Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

Norwich band Bearsuit have been making the most of their chance to air their songs to thousands of music fans at one of the country's biggest festivals.

The cult indie band played at Latitude, the third festival to be held at Henham, near Southwold, in Suffolk.

"It was fantastic," said Cerian Hutchings, who plays the keyboards, violin and percussion. "I can't believe how many people were there watching us."

Captivating costumes

As usual the band - with a line-up of Lisa Horton, Jan Robertson, Iain Ross, Cerian and Matt Hutchings and Charlene Katuwawala for the Latitude performance - were determined to make their performance as eye-catching as possible with some spectacular outfits.

"We had blue and gold reversible capes, face-paints, golden balloons which spelt out Bearsuit - it was amazing, a magical spectacular," said Jan, who plays the flute, keyboards, guitar and bass.

Bearsuit performed on the festival's opening day, Friday, 18 July, 2008 on the Lake Stage, curated by Radio 1's Huw Stephens.

The Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Introducing presenter seems to be carrying on the legacy of the station's legendary broadcaster John Peel who championed the band.

Texas disappointment

Bearsuit's Jan and Iain saw Huw in Texas at the start of the year, and think a stroke of bad luck prompted his Latitude invite.

"We met up with Huw Stephens when we went to the South By Southwest Festival when we went to try and play it," said Jan.

"We had a little bit of a problem with immigration and only me and Iain got through, so we met up with Huw and had a little chat and I think that's why we got to play Latitude because he felt sorry for us," added Jan.

The rest of the band didn't get past immigration as their work visas didn't come through in time.

However, Bearsuit who are touring America for two weeks in October, are hoping for better luck on their forthcoming US jaunt to promote their album, OH:IO, which was released in the country in March.

"This time we've applied for our visas in plenty of time, so fingers crossed," said Jan.

Following their Latitude appearance, the band are concentrating on further cementing their reputation by playing a number of all-day festivals around the country.

They also plan later this year to bring out an EP on respected indie label Fantastic Plastic - the same label which released their OH:IO album in the UK in 2007.

Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Norfolk Introducing played one of the band's tracks recorded at Latitude by Radio 1 on Friday, 25 July, 2008 between 7 and 8pm. Listen again for seven days at bbc.co.uk/norfolk