- Music
- 20 Jul 15
When not hanging out with Swedish pop starlets, Stuart Clark had a ripsnorting time at Marlay
Apologies for the wanky middle-class nature of this next sentence, but there's something rather glorious about sitting on the warm grass, flute of chilled Prosecco in hand (the threatened world shortage hasn't struck D16 yet) with Jose Gonzalez doing his pastoral pop thing in front of you.
Heartfelt, lush and thoroughly uplifting, it's the perfect way to ease into the final day of what has been an extremely frenetic weekend.
Next I get to make all the 16-year-olds who've been chain listening to her on Spin 1038 jealous by nipping backstage to meet Tove Lo (pronounced: Toova Loo), the 27-year-old Swedish hit factory writer who's currently enjoying serious Stateside success in her own right.
A big personality with an even bigger voice, her Heineken Stage performance a couple of hours later is a pop masterclass, with the take no prisoners rendition of 'Habits (Stay High)' - Ms. Loo likes her marijuana - easily the day's most exhilarating moment.
Also impressing greatly on the Whelan's Stage are The Districts, a young Pennsylvania outfit who are routinely compared to The Strokes, but are a more soulful proposition than Julian Casablancas & Co. with lead singer and mean harp-player Rob Grote at times almost convulsing with emotion.
They also cross into Creedence/Neil Young territory with songs like 'Long Distance' and 'Rocking Chair', which build slowly before coming to frenzied crescendos.
Over on the Main Stage, it's the battle of the falsettos with Everything Everything and Wild Beasts back to back on the bill. It's the former with their geometric patterned shirts and new wave beats who make more of a connection with the crowd. While Hayden Thorpe succeeds, as always, in sending shivers up our spine, Wild Beasts are a band who need a roof over their heads.
Ditto James Blake who only really gets heads nodding towards the end of a slow building set, which would have worked a whole lot better in one of the tents.
Drenge have no such problems warming up the Whelan's Stage where they're afforded a hero's welcome and then proceed to make a furious bluesy punk racket. They're followed in rapid-fire succession by Wolf Alice, the London four-piece whose time has well and truly come.
The band have grunge-y energy to burn, as witnessed by the snarling 'Moaning Lisa Smile', and singer Ellie Roswell the star quality to go with it.
I only get a brief glimpse on the Heineken Stage of Danny Brown and his turntablist pal but, wow, they're seriously cooking. All mad eyes and deranged charisma, the Detroit hip hopper is as skilled a worker of a crowd as anybody on the Longitude line-up.
It's impossible to apply normal reviewing criteria to the Chemical Brothers - or with Ed Simons sitting this run of dates out, Chemical Brother plus lighting tech.
Unlike other festival-headlining dance acts, there are no guest vocalists, live instrumentation, discernible mixing or anything else which constitutes what I'd consider to be a performance as opposed to a spectacle.
Yes, the lights and FX are mind-blowing and, true, few other electronic acts can match their back catalogue, but this is a cynical, soulless and ultimately boring way to ply your trade.
Fortunately they're in a Sunday at Longitude minority of one, with everybody heading home from Marlay feeling they've got maximum bang for their urban festival buck.