4/5 in the Financial Times
July 18, 2011 5:23 pm
Suede, Latitude Festival, Suffolk, UK
By Neil O’Sullivan
Twenty years ago, when they were one of the big beasts of Britpop, Suede inspired the kind of devotion that few bands can. Where Pulp were knowing, Blur artful and Oasis bent on hedonism, Suede possessed an alluring combination of the raw and the stylised, their dark glam pop epitomised by singer Brett Anderson’s androgynous posturing and dystopian vision.
Their reformation last year renewed the affair and in a set to close the Latitude Festival in Suffolk on Sunday night they turned in a performance of remarkable verve and intensity. A spellbinding opening salvo of “The Drowners”, “She”, “Trash”, “Film Star” and “Animal Nitrate” left the crowd at the picturesque Obelisk Arena gasping for breath and Anderson, who appears fitter now than he did as an elegantly wasted twentysomething, looking exhilarated.
Never flagging, he stood on monitors, managed to get his shirt open to the waist as soon as possible and indulged in his full repertoire of high camp moves, alternately swinging his mike on a long lead, kicking up his heels and delivering Mick Jagger-esque handclaps. Having paused momentarily to deliver an excellent “To the Birds”, the band sped expertly through “The Wild Ones”, “We are the Pigs” and “Metal Mickey”, as unshowy as Anderson was exhibitionist. “Can’t get enough,” he sang over and over on the song of the same name, imploring the crowd to repeat it.
After an hour of sustained euphoria they finished, returning only for a brief encore of “Saturday Night” and leaving the crowd wanting more. For all that it was, like most reunions of this kind, a greatest hits set, there are few bands that can pull off a trip down memory lane with so much conviction.
Elsewhere the festival, now in its sixth year, continued to mix up cool up-and-comers, old timers and crowd-pleasers across music, comedy, literature and other fields. Despite weather reminiscent of Glastonbury (one day glorious, two days wet), the atmosphere remained that of an unfailingly good-natured lazy afternoon in the park. On Sunday, Scala and Kolacny Brothers, a project started by two classically trained Belgians that uses an all-female choir to deliver cover versions of Radiohead’s “Creep” and Prince’s “When Doves Cry” among others, struck a crowd-pleasing opening note. They were followed by the decidedly edgier Anna Calvi, who with pale skin and jet black hair looked a bit like PJ Harvey but sounded, on songs such as “Desire”, more like Patti Smith.
Later, during driving rain, the former Bloc Party main man Kele gave a masterclass in lifting the spirits with a set that was about as dancey as Latitude’s main stage gets, while The Waterboys inspired dancing of a more traditional kind with the fiddle-driven “Fisherman’s Blues” and “The Raggle Taggle Gypsy”.
As the afternoon turned to evening and the rain turned briefly into rainbows, the synth duo Hurts, accompanied by an opera singer, a string quartet and occasional dancers, opened their hearts to the crowd on “Unspoken”, “Stay” and a cover of Kylie Minogue’s “Confide in Me”. With levels of stylish melodrama suitably raised, the stage was well set for Suede.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/9500ffb4-b140 ... z1SU8Clnwk
Further forward the crowd was going mental and what cheered me more than anything was the number of kids, teens/20 somethings I noticed into it!!!... Maybe Suede CAN appeal to a 'New Generation'???!!! 
The rain stopped for around 'Hurts' /'Suede time in the evening but got fucking soaked on and off all the rest of the day!!!! 
So basically it was great and yeah the crowd were difinitely wanting more when they left!!!! 
