The xx are at the top of their game on Latitude's second day

Day two of Latitude starts with being woken up by that festival goer's worst nightmare, yup, bloody rain!!!!

Fortunately it only lasts a brief 45 minutes but enough to warrant wearing the wellies, however after half an hour of glorious sunshine & the grass has dried out & remains green. I make my way to the Obelisk Arena where Corinne Bailey Rae's sunshine tunes make good of the crowd lazing the sunshine.

She keeps the pitter patter chatter to a minimum, unlike Paul Heaton who rambles on through most of his lack lustre set, complaining he used to be popular to the minimalist & bored looking Word Arena crowd. I have been unfortunate to see Heaton a few times since leaving The Beautiful South & I have to say his solo material is well below his previous bands catchy tunes. Just maybe, maybe if Heaton was to play a couple of Beautiful South he may get a more captive audience, otherwise just die hards need apply. Frightened Rabbit are a band in that Mumford & Son's type folksy modern capacity that certainly get the crowd going with their chirpy tunes & are well pleased to be at Latitude they tell us.

Strolling past the Lake Arena Nedry catch my ears attention, with their 8 bit sounds & samples fronted by the beautiful kooky Ayu, their special sounds are a welcome addition to the festival & I must say are my favourite discovery of the weekend, from Ayu's captivating fragile voice to her intense screaming there is no middle ground here. If you see them on a bill at a future festival they are definite ones to watch out for.

Noah and the Whale unfortunately try to entertain the full Word Arena but its obvious most of the crowd are here for one song & after said song the lead singer pleads with the audience not to leave as they have one song left, but nothing can stop them deserting the tent in their droves…

Unlike Frankie And The Heartstrings who keep their audience well in the palm of their hands with a top drawer performance, Frankie jumps like a busy jumping bean around the stage, giving it his all.

Unfortunately I made the mistake of checking out Crystal Castles, I say mistake as the first two songs Alice Glass's mic isn't working, or maybe that's a good thing, song three she makes a pathetic jump into the crowd given the recent events surrounding another recent crowd surfing she is quickly pulled out of the crowd by which time I also decide to pull out to make way to The xx headlining the Word Arena.

Now I must admit when I first caught The xx at Leeds Festival last year I didn't give them a very glowing review & feel I must rectify that here & now. The xx are possibly Britain's best band around at the moment, their atmospheric sets are full of genuine emotion, with a well crafted light setting, they are clearly at the top of their game.

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