The quite frankly fucking amazing interactive poster above, ( produced by a Great Escape intern who apparently spent many hellish hours putting each link on the poster) lets you listen to many of the bands appearing at this years Great Escape Festival in Brighton, simply hover over the name, click and PRESTO!
We were asked by The Hype Machine to pick five “must see acts” at this years festival, which as you might imagine, was incredibly difficult given the quality and number of artists who are appearing, but we bit the bullet and whipped out our whittling knife and whittled it down to a mere handful . You can see our choices HERE alongside nine of the UK’s leading blogs choices.
Sadly we wont be able to attend this year due to these two fine gentlemen below
But if we were attending we’d be dashing off to see
1. Nicole Atkins
She did the whole femme fatale, pop noir, “Spectorian goth” thing years before the world had heard of Lana Del Rey, and to be honest she did it far better. Nowadays she’s more at home playing blues tinged torch songs mixed with classic rock, and really, blessed with the sort of golden pipes Nicole has, she really should have taken over the world by now. Interviews on the VPME with Nic HERE and HERE
2. Jethro Fox
Jethro’s based in Liverpool and has been winning hearts minds and of course ears with his chiming reverbing guitars, hook laden melodies and anthemic choruses.
3. Novella
We first caught Novella supporting Dum Dum Girls and thought their sound was lush. In fact they did recall early Spooky-era Lush as they have that classic 4AD sound, loud but beautiful.
4. Rae Morris
Rae will feel at home by the seaside as she’s from Blackpool, she was one of our tips of the year for 2012 and the lucky gig goers in Brighton will be able to check out why. A big voice used to maximum effect without employing the sort of histrionics that apparently brings tears (on cue) to the collective eyes of Jessie J , Tom Jones Will Iam and that other prize tit head.
5. Friends
We have to admit we are still not 100% sure convinced about Friends based on their recorded work, which is exactly why we’d be checking them out live, as people tell us the band are funkier than Funkadelic on “National Funk Day” and that the live environment is where their enthusiasm and energy really translates. And this is why these sort of events are just so good. You bob in and out of venues, and hopefully discover some new bands in the process.
There’s also The Alternative Escape
And we would of course be scampering off to see the marvellous Curxes who juxtapose the imperiousness of Siouxsie alongside the warmth of Alison Moyet all wrapped up in the style of a retrofitted Raymond Chandler novel on acid.