Damon Albarn, Catfish + The Bottlemen own Latitude day two

Damon Albarn reunited with Blur guitarist Graham Coxon during his headline set at Latitude, on a day that was also closed by Bombay Bicycle Club, Royksopp & Robyn and many more last night (Saturday 19 July, 2014). 

-  Read our round-up of the day's earlier  sets here 

Having caught the backend of Irish troubadour James Vincent McMorrow’s set at the 6 Music stage and waded through one of the biggest crowds of the weekend that turned up to see Bombay Bicycle Club (who sounded exquisite), we moved over to the Lake Stage.

 The genius collaboration of Roksopp & Robyn hit Latitude's BBC 6 Music Stage for a blinding performance of genius electro-pop. Complete with robot heads and drawing from their flawless mini-album, Do It Again the Scandinavian trio performed a rnge of brilliant  numbers with an incredible stage show, featuring the incredibly catchy title track, the punchy 'Sayit', and the melancholic, downtempo 'Monument', via the instrumental closer 'Inside the Idle Hour Club' and the pleasantly mournful 'Every Little Thing'.

Damon Albarn has not had anything to prove to anyone for years. So with a new recently released solo album, Everyday Robots, and over 20 years of tunes in his armoury it’s safe to say Albarn is well prepared for Saturday night’s headline slot.

Perhaps it’s because Everyday Robots is not full of the kind of songs that you would describe as festival anthems, or maybe it’s because most of the crowd at the Obelisk Arena wanted to hear (exclusively) a selection of material from his extensive back catalogue, but Albarn’s set initially seemed to be greeted with a muted reception. Albarn has always been a great character songwriter and songs such as 'Photographs' and his solo album’s title track articulate the frustrations of modern live marvellously, but they are not the necessarily the sort of songs you want to jump around a muddy field to on a Saturday night.

That said, Albarn’s choice of encore is a joy to behold and gives the impression that he deliberately threw a few curve balls into the main set. And why not when you have a solo piano version of 'End of a Century', 'Tender' (complete with Graham Coxon cameo) and the imperious 'Clint Eastwood' to end on? Clearly nobody quite knows how to headline a festival like Damon Albarn- regardless of which musical guise he inhabits at that particular time.