'Dashing' Ross Noble steals the show at Latitude

United Kingdom | | 20 July 2008

The comedian played to a packed tent which spilled out on the fringes, before he headed out into the crowd taking most those watching with him.

Forming a dancing conga line, the column of bodies grew rapidly as it journeyed around the Henham Park site as festival goers watching bands on other stages ditched their performances to join in.

Noble also took to some traditional festival crowd surfing, his led legions only too happy to carry the comedian around.

The comedy tent was packed throughout the weekend, with other notable highlights including Bill Bailey and Tim Minchin.

On the music side, Franz Ferdinand headlined the opening night of Latitude performing four new songs from their forthcoming album. The played 'Kathryn Kiss Me', 'Ulysses', 'Turn It On' and 'What She Came For', as well as the usual hits from their first two albums.

Reggae soul singer Natty proved one of the stand out performances on the opening day, while their were also impressive performances from Death Cab For Cutie and Black Kids.

But perhaps the most talked about performance of the day happened on the lake, where a man played the flute in a giant bubble illuminated from inside to a stunning laser show.

Talking of stunning shows, Sigur Ros headlined Saturday night at Latitude and wowed the audience with songs from their various albums. Giving many fans a first hearing of their new album, the Icelandic band joked: “Sing along if you know the words.”

Previously, Elbow became the first band to really converse with the Obelisk Arena crowd. The Manchester band encouraged everyone to sing along to their hits, including recent single ‘One Day Like This’, in a set very similar to their recent Glastonbury show.

The novelty attraction of the day was the Air Guitar band in the woods “fresh from their sell-out tour of the Silly Isles!!”. The four-piece dazzled a decent crowd with air versions of hits like The Final Countdown and Darkness classic ‘I Believe In A Thing Called Love’.

And if that sounds painful it was nothing compared to the late night show outside the Cabaret tent, where a girl had hooks put through the skin of her back and was suspended from the tree as part of a swinging burlesque display.

More than 20,000 fans have been enjoying the music, theatre, poetry, comedy (and even the weather) at Latitude, which continues through Sunday when Interpol headline. Stay posted for more.

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