Before the music even starts I have already booked for Rockaway Beach 2027. Is this the perfect way to start the New Year, or is there actually something wrong with me? If this is an addiction, I am not sure it is one that I want to fix.

This is the earliest a Rockaway Beach has started. If I am honest, it is too close to the New Year for me and there were notable absences amongst friends who felt the same. A few years ago, I missed one due to COVID and I now tend to be careful in the run-up to the festival and restrict my activities a few day before it starts. Being so early, it put a slight damper on the end of my Christmas holidays. The early start, also didn’t give me any chance to work off some of the Christmas excesses and I have to admit, after nearly two weeks of sitting in front of the TV, I found the whole weekend a bit of an effort. Next year, the festival is at the end of the first week of January, which should work much better.

This year’s Rockaway Beach departed slightly from their usual template of legacy bands headlining and younger bands playing during the day. With two relatively young bangs headlining the Friday and Sunday, in the form of Soft Play and English Teacher, with PiL playing the Saturday night. I think this is a really positive move. I much prefer to see a new band, than a legacy band and it gives young bands the opportunity to move themselves up the booking lists for summer shows. It was great to see both young headliners, stepping up. But more on that later.

Arriving on site, it was clear that Butlins also found this to be an early start. They had literally just kicked out their New Year’s party guests and during the Friday, there were signs everywhere of the New Year festivities. I think everyone must have had streamers, they were everywhere, even the photo pit. (My room was clean through). However, as always, the wonderful Butlins staff managed to clear away the mess and by the evening, only the festive lights and the cold, reminded us that we were still in the Christmas holiday period.

Friday started a little bit later. Several bands had pulled out due to illness. The big risk for a January festival. I imagine the organisers dread every email and phone call their receive over the Christmas break. The later start meant the venue was probably the busiest it has been for the first act. Y, opened with an an impressive set of catchy songs that really warmed up the audience. I have seen Y a few times. But this was their best performance so far. A really excellent way to start the weekend.

This year, Rockaway continued to use the Centre Stage for the daytime music and the big warehouse-like Studio 36 for the evening headliner. The sound in both these venues is good. However, the problem remains that Studio 36 is pretty soulless. Several people I spoke to wanted to go back to Reds. But like me, they were the same people who complained about the poor sound in that venue. As much as I miss Reds, I think this is the better compromise.

The bigger stage also allows the young bands to hone their stage craft. Several of the bands said that Centre stage was the biggest crowd or stage they had played. I think Rockaway is becoming a winter training camp to ready bands for the summer’s festivals.

Stepping up at the last minute and the winner of Rockway Beach 2026 was ELLIS-D. A late replacement for one of the bands who had called in sick. ELLIS-D was new to most in the audience. Like Denmark, who in 1992 came from the beach to replace Yugoslavia in Euro 1992 and went on to win it. ELLIS-D completely owned the big stage, blasting through a tight set of his gothy post-punk psychedelia. When he said he only had one more song, there was a genuine sound of disappointment, only to be matched by the joy of him telling everyone it was 10 minutes long. I hadn’t seen ELLIS-D for about 18 months. On this evidence. The band have stepped up to another level. A really excellent performance.

Opening Studio 36, Idlewild left me bewildered. They were going down a storm with the audience. Some of whom had only come to the festival to see the band. I have to admit, I must have been missing something. They were tight. But they left me feeling disengaged.

Headlining the big stage were Soft Play, previously the Slaves. I have seen them numerous times, right from their very earliest days, when they played to an empty room at the Horn in St Albans. I love the energy these guys put into every performance. By the time I had left the pit, Laurence had split kicked several times and had already gone into the audience. I have seen them headline stages at other festivals. So this wasn’t anything new for them. However, they were playing to an audience who in the main didn’t know who they were, and they had the Rockaway crowd in the palm of their hands.

Unfortunately, I didn’t see much of their set, I headed back to Centre Stage to catch Mandrake Handshake with the intention of shooting a few songs and then returning. However, the pit closed as I got there, and heading back to Studio 36, I got waylaid by friends. But this is what is great about Rockaway. Rockaway has become the winter meeting point of so many summer festival goers. I think one year they need to play a festival version of the ‘Kevin Bacon separation game’. I’m pretty sure everyone at the festival can relate themselves to another person within two or three degrees of festival or local gig scene separation.

Closing the evening on Centre Stage, Antony Szmierek was in full ‘red coat’ mood. Fully embracing his end of evening slot, to bring some fun before we headed to bed. I think somebody should have given him a red coat. He was clearly enjoying the experience.

Opening up Saturday’s activities, Bruise Control took no prisoners. Everyone was shuck awake by their powerful performance of direct punk songs.

The next two bands gave people turning up with a hangover, more of a chance of easing themselves into Saturday. Returning to Rockaway Beach, Winter Gardens sound had grown more expansive. Atmospheric, gothic, with a moments of intense wailing guitars. It was a perfect palate cleanser after the directness of Bruise Control. Whitelands, who followed, continued with an excellent set of Shoegaze.

A new discovery for me, French band, We Hate You Please Die, at times reminded me of Sonic Youth, with a touch of the angular guitars Gilla Band used so well. If I didn’t know they were French, I would have sworn they were another Irish band produced by Gilla Band’s Daniel Fox.

I have seen Gans several times. Always on a small stage. They effortlessly shifted up a gear to make their set work on a big stage. I can see them having a very strong 2026 and I expect them to be playing venues like the Kentish Town Forum by the end of the year.

Over at Studio 36, a band I have had the pleasure to see develop from their Shacklewell days. Dry Cleaning brought their weird presence to the vast warehouse space. Their big draw is Florence’s spoken word stories. While the guitars swirl in the background, Florence performs her musings with minimum movement, but maximum expression. I never expect this to transfer to big stages. Through the camera lens, her performance is engaging and fascinating, but you need to be close to appreciate her acting. How does this transfer to a big audience? I honestly don’t know. But it does. While I briefly dipped out to see TV Smith on the second stage, I headed back to catch the end of their set. One of my highlights of the weekend.

Saturday headliner, PiL, played their usual game of requiring photographers to sign away copyright. I have done this in the past and if this was their gig, fine. But it’s a festival. Given I make every photo free under a Creative Commons license. It shouldn’t really make any difference to me. However, I don’t like the person John Lydon has turned into, so out of spite, I left and headed back to the Centre Stage which gave me a chance to finally catch Walt Disco, who played an excellent set of new music. This was my first opportunity to catch them and they seem to have toned down their glam flamboyance. But it was still a fine set.

Closing the evening where two Fat White family related bands. The first, Insecure Men seemed an odd late evening booking. Arriving on the stage smoking, pissing off the Bultins team. They proceeded to play a rather bland set. Thankfully, the excellent Moonlandingz got the party going, to close the evening.

Sunday had a more laidback feeling. Baggio, who seemed to have dragged half of south London’s musicians with them, played laid back ‘clever’ musician music. You know that noodly stuff that has been leaking out of London’s music schools for the last few years. It’s not my thing. But they sounded pleasantly clever and were suitable for those nursing heavy heads from Saturday night.

Shadowtail impressed me before Christmas. Ethereal vocals over textured layers of shoegaze isn’t usually my thing. However, I’m a sucker for bands who play guitars with a violin bow. Apparently, last year they changed their lineup. This new lineup has a lot of potential and I will catch them again.

Closing Centre Stage for another year, Inspiral Carpets, did little to inspire me. I found them bland in the 90s. They were just as bland here. Thankfully, over on Studio 36, Coach Party really stepped up to the big stage. I have only ever seen them play small shows and small festival stages. They have great energy, but I honestly never expected them to be this good on a big stage. Their set was probably a bit long and maybe they need to tweak the running order. However, they had their air of a band ready for the challenge to become an arena band. It impressive to see how much they’ve developed.

Closing the festival were English Teacher. I am going to be honest, I think English Teacher are overrated. However, I was so pleased to see Rockaway give them a chance to headline. They did a great job of expanding their sound to the larger stage. Lily’s vocals were immaculate and at times stunning. While they didn’t change my opinion of them, I prefer more energy from my headliners, they are clearly ready to play the biggest stages. Maybe they need a touch more stage craft so that there is a performance to be seen at the back of a big crowd. But they appeared to be ready to step up. Rockaway is the perfect festival to offer new bands the opportunity to headline a big stage. They had sold 50% of their ticket for 2027 before the end of the weekend. Many of us return for the experience. The music is a bonus.

Another successful year and Rockaway has revitalised me after Christmas and wetted my appetite for what the 2026 music scene will deliver. There still remains issues with accessibility in Studio 36 that needs to be sorted out. But Butlins staff continue to be brilliant, in pretty much every other way. The festival has now pretty much nailed the January format and this has become the perfect post-Christmas break. I will be back next year.

After checked-in, I headed off to grab my badge. Last year I was off the pace, with issues with my calf muscles reducing my mobility. They have mainly held up since then. My only concern this year was the perennial size of the queues. Would 2023 continue the trend of turning paying music fans into second-class citizens, while the ‘off on a jolly to the seaside on work’s expenses’ crowd get preferential treatment?

Heading up to the Green Door Store for a few of the sets at one of the alt-Escape opening parties, for some reason. I found the venue unbearably hot and decided to head off for a beer and a quiet night. Before leaving I managed to catch three acts. The highlight, Porchlight. With that kind of anarchic Squid sound, popular at the moment. They put on an excellent show. But I decided to bail and save my energy for the full festival.

This year I spent more time planning who I was going to see. But as is usual, the plan didn’t hold up in reality. The day started off at the Prince Albert for Katie Phelan playing the Irish showcase. The curse of being on first. Katie Phelan suffered from sound issues. Though in fairness, I don’t think it was the sound engineer’s fault. I think Katie forgot to change her battery in her acoustic guitar and the sound engineer had to quickly mic up the guitar. But this is what festivals are for. They help artists deal with the logistics. Musically, it was a fairly standard singer-songwriter fair. Lots of little reflective vignettes. Pleasant, but focused on young concerns.

Reb Fountain at the North Lane Brewery was my first discovery. Her music blended elements of folk, blues, rock, pop, even a bit goth at times. Reb’s vocals are rich, bluesy and at times sultry. I was really impressed by her and caught her playing the Lexington on the way home.

Up at the Hope and Ruin, Cowboyy continued to impress with their intricate math rock. More intricate music and dare I say it, prog, appears to be rearing its head again as kids bore of the post-punk sound that has dominated the last few years. Cowboyy intricate math rock is definitely worth catching. 

But the post-punk revival hasn’t yet died. Surfing on the tail end of the revival and one of the best bands of the revival, Deadletter played the inappropriate Music Venue Trust Airstream stage down at the beach. I always photograph them in black and white and their music suits the dark. Seeing them in daylight somehow feels wrong. Luckily, they were still as good as always. Zac, as usual, went out into the crowd midway through the set. Being a festival set, they concentrated on all their most crowd-friendly songs.

The sound on the MVT stage was pretty poor all weekend. It is the nature of outdoor venues. However, it is unforgivable for the sound engineer to make things worse. Sadly Coach Party experienced an unacceptably bad sound. For some unknown reason, the sound engineer failed to notice the first song and part of the second song had no vocals. It probably won’t affect Coach Party, they already have a pretty dedicated fan base. But please TGE don’t let this happen again. This is a showcase for many artists. As you would expect, Coach Party’s infectious indie pop registered strongly with the afternoon crowd and the perfect breezy accompaniment to a sunny day on the beach

The evening was dominated by queues. But I did manage to see two great acts, the visceral Benefits I have covered numerous times. Playing the One Church. Kingsley’s sermon was received by a willing congregation. It was great to see such a positive reaction to what could be a hard festival sell.

Second standout of the evening was Lael Neale. I had tickets to see her at the Lexington the following week. I hoped I would catch her here, find her average and have an evening off to regain post-festival sleep. No chance. The album has been on heavy rotation and live, was just as beautiful. Many of the delicately crafted songs were played on an old omnichord and Lael’s swilling of her fingers around its pad, weirdly mesmeric.

For the rest of the evening, it was a case of finding any venue I could get into. In the end I decided to grab a few beers. While Brighton is more open than last year, many of my favourite pubs were still closing relatively early on week nights. Sad to see things are still catching up to pre-COVID times.

Friday started off with something different with Annie Taylor rocking out at Komedia Studio. Good old fashioned unreformed blues rock with lots of blue denim on show. Annie and band put on an energetic fun set. Not really my thing anymore. But still fun.

The second Benefits set was slightly more surreal than the previous evening in a church with Kingsley and co disturbing the beachgoers at the MVT stage. Sound continued to be an issue with vocals too low in the mix. It was good to see a significant number stayed to enjoy their set. You either love this band or you hate them. With this band there is no compromise.

The rest of the afternoon was particularly unsuccessful. Some of the bigger draws had long queues. I managed to squeeze into the Shipwright’s Yard to hear an excellent set from Pale Blue Eyes. Unless you are at the front you can’t see the band playing inside the garage. I have a fondness for this makeshift ‘venue’. TGE needs more of these pop-up venues.

My unsuccessful afternoon led to me deciding to grab a beer in the relatively empty Mesmerist and listen to what they had scheduled for the Alt-Escape. Listed on their board was ‘Sleeper’ playing in 30 minutes time. Could it be that Sleeper? Amazingly it was and the acoustic set they played was rather good. They all seemed so relaxed and at ease with each other. It was a joy to watch.

Given the difficulty of getting into venues, I decided to head for St Mary’s Church to catch FDR who I had heard good things about. JFDR didn’t do that much for me. But I caught the last 10 minutes of Penelope Trapes’s impressive dark brooding set accompanied by some excellent atmospheric lighting.

As the church is 15 minutes walk from the nearest venue. I decided to stay there for the next act. Once I left venue it was after 10pm and the rest of the evening was a bit of a miss. Everywhere I headed to was busy or I simply wasn’t interested in walking half the length of the town to find the queues.

Saturday was unlike any recent Great Escape. With a rail strike, there was a reduced train service to Brighton. The usual weekend hordes that descend on Brighton stayed away and many of the TGE audience who usually catch the late night Saturday trains back from Brighton (to avoid the ridiculously expensive Saturday night hotel prices) disappeared mid afternoon. Saturday was actually the most pleasant TGE for years. There were few queues to be seen and Brighton itself was relatively quiet. This is what TGE needs to be like all the time and closer to what it was like when I first started.

Saturday started well. Anna B Savage and band played a beautiful set upstairs at Patterns. It all seemed effortless from her and her band. I’m not completely sold on her distinctive vocals when she plays a full set. They start to become a bit wearing as I find her vocals after a certain point seems like an affectation. But these short festival sets have the opposite effect. Distinctive and rich, they add some spice to the day and Anna’s set really hit the mark.

The next band on my agenda wasn’t on for another hour. So I decided to head there via Volks for an interestingly named Rainbow Frog Biscuit. I think I walked into a parallel world of rainbows and unicorns and sugary candy floss pop. The kind of pop created by somebody who has grown up singing Frozen songs in front of the mirror. I’m not sure the 6Music audience is her target audience. But what a great voice she had. While very stagey, it suited her materials. Sadly, it was very much not my thing.

PABST at The Prince Albert offered up 90s inspired grunge rock. Energetically performed by the three piece band. A palette cleanser after Rainbow Frog Biscuit. Usually, The Prince Albert is rammed and unbearably hot on the Saturday afternoon. This year, it was pleasant making it easier to enjoy the band but a little bit more difficult for the band to get the audience participation they maybe hoped for when they asked us to form a circle and mosh.

At Chalk, Flossing, the project of Heather Elle, Bodega’s old bass player, reminded me a lot of Jenny Beth’s post-Savages work. Heather cutting a confident, strong, no-nonsense stage presence. The music is equally as confident and direct. The electro-industrial sound accompanied by strong lighting really worked well. One of my highlights of the festival

Over at a packed Revenge, Butch Kassidy had started their set. Unable to get anywhere near the stage I watched some heads bobbing up and down in the distance to a thunderous heavy psych rock soundtrack. These guys are good. This was probably my favourite set of the festival. I need to catch them in a smaller venue where I can see them too.

Unusually for a Saturday night at TGE. I didn’t decide to stick to one venue. The lack of queues at many venues meant I managed to catch a few more acts before calling it a day. Pencil, featuring a whole host of familiar faces were interesting and I will no doubt catch them again. Closing the evening at Brighthelm and my festival, Anna Wolf put on a great festival show that perfectly capped off my festival.

Was this a successful TGE? Not really. I was surprised by Reb Fountain and I managed to catch a few artists who’ve been on my list for a while such as Flossing and Butch Kassidy. But the buzz bands were the buzz bands last year and I didn’t get anywhere near seeing them due to the queues. I think we are still seeing the effects of the pandemic. Most bands weathered the lockdowns. But the lockdowns seem to have affected the pipeline of new bands. I guess we will see them slowly appearing as the music scenes around the country build up their momentum again. But overall, I think the quality was an improvement on last year.

I’m in a quandary about my continued engagement with TGE. As a music review / photography site we aren’t big enough to get photo passes. That’s fair enough, we are small or is that ‘boutique’? While we have already grabbed an early-bird ticket for 2024. I’m not sure TGE is value for money anymore. As standard festival ticket holders, we are now second-class citizens. I arrived early on Friday and Saturday to get to the front at a venue as they opened, to then have the delegates waltz up five minutes before doors and walk in before me. Throughout the weekend they had priority in queuing situations. Why is this the case? They paid for a conference which comes with a TGE music pass. They shouldn’t have priority for the live music part. Many haven’t paid a dime for the tickets. Their companies have. Why do paying customers get handled as we do? It is getting to the point where you see more music by sticking to a single venue and if that’s the case, some of the free events have higher quality day line-ups. The joy of this type of festival is being able to move around and see new artists.

I guess my main issue is the cost of staying in Brighton. I have always had an issue with the venue creep and the lack of bands I see at TGE. When it was relatively cheap, I learned to treat the weekend as a short break with some music. Sadly, the hotels are now a rip-off. Nearly £600 for four nights in a Premier Inn. Looking at next year’s prices, several hotels are quoting £1000 for four nights when they were quoting £500 four years ago. Brighton is pricing itself out of this game. Is it really worth £150 a day to spend half your time queuing? If somehow TGE could make this year’s Saturday happen every year. I wouldn’t think twice. While I have a ticket for next year, I am in two minds if it is worth booking hotels or to pass on the ticket to somebody else. I don’t know. Maybe with clear light of day, I might change my mind. But at the moment, £600 would cover the cost of two festivals elsewhere. I suspect I will be back next year. But it will probably be my last unless there are some serious changes.

Artists at TGE and Brighton Festival

Day 0 – Yuanfan Yang, Moon Idle, Maximillian, Porchlight,
Day 1 – Katie Phelan, Reb Fountain, Connor Mac, Minas, The New Cut, Cowboyy, Freak Slug, Deadletter, Coach Party, Benefits, Pax Cultura, Lael Neale, Navy, Ruth Lyon, Storry
Day 2 – Annie Taylor, Luke RV, Baby Cool, Benefits, Sleeper, Lilo, Penelope Trappes, JFDR, Hinako Omori, Maria Chara Argiro
Day 3 – Anna B Savage (x2), Rainbow Frog Biscuit, Soak, Ombigizi, PABST, Nadia Sheikh, Sophie Jameson, Flossing, Butch Kassidy, Nice Biscuits, Ann Lu Cannon, Pencil, Anna Wolf

Opening the evening was Fiona Lee. A singer songwriter from Yorkshire. Unlike many female solo artists who opt for a more delicate vocal, Fiona’s vocals are all rock, deep and rich. She would make a great front woman for a band at the heavier end of indie. Closing her set, she moved away from the mic and sang out into the room.

Stockholm band, Girl Scout impressed me when they played the Horn. Tonight on a bigger stage, the were even more impressive. At times Emma Jansson’s vocals remind be of Alvvays, which isn’t a bad thing. Although on record they have a breezy indie sound. Live, through their guitarist Viktor Spasov, the sound is more expansive and expressive. At one point Emma joked that Viktor likes jazz and you could hear that in his playing.

With such a strong lineup, headliners Coach Party knew they couldn’t slack and didn’t fail to impress. They remind me a bit of early Wolf Alice before they were overproduced. Songs structured around a tuneful indie rock quiet/loud, slow/fast structure. ‘Can’t Talk, Won’t’ could be a Wolf Alice track. But there’s more than enough space for a female fronted Indie rock band playing this kind of music. Why should it be limited to the boys? At the end of the gig, the band were joined by Girl Scout and Fiona Lee for a joyous singalong. A great night of music as part of IVW.

Next up was Molly Coddled. Still at University and showing some promise. Molly Coddled had affected Kate Nash type vocals. More engaging than the first band. The mix of their sound didn’t quiet work. They had some interesting songs but whenever the vocals became more complicated the lead singer would basically stop playing guitar which left the sound feeling a bit weak. They probably needs a lead guitarist and then she can make for from being freed up from guitar duty – like Kate Nash does.

Closing the evening were fully formed Coach Party from the Isle of Wight. This was a much delayed gig. I suspect they would not have been as tight when this gig was originally scheduled and it also meant they had two more material having released two excellent EPs. While the first band were Radio 2, second Radio 1(ish). Coach Party were clearly a 6Music band, with the audience reflecting the six music audience. Lead singer Jessica had effortless vocals and was engaging throughout. At times they reminded me a bit of later-day Wolf Alice reflecting the maturing song writing of their latest EP. It is unlikely we will see them at the Horn. They have a lot of potential is they have a good summer of festivals