Latitude has 'figured out its identity' - Tom Odell

Tom Odell says Latitude has "really figured out its identity" over the last two decades.

The singer-songwriter performed at the festival, at Henham Park, Suffolk, for the first time on Saturday, taking to the mainstage at the Obelisk Arena.

The 35-year-old's set was one of the highlights of Latitude's 20th anniversary, and featured the hits Another Love and Black Friday.

Speaking to the BBC before his show, which he joked would contain "45 minutes of contemporary dance", the pianist said: "Hats off to Latitude for 20 years."

"It's a great line-up and the site is very pretty – it seems lovely," added Odell, whose grandfather supported Ipswich Town.

"[Like Latitude], my career has built up slowly - last year we played arenas and it took 13 years to get there, and I wouldn't have wanted to do them when I was younger.

"And the same goes for tonight at Latitude. When you start out, you play earlier in the afternoon and that's nice because you can go drink beer for the rest of the day.

"But, as you get a bit more accomplished and you have more songs and more albums and a few people know you, it feels more comfortable playing in the evenings."

Before taking to the stage with his "amazing band", just before headliner Teddy Swims, Odell took time to explore the festival and catch some other acts.

He said having a chance to get a feel for what the festival was about before his performance, which included a brass band, was "really important".

"I try to get there and soak up some of the energy, and each festival is so radically different and the people in the audience want something different of us," he said.

"Sometimes they want to have a party and then some people want to listen, and I think it's our job to gauge and try to understand what it is they want.

"We will go on a sort of journey together and I think that's what's so wonderful about festivals – they are more of a dialogue, more of a dance.

"I really enjoy that side of playing festivals - the sort of cookie cutter thing of like taking an arena show and sticking it at a festival never quite lands."

One musician who is no stranger to Latitude Festival is former Framlingham schoolboy-turned-global-megastar, Ed Sheeran.

Odell, who admitted not being able to remember if it was Suffolk or Norfolk he had visited as a child could be deemed "offensive", said he would be "thrilled to work with Ed".

"He's a very charming and nice man and wonderful artist, and he's like the king of Framlingham."

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