It’s great to see you curating the Lake Stage at Latitude Festival again this year! Yeah, I’m really excited. Latitude is a lovely festival, and The Lake Stage is a lovely stage to put music on, so I’m very excited about it, and really looking forward to it actually happening now.
We are too! The Lake Stage has got some great acts, and has for the last couple of years. So what do you think you can bring to the festival and The Lake Stage that perhaps the organisers couldn’t? Well, I mean the rest of the stage line-ups are all brilliant as well, but I guess one of the main things is that I do a new music show, so I get to hear a lot of new music very early, so I book a lot of bands who might not necessarily be on festivals’ bookers wavelength or radar, and it’s good to try different things. I guess I can take more risks as well, because it’s my name to the stage, they can have a go at me rather than the festival as a whole. It’s nice to bring different stuff to the festival.
For those up and coming hopefuls, what kind of thing do you look for when you’re picking a band for an event like Latitude? You’ve gotta be good live. I kind of go for bands that I’ve seen, or heard are good and not just totally unknown stuff, so the headliners like Everything Everything, and Frankie and the Heartstrings are quite well known I suppose, well getting there anyway. Just kind of bands that will fit into the Latitude crowd. I think people that go to Latitude are quite open minded anyway, so that helps.
I can imagine that playing such a
prestigious event like Latitude can be quite daunting! Do you think
it’s important for smaller bands to get the opportunity to play these bigger stages and
get experience playing for bigger crowds?
Yeah, I think it is important. I wish
more festivals did start doing four stages of new bands rather than just, like a lot of festivals do competitions. But it’s good to give new bands the opportunity to play these festivals, like The Lake Stage, and get that experience.
If you had an unlimited budget for The Lake Stage, who would you get? I think I’d just get the same people. I mean as well as Prince, Dolly Parton, and Beck, obviously. But other than those three I think it would probably be the same, because that’s the beauty of the stage really, that I get total free range to book who I want, so I’m really happy with the line-up this year.
So aside from your stage, who are you looking forward to seeing this year? I’m looking forward to seeing The XX at Latitude, I like them. And, ummm Guns N Roses at Reading (laughs). I want to see LCD Soundsystem as well, I really like them, and I’ve never seen them.
What is your favourite festival performance you have ever seen up until now? Well it changes every year really cos I’ve seen so much good stuff at so many good festivals. But I suppose the one that stands out recently…I mean Jay Z at Glastonbury was brilliant. Bjork at Glastonbury was incredible as well. Dirty Projectors at Bestival last year was good. That’s probably my favourite thing I saw last year – Dirty Projectors.
Norwich has a great local music scene at the moment, and has for a while now; do you have any impressions of the Norwich and Norfolk music scene? Yeah, well I get sent so much music from Norwich and Norfolk and it’s always brilliant. There’s so many interesting labels and bands. Like The Brownies, The Cheek are from around there, The Kabeedies, and just so many other good bands. I’m really pleased this year, we’re doing this thing with BBC Introducing in Suffolk, Richard Haugh is choosing the first bands that go on the stage.
One of those bands is These Ghosts, a great band who are releasing their album through local label NR ONE. But moving on from Norwich, are there any places or areas in the country that you think have got exciting scenes going on right now? Manchester is always healthy, you know? Just beacause it’s just Manchester, and it’s always been kind of busy. And I think that’s big at the moment. I think Scotland’s doing a lot of interesting stuff at the moment – stuff that you wouldn’t expect. A lot of good electronic stuff is coming out of Scotland at the moment, which is quite exciting. And your neck of the woods as well, there’s always interesting bands and artists coming from there, and always has been, well
since I’ve been doing the show for the last 5 years anyway. We like Rory McVicar – he’s one of yours!
Continuing on the theme of diasporas and all that jazz, do you feel more excited when you hear a great new band, and then you find out they’re from Cardiff? Yeah well I live there, and so I do really, naturally, like anybody would where they’re from. But there’s lots of good music coming from Wales and always has been. I don’t mind where music is from really, if it happens to be from Wales, then brilliant, but as long as it’s good, that’s all I’m after.
I’m sure you’ve been asked this loads of times, but how do you feel about the proposed closure of BBC6 Music? I think… that… it’s…. I like 6 Music. I listen to 6 Music, and so, yeah, I’m a big fan of 6 Music.
Ok... So I don’t want to get too political here, but do you think that the new Tory government will have a big influence on the state of underground music like it has had in the past? I don’t know…it’s a good question. I think yeah, whichever government is in charge it effects the music making and the arts, so I think it will have an affect. I think people will become apathetic…is that the word!? I don’t think I’m really in the right position to comment about that.
Fair enough Huw! Finally, who are your hot tips and must-sees at the festivals this year? Frankie and The Heartstrings are playing, and they’re brilliant. If you’re coming to Latitude, check out every band on the lake stage! That’s what I’d say. There’s a band on the Glastonbury line-up that I think you would like – Dry The River, and Man Without Country are good as well on that line-up.
Maxie Gedge / Illustration: Emma Sailor
Latitude takes place on Thursday 15th, Friday 16th, Saturday 17th, and Sunday 18th July at Henham Park, Southwold, Sunrise Coast, Suffolk. All tickets are sold out, but Huw Stephens’ Lake Stage is situated in the main arena opposite the Obelisk Stage.
outlineonline.co.uk / JULY 2010 / 13
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