It’s pissing it down.  Thousands of festival goers pile into the nearest big top to shelter from God’s torrent and, sitting on stage strumming away in a monotonous stream of drivel, Aborigine guitarist and singer Gurrumul fails to notice (being blind) that he’s suddenly gained the largest crowd the Uncut Arena has seen all weekend.

Colourful American rockers of Montreal

But Latitude Festival 2009 wasn’t all downpours and dirges - the sun shone bright for much of the weekend, which was great for of Montreal who took to the Obelisk Arena on Friday with their usual assault of colours, costume changes and completely ridiculous dancers (who, among other things, pretended to gas each other and fought as wizards on stage).  They always put on an amazing show but, having seen them in their element at Koko last year, I couldn’t help but feel the stage was just (physically) a little too big for them.

Also gracing the Obelisk on Friday was Russian songstress Regina Spektor, who performed all of her hits in guaranteed-to-please order - and it did.  Closing the Obelisk on Friday were pop legends the Pet Shop Boys.  As you would expect, they put on a fabulous show, complete with boxes on heads, projected backdrops, incredible dancers and one of the best costumes (there were many) of the festival - Chris Lowe’s mirror jacket.  Along with some new material, the duo played their best hits (‘Go West’, ‘It’s a Sin’, ‘Always on my Mind’) and a sneaky cover of Coldplay’s ‘Viva La Vida’, before returning for an encore and ending on ‘West End Girls’, much to the delight of the crowd that had been braying for it all night.

At festivals, most bands often tend to steer clear of covers because they have such limited time slots, but The Mummers pulled out a fantastic cover of Passion Pit’s hit ‘Sleepyhead’, which, incidentally, was probably better than when Passion Pit themselves played it when they closed the Sunrise Arena on Saturday evening.

Noah and the Whale chose Latitude as the venue to debut their new album-cum-film The First Days of Spring.  In a bout of second album seriousness the band have left behind the outrageously happy summer sound of songs like ‘Five Years Time’ and moved more towards the moving spaciousness suggested in songs like ‘Give a Little Love’.  The film was a nice little add-on, if, perhaps, a little bit of a gimmick.

Patrick Wolf in full rock star mode

Saturday’s music highlight had to be the indomitable Patrick Wolf.  With his latest album The Bachelor having been released last month, Wolf seems to have moved on from his problems in 2007 that culminated in the on-stage firing of his drummer.  Taking to the stage in a costume that made him look like a giant pigeon, complete with a frontless black and grey union flag design jumpsuit, Wolf pulled out an electric performance.  The man was made for the stage, picking up a black and white Flying-V and rocking the crowd with a selection of new and old tracks.  He even managed a costume change, transforming from pigeon to dove before closing his all-too-short set with a blistering rendition of ‘The Magic Position’, leaving us all grinning so much it hurt.

Grace Jones - as crazy as she looks

But even Patrick Wolf couldn’t match Grace Jones when it came to costume changes.  The ex-bond girl had a new outift, or at least new headgear, for every song, ranging from a glitter ball bowler hat to a shawl that looked like a slinky.  Jones prowled the stage in an eccentrically brilliant show, now raised up high on a platform, now gyrating against a rotating pole, and, finally, hula hooping through her last song, introducing her entire band, and finally leaving the stage with the hoop still spinning round her scarily toned sexagenarian waist.  Mental in every way, the crowd was treated to her priceless filler chat, rife with innuendo and psychosis, that left us mouths open, gaping wide with the words ‘crazy bitch!’ just dripping from the ends of our tongues.

Also playing on Saturday were the superb Edinburgh band Broken Records who played a perfect, but all too short, set on the main stage; Israeli crowd pleaser Mika, who pleased a huge crowd in the Uncut Arena before playing a secret set at a piano by the lake; Wildbirds and Peacedrums who wildly drummed away without really impressing; and anti-folk hero Jeffery Lewis who played a wonderful acoustic set to a packed midnight Poetry Arena, complete with one of his trademark “low-budget films” (i.e. a (spectacularly) hand-drawn comic book).

Sunday began with Latitude’s fourth headliner, Thom Yorke, who took the midday slot created especially for Joanna Newsom last year to play a rare solo set.  Mixing together old tracks, rare tracks, Radiohead tracks, and tracks from The Eraser, Yorke’s set was undeniably beautiful, with ‘Atoms for Peace’ being a definite highlight.  Unlucky Icelanders Hjaltalin got to play the Uncut Stage just seconds after Yorke’s set finished, so, whilst most festival-goers lay back in a state of post-Thomgasmic bliss in the beautiful Sunday sun, they played a very creditable set to a nearly empty tent.

Decadently beautiful - The Irrepressibles

Sunday’s other headliners were Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, who were - for me, at least - unmanageably awful, though I get the feeling I was one of the few people who felt that way.  Slow Club played a pleasantly twee set to close the Lake Stage for the year, yet the real highlights of Sunday were Fight Like Apes and The Irrepressibles.  The first are a noisy, high-octane, high-fun sing-a-long-and-fucking-love-it band with a front woman who looks like a crazy Robert Smith/Siouxsie Sioux cross.  It was impossible to not have fun watching them.  The latter are Latitude veterans, having performed every year since its inception.  They played three times this year on a floating stage created especially for them.  Not many bands have a stage built just for them, and fewer deserve it - The Irrepressibles definitely do.  Their sumptuously beautiful songs drifted out across the lake, enrapturing all who heard them and gathering hordes of awestruck fans to the Waterfront Stage.  Their Sunday set culminated with their unfathomably delicate song ‘In This Shirt’.  Long may The Irrepressibles dominate Latitude!