This year’s Great Escape is looking like it might be one of the Greatest Escapes. 120 new artists have just been announced, on top of the hundred previously and it is full of the bands who have started to make waves in the last two years. It looks like the two years absence has left everyone wanting to play.

As with most years, we plan to cover mainly new artists to us. With the odd artist who we have seen before. Looking through the lineup. There are fair few we have already seen and would recommend:

ARXX, Illuminati Hotties, Kid Kapichi, Nuha Ruby Ra, Prima Queen, Sinead O’Brien, Stella Donnely, The Amazons, Witch Fever, Yard Act

Top of the list would be Yard Act. I suspect they might play one of the BBC showcases and the bigger Beach or Dome venues. Unless we have photo pass this year, we will continue to avoid the Beach and Dome. You have to camp out at these venues for the big tickets. We would rather catch new unknown artists in smaller venues, than sit in these big venues for the big ticket artists. So we probably give them a miss. But if you are willing to stick to the big venues for most of the evening, Yard Act are a class act. The must see of this weekend.

We caught Illuminati Hotties twice at SXSW2019 and they were one of our highlights. Sarah Tudzin, the creative mind behind the band, produces perfect 3/4 minutes of infectious DIY pop rock. As they are over from the US. They are top of our list of must catch artists.

We have seen Sinead O’Brien many times. It would be easy to pigeon hole her as another ‘talky’ act. But with her beautiful Irish lilt, Sinead really is poetry with music. Definitely, worth catching.

There are quite a few acts we haven’t seen before who we want to catch. Friends in the US have been ranting about New York band Gustaf. So they are top of our list. They get mentioned in the same sentence as Bodega. That is not a bad thing!

We love the Goa Express’s output so far and were disappointed when they cancelled their February tour. They will be near the top of our acts to catch. But there are some others that peak our interest such as Vlure, English Teacher, Beach Lab, Baby Queen and Sprints, who we have been hearing very positive noises about.

Recommendations are great. But for us, festivals like the Great Escape aren’t about who you plan to see. It is the unexpected random discovery that makes festivals like The Great Escape so special. So ignore everything we say. Go find your new favourite band!

Thankfully my mood was lightened late afternoon when I stumbled upon a line-up change at the Tube, Kill Moon who played an excellent set helped by the fantastic venue. (It really is a tiny tube in the Brighton sea wall)

After that things improved with an ‘off festival’ show featuring The Physics House Band, Slow Club and the Amazing Snakeheads, a band I failed to catch due to the long queues outside of the tiny Hope the night before.

The evening was closed off with some ‘knowns’, White Lung, a disappointing Mazes, an interesting performance from Arc Iris, a band who clearly listened to too much Frank Zappa and watching too many Yes performances. Finally my festival closed with Trans.

I managed to catch:

Josh Flowers and the Wild – great performance in the challenging Hub Tent

Hollie Cook – great voice

Gallery Circus – Energetic performance but the music didn’t work for me

Audience Killers – didn’t like the lead singer’s voice

Boy Jumps Ship – skater rock of the Biffy Clyro book of music. Exactly!

Kill Moon – great performance

The Physics House Band – sound like a complex equation imagined in music.

Slow Club – good performance, though fairly bland

Amazing Snakeheads – great live

Kieran Leonard – hard to judge. Singing unaided in a museum

Charlie Cunningham – as above

HSY – lots of energy and shouting. Great if you like that sort of thing. Personally not my cup of tea.

White Lung – not as pissed of as the first time I saw them, but still good.

Mazes – disappointed. Too much new material that doesn’t sound as interesting as their earlier material

Arc Iris – lots of really talents musicians living out the 1970s prog scene through the filter of Frank Zappa. Definitely a marmite band. I quiet enjoyed it. But I won’t rush out to see them again

Trans – sound issues aside, another great performance.

So who did I manage to see?

Ella vs Mountain – sounded nice. But hard to tell as she was playing the tent in the hub and there was a lot of noise

Black City Lights – DJ and singer. Not my cup of tea

The Darlingtons – energetic midday set from these guys

French for Rabbits – nice kick-back with a beer on a sunny day type music

John J Presley – excellent set from one of my current favourites

September Girls – only caught the last two songs. But sounded excellent

Baby Strange – didn’t work for me.

Telegram – seen these guys before and again I was impressed by them

Esben and the Witch – listened to most their set from the street but managed to catch two songs. Sounded really good. Have to catch them again

Wytches – despite sound issues, another great set

Deathcrush – didn’t ‘get’ these girls. Lots of noise and shouting but nothing that grabbed me

Theo Verney – enjoyable set

Scott and Charlene’s wedding – don’t take themselves too seriously and seemed to be having a good time, as were the crowd

Barbarossa – not my cup of tea

Gavin James – hard to judge. Quiet music, but people were talking near me so I left

Femme – Seemed to be three girls dancing to a backing tape. I quickly moved on to the next venue

Serfina Steer – multi instruments uncluding a harp. Quiet nice laid back music

Syd Arthur – was looking forward to seeing these guys as I’d heard they were good. Just didn’t grab me at all

Public Acess TV – enjoyable set

Brawlers – energetic set that seemed to go down well.

Gnarlwolves – punk sound but nothing particularly interesting

I guess as as somebody who hops around venues at SXSW, the fact that it’s 10 minutes walk between most venues discourages bouncing around. If you do, as I tried at one point yesterday. You end up seeing the changeover at a late running venue. With SXSW you just bounce on to the next one, hear you spend another 10 minutes trudging to the next venue.

Clearly, Brighton can’t hope for Austin’s weather but disappointingly, it’s cold, rainy and windy, making it a drudgery walking between the seafront venues.

Music wise, I’m not sure it’s any worse than SXSW. It’s just that you’re more likely to be stuck with a poor band rather than moving on. But a quick rundown of yesterday

Bokka – People in crime science suits with snorkelling glasses, and a heavily 80s and 90s electronica sound. Not my cup of tea

Misterwives – lead singer with a great voice and lots of energy. Great cover of ‘Girls Just Want To Have Fun’. But need stronger material to match their energy

Bang Bang Bang – pretty girl singing throwaway energetic catchy pop.

New Desert Blues – good old fashioned rock

His Clancyness – didn’t register a like or dislike

Raleigh Richards – not my cup of tea

Honeyblood – Indie pop from two Glaswegian girls. Enjoyable. But feel they could do with one or two high energy songs

Lola Colt – ridiculous number of instruments, peddles, drums, and keyboards. Not sure how they fitted everything on the stage. But lead singer had great voice and the band are all excellent. Really enjoyed them. But I knew I would. I’ve got a ticket to see them next month

After Lola, the rest of the programme was dance orientated with the like of East India Youth. So I called it an early night. Friday and Saturday’s late evening programming looks much more my kind of music