But where to go, who to see? Alex Hill takes his pick of The Great Escape
Four days, 450 artists, 35 venues...
But where to go, who to see? Alex Hill takes his pick of The Great Escape
Yeah, I saw them a few years ago at The Great Escape”. Everyone likes to be ahead of the game, everyone likes to catch the New Big Thing before they become the new big thing. And there’ s no better place to do that than at The Great Escape. But so many bands, so many venues, so many names, so many... places to go and have a drink. What do you do? Where do you go? Who do you see?
Man / Woman / Chainsaw A fascinating band with an intriguing and unrevealing name. They’ ve been described as
‘ one of the most exciting and unpredictable young acts in the town’, and with their mix of atmospheric indie style, joint vocals, melodic guitar and bass and haunting violin playing, you can understand why. It’ s not their first time in Brighton either – they put on a brilliant show at Green Door Store a few months ago and I’ ve been awaiting their return ever since.
Rizzle Kicks OK, not new, but they’ re Brighton legends- yes they are- and we love them. This local hip hop duo grabbed national attention with their fresh sounding, early 2010’ s hits‘ Down With The Trumpets’ and‘ Mama Do The Hump’ encapsulating a groovy and upbeat spin on hip hop which incorporates elements of reggae, funk and jazz – they’ ve even sampled classic punk tracks for their tunes.
These guys definitely have the knack needed to get a crowd moving with their unique and catchy feel-good sound that’ s immediately recognisable. It’ s great to have them back.
Heavy Lungs One of the heaviest bands playing this year’ s festival, as their name might have led you to believe, and their hardcore punk sound immediately grabbed my attention. With riff driven songs, relentless drumming and Johnny Rotten-esque vocals – they pay homage to classic punk while making it their own; I’ d liken their sound to an intriguing mix of Black Flag and The Damned brought to the modern era- which can be heard in their most popular‘( A Bit of a) Birthday’.
Peter Doherty Again, not new, but am I looking forward to this. The daring, yet loveable frontman of The Libertines and Babyshambles is one of the headliners for this year’ s festival and
an obvious choice for first place on this list. He plays Brighton beach on the 14th May championing the release of his new album.
I saw Doherty play live last year in a grotty industrial estate in Wolverhampton. While perhaps an unlikely location, this intimate acoustic set with Doherty playing a mix of Libertines and Babyshambles songs along with his solo material was a fantastic gig. He has the brilliant ability to captivate an audience with just his guitar, oftentimes accompanied by Bob Dylan style harmonica playing. Doherty maintains the poetic songwriter charm that made him famous.
Queen Cult One of the newest acts around are one to keep an eye on. With a high energy indie rock sound and heavily distorted instruments, Queen Cult have hints of garage rock greats Royal Blood and Queens of the Stone Age and are unforgivingly loud and proud. Just the thing we need to see. Their new single,‘ Figure It Out’, last month is hard not to like.
l Check out https:// greatescapefestival. com /
The New Eves
Sometimes you interview a band and they only have to say one thing and you’ re hooked.“ We’ re all big Big Patti Smith fans” said Kate from The New Eves, one of the brightest sparks to be playing The Great Escape. Patti Smith. That’ s us sold. It gets better.“ We’ d have to write a book listing all our influences, but Talking Heads are a big inspiration …”. And it gets more interesting.“… as well as more unique inspirations such as Bulgarian choir music”. Wasn’ t expecting that.
If you’ re even a little tired of the regular‘ guitar-bass-drums-vocals’ set up, The New Eves should make you smile. The Brighton based band feature Nina Winder-Lind( cello, guitar, vocals), Ella Oona Russell( drums, flute, vocals), Kate Mager( bass, vocals), and Violet Farrer( violin, guitar, vocals, dance) and it’ s a little more arty- and can we say darker- than your average band.
“ A lot of our songs are influenced by literature”, says Kate and there’ s a lot of the unexpeced here. Their new single,“ Highway Man” is a darkly-energised, female-first retelling of Alfred Noyes’ classic 1906 romantic poem that, as they put it, flips the lens.“ In the original version it’ s this dude, who’ s being the dude, and the girl doesn’ t do anything and then dies,” says Nina.“ So I was like,‘ We can’ t have that …’”
If all that sounds a bit too much, there’ s still a bit of guitar solo rock’ n’ roll.“ It was when I first started to find my guitar style, which is basically just weird noises and bashing” said Violet. And it is. Kinda cool though. The distorted guitar turns into adistorted cello- which is also kinda cool.
“ It’ s really good to play The Great Esacpe but it can be a bit overwhelming. We’ re also playing The Alternative Esacpe because more of our friends can come and there’ s more of a local buzz.”
l The New Eves are playing Chalk on Friday May 16 at 6.15pm