitude Platitudes.

On Sunday, July 15th 2007, Battle participated in the Latitude Festival, Suffolk. The results were as follows:

9.30am. To load or not to load.
That is the question. Sunday mornings are not meant to be seen, but to be slept through. After rising at an ungodly hour—at which time most self-respecting rock musicians are just hitting the sack—I arrive at our North London lock-up to meet the rest of the band. Horror: there's been a delay with the van. We have to wait. And so, on a dreary street corner, Battle sit, cursing their luck, reading the Sunday supplements, sipping tea and, in the case of Jason, scoffing several sausage rolls. Fantastic fun.

11.30am. In the van.
And they're off! More papers are read. The important issues of the day are debated. Certain sections of the tour party find Barbara Ellen's [columnist for The Observer magazine] column fascinating; I remain unimpressed with that sort of thing. Stop for food. Wicked. Mexican bean wrap it is.

2.30pm. Arrivals.
We get to the festival just in time to get some nibbles and set up. A change of guitar strings, a tightening of snare drum and we're almost there. Several, frankly massive, roadies lift our equipment through the mud and into the back of the tent. Our passes are sorted by a nice lady called Emma; she tells me everything I need to know about the catering (you've got to have priorities). I meet up with several members of the sensational Stuffy + The Fuses, who are backing the lovely Charlotte Hatherley [the former guitarist of Irish indie-pop-punk band Ash]. Everyone seems in fine form—except for Stuffy, whose mind seems to have disintegrated slightly after over two months on the road.

James Ellis (guitar) | Tim Scudder (bass)

3.50pm. Show Time!
One of the highlights of the year so far. We're on the Uncut magazine stage, which is the festival's second largest. We draw a very, very big crowd, which grows as the set goes on (a very good sign, I think you'll agree). I have a mild nightmare when my festival-supplied bass amp has a seizure during "Demons", but we 'battle' on through (ahem).The highlight is probably set closer, "Paper Street." It's massive, soulful, passionate and rocks all at the same time. We're joined on stage for the song by our good friend Scooter from The Dallas Guild. Thanks for all those that supported us; it really was great to see so many people.

5.30pm. Cold War Kids.
Pretty good. "Hang Me Out To Dry" really is a cool song...

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