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Lead singer Robin Pecknold on the band’s rise to fame

Word of mouth was a prime driving force behind Fleet Foxes’ ascent from bog standard hopefuls to one of the biggest ‘indie’ bands in the world, their second album Helplessness Blues, reaching number two here in the UK, and number four in their home country of America.
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A new initiative for students to break into the music biz

Music Technology students at City College Brighton and Hove have released a new compilation album showcasing their talent. The label Brighton Records was set up by the music students to help them gain an insight into the music industry and gain valuable experience in an extremely competitive marketplace. It also nurtures and promotes the college’s emerging talent in music performing, composing, recording and production.
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Get ready for the first augmented reality festival

“There’s a Bestivally type vibe to what we do,” says Declan Cassidy, who along with Philip Lakka are the organisers of the festival, as well as the Playgroup club nights around town and more recently, the Playgroup pub (formerly Hectors).

“We left it very late last year, about a month before the actual event! It was a stupid decision, although we ran something that was brilliant, music and people-wise. The people from Brighton put up with all the little niggles, but it was magical…
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Sold out once again (although it was right up to the wire this time around, no doubt mostly due to the general tightening of purse strings), the 6th edition of Latitude has perfectly nailed its target audiences down, pitching itself at families who who have a healthy dose of teenagers within their ranks, but teenagers who prefer their music to be distinctly non X-factored.

And so, as well as acts aimed at an older audience (The Waterboys, Suede, Seasick Steve, Echo & The Bunnymen), the programme contained a great deal of ‘new’ music such as The Chapel Club, Ed Sheeran, Paloma Faith, Rumer, The Vaccines,  Bombay Bicycle Club, as well as plenty of acts who have been around a bit (British Sea Power, Bright Eyes, I Am Kloot, Bellowhead). Latitude though is much more than about music, it’s also about comedy, literature, theatre and interactive art, of which there was plenty and most of a high standrad – there really is no festival like it, appealing almost universally to the brighter and more enquiring…

Highlights included the indie pop leanings of America’s Bright Eyes, the brilliant country-blues grooves of Seasick Steve, aided by the meaty and fluid bass of the legend that is John Paul Jones, and which featured a beautiful moment when Steve handpicked a lady from the audience, and sang her a love song up close on stage…. a moment with a potentially high cheese quotient but which was skillfully played out by Steve and his ‘willing’ victim. And then there was the rousing indie of British Sea Power, and the still powerful songs and lyrics of Mike Scott and his Waterboys, who managed to coerce some jigging among the largely older crowd.

On the down side, the intricacies of Bombay Bicycle Club were somewhat lost, Friday’s headliners The National failed to fully engage, while over in the Film & Music Tent, the more ugly side of rock’n’ roll came to pass with Alabama 3 annoying a sodden audience  by being late, and yet expecting all of us to love them…

Over on the tiny Luscious Lounge stage, with all performances recorded by Radio 3′s Late Junction, Southamptons’s The Moulettes showed off their extraordinary combination of bassoon, cello and violin, while true folkie Alasdair Roberts sung originals and covers with skill and passion.

Despite the poor weather particularly on the Saturday and Sunday, the atmosphere remained upbeat particularly amongst the thousands of teens who took to the event like kids on holiday, helped by the superb layout of the site featuring a mix of open spaces and stages set in the woods.

Jeff Hemmings

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