overview

I've always been told Brighton is fantastic, and after this mad weekend I have to agree.

The Great Escape festival happened this weekend, if you were in Brighton, there was no escaping it. With 200 bands, local and international, playing in 25 venues over 3 days. From the Fratellis to the Ting Tings, Little Barrie to Little fish. There was something for everyone. Keeping the programme of events close to my chest the entire weekend it was important to plan what you wanted to see. Luckily most bands were playing two gigs on two separate days so if one collided with another band you so desperately wanted to see there was another chance to see them.

In the programme is a timetable with the times the bands are playing and the venues they're at. At any one time there could be 20 bands playing in different venues at the same time. It was fun to plan a route trying to catch as many bands as possible.

The weather held up for the first couple of days. In the random few spare moments I had to myself it was nice to sit on the beach or stroll along the sea front.

Our first port of call was a venue called Audio (Presented by Levis 'The ones to watch'), located on the sea front. This had two floors but we were heading downstairs to see Cage the Elephant.



There was a queue of about 40 people curling round the block, fortunately we had magic passes that got us straight in. It was a basement venue. Low ceilings and a rave – type atmosphere. It was packed, dark, sweaty, yet exciting.

I got a spot at the back on a platform where I could see better. The quartets from Kentucky have had a few big gigs under their belt including supporting a Queen of the Stone Age tour in the US. The four of them all had the trademark indie rock floppy long curly hairstyles. There was a long intro to the first song consisting of guitar solos, shortly followed by 'Aint no rest for the wicked'. Lead singer Matt Schultz was buzzing with energy, leaped onto the barrier, and clung onto a disco ball right above the front row of the audience and carried on singing. His jumps and animated stage presence is mirrored in his band mates Lincoln Parish and brother Brad Schultz.

I could feel the bass beating in the backs of my legs. These energetic lads sing about everyday things, jump about and play instruments extremely well. I was full of beans when they'd finished.

After that is was a quick hop and a step round a few streets to see Jeremy Warmsley. We'd managed to dodge the queue again thanks to our amazing magical passes, but when we got to the Pavilion, the band had already started. We blame it on the loss of our map and darkness setting in, aiding to the confusion.

It was a tall square room with black walls, quite intimate for its size, and it was lit too, so I could actually see what I was writing. There was a comfortable amount of people there, about 100.

Jeremy, who actually looked like the class nerd, was telling us about his shirt he'd bought that day. He was clearly rocking geek chic, with sandy neat hair, large glasses, the most hideous shirt I've ever seen, and what appeared to be my grandpa's chinos.

Their music was moody in parts but was also full of optimism. 'Temptation' was fantastic. It was very melodious and quite edgy. Some songs seemed to stutter, obviously intentional, which was hard to get on board with at first. The couple of songs we did hear seemed to each tell a story which kept us listening.

Their last song was their best. It started with Warmsley doing a piano solo, it was such a warm tune. It started getting faster and louder then the bassist and the drummer (Ferro) came in. Warmsley earlier said that the best thing about playing in a band with Ferro is that he's called Ferro. If you like quirky sounds and lyrics you'll love him.

Outside the atmosphere was so nice. People were spilling out of bars and dancing about in the streets. People were giving out flyers left right and centre. It was as busy now as it was in the day. Everyone round here is so trendy and just looking to have a good time.

The Fratellis were playing at the Dome just around the corner and they were almost due on. It had an Albert Hall-esque feel about it when inside the concert area. There was a huge circle floor standing area, surrounded by rows of seats going higher and higher up, and also an upstairs circle.



They opened with a new song. Not a good idea in my opinion but never the less the crowd were going crazy! It was packed but there was still enough room in the standing area to dance. They played a lot of new songs but kept the audience hanging on with contagious favourites 'Henrietta' and 'Whistle for the choir'.

The band started another song but a minute into it the guitarists stopped playing, it must have been a technical fault or something. So whilst they sorted that out the crazy drummer 'Mince' threw out an amazing drum solo.

The encore was of course 'Chelsea Dagger' and everyone went insane. When the guitarists went off at the end Mince carried on and did his own solo again for a couple of minutes. The crowd loved it. Then he stood up and kicked his entire drum kit all over the stage. Wicked.

Down on the sea front it was swarming with people. It was lit really well and there was lots going on. Queues snaked out of different venues and people were just sat in groups on benches eating and drinking.



PNAU were great fun with their electro pop tunes. A dressed all in white ozzy duo got the crowds bouncing, some guy to the left of me even started breakdancing.

On the Saturday our first stop was The Displacements at Audio. Again it was downstairs in the basement. They were rowdy and fun. Typically indie, no song really stood out for me in particular. They had a large following though, it was packed in there and there was a massive queue outside, as there has been forever outside this venue.

Dead kids were playing an impromptu gig on the beach on the Saturday morning. They're a punk rock band and were hugely entertaining, finishing their set by running down the beach and launching themselves into the sea. It was fantastic and the crowd went wild!



The weather had turned a bit sour now. Drizzle and dark clouds had moved in onto what has been a mild and quite warm two days. We legged it to Concorde 2 the furthest venue away. We had tried to see Soko earlier today at Audio 2 but the place was rammed. We arrived a little windswept but relieved we hadnt missed her. It had two main rooms connected by a small doorway, the bar being in the first and the stage area in the next.

The Subways were headlining at 10 o'clock and I felt the majority of people there were there to see them. Anyway we got a beer and weaved our way to the front. It was a rectangular sized room with high ceilings. It was dark and everything glowed a luminous green from the stage lights. There was a lot of chatter and she'd whipped herself up a decent crowd.

She came on stage on time (which is always nice) and introduced herself. The first song was a song entitled 'My Wet Dream'. I thought to myself this isn't going to be some cheeky play on words malarkey, this is Soko, she's rude and in your face and she clearly doesn't give a shit. I was right. The song had lines in such as "So you moved faster and faster, Just like a sex machine, and I screamed louder and louder 'I LOVE YOUR DICK'." The audience was shocked and I think that's what she generally intends. She was very tongue in cheek. There were little intervals of giggling which made her crowd giggle too.

After that first song she yelled out "The lights are too bright can you make them dull?" in her cute accent. Nothing happened. "Hello? Can you hear me?" she shouted towards the back. "Maybe if I said it in French?" she was getting ratty now. The crowds nervously looked round at each other and wondered whether she was going to throw something. The lights soon dimmed, she huffed and wondered what to do next.

She signalled to her drummer to get up and she sat down at the drums. She banged out a song called 'Nervous Breakdown' which consisted of pretty much two beats. It was great though. Very angry (probably because of the lighting issue) and Meg White-esque. She had a roar of cheers. "Can you stop the talking please, and respect the music?" (Still obviously in a tantrum) was said in a very demanding way to the people at the back, who were obviously just waiting for the subways to come on. In my experience the British public aren't used to such brazen behaviour, especially on stage. She really did have us on our toes. Next was 'I will never love you more a charming and playful plinky plonky one. Her naivety is magnetic. And she's so pretty. The audience was like "WHAT is she going to do next?" The ending song was 'People always look better in the sun' this track was very upbeat and fun. It was definitely the one that stuck in everyone's heads later on as I could hear people humming on their way out. Her ending thank you was a very sardonic "Er, that was cool, I guess. Thank you for the talking and thank you for the lights." The little bitch. Thoroughly entertaining, but sorry Soko "I will never love you more than my Mac computer" either.

We've got 10 minutes to get to The Hope, which is the venue for the next band we want to see, Little Fish. Mmmm not liking that we were a 25-minute walk in the rain away, so we got in a taxi.

We walked into The Hope, it was a nice bar on the ground floor, with a small venue upstairs. The venue was a cosy little room, with a stage area to the left, a bar in the middle and seating to the right. It was dark, as all these venues seem to be. It was busy but not too busy. The Baddies had just played and it was pretty sweaty in there.

We made our way to the front and the stage was right there literally half a foot off the ground. Then appeared Juju, a tiny lady in white with a guitar on her back and drum sticks in her hands. Nez the drummer sat down at the drums behind her. We were at the front of a crowd of about 50, not including those sitting at the back.



She started banging the drums alone then was accompanied by Nez. She burst into a song called 'Devils Eyes'. She sang amazingly, so ferociously and there was so much passion. She was like a can of unopened fizzy pop, shaken vigorously with a tiger, and then opened. After each song she spoke to her crowd, and had a sip of water. She was quirky and charming. She asked Nez what colour socks he was wearing. Upon hearing his reply of 'black', she quickly piped up, "Oh that's disappointing! He's lying, they're actually red with yellow spots." I've never seen a woman sweat so much in my life. Not even at the gym. She was dripping. It was SO hot in there.

They played about 6 tracks, each with so much energy and craze, as if they were never allowed to play those songs again. The crowd were loving them. Inspired by artists Patti Smith and PJ Harvey, Little Fish are definitely the hottest duo to swim out of Oxford.



There has been so much to do this weekend and so little time. There are so many more bands and artists we wanted to catch but were unable to, including Operator Please (a young band from Australia) DJ Pete Wheeler, The Shoes, The Wombats and Friendly Fires. There will be next time though.

We left gig goers partying in the streets, sitting around fires on the beach and queuing for more venues. Brighton has failed to disappoint. It's been a whirlwind couple of days and it really has been a Great Escape.

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