Around a month ago, Van Zon released their debut EP “All Things, All One Aglow“, and a couple of weeks later, Glasshouse Red Spider Mite released their EP “What Do You Mean The Monster?… Hahaha“, and last night the bands played a double headline launch gig at Alphabet, supported by London band Catbandcat. We went along with our camera to capture things for posterity:
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It feels like an age ago now, but I’ve finally got my photos band and edited from Great Escape weekend. I did my best to try and see a lot of Brighton bands at both official and unoffial gigs – in the end I caught multiple sets from a few bands from some of my favourites, because why not? Anyway, here’s one photo from each set by a Brighton band I went to where I could get close enough to the front, and where the light was good enough to shoot on film (on which note, please could someone have a word with Pink Moon and ask them to buy some lights?)
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Wednesday
goodbye / Green Door Store
Big Long Sun / Green Door Store
Big Long Sun/ Pipeline
Hutch / Green Door Store
ELLiS·D / Green Door Store
Thursday
Opal Mag / Unbarred
Trip Westerns / Bella Union Shop
The New Eves / Pipeline
George Bloomfield / One Church
Van Zon / One Church
Friday
Ladylike / TGE Beach – The Jetty
Coco & The Lost / Molly Malones
Jock / Queens Hotel
Ideal Living / Horatios
Hutch / St Nicholas Church
Saturday
ladylike / Horatios
Ruunes / Jules Emporium
Hutch / Molly Malones
Rose io / Manchester Street Arts Club
Van Zon / Folklore Rooms
Big Long Sun / Prince Albert
Hutch / Folklore Rooms
Trip Westerns / St Nicholas Church
goodbye / Prince Albert
As hard as I try to support and promote all the local bands, by far and away the most popular post on the blog every year is my round of up of the unofficial Alt Escape gigs. I’ve been keeping my ear to the ground over the last month or so and pulled together almost every Brighton gig over Escape which weekend which isn’t part of the Official Great Escape bill (excluding Gary Barlow at the Brighton Centre on Thursday night. Sorry Gary). It feels like there’s even more than ever this year, so if you haven’t got a ticket, or there’s gaps in your schedule that need filling, or like me, you recognise that there’s unofficial stuff taking place that’s every bit as good as the official line up, then read on. Bear in mind that this is a moving target – check socials behind the links for line ups and timings, which will all be subject to change. Any more I hear about between now and next week I’ll try and add in. And if I’ve missed anything, please drop me a line!
Tuesday 13th:
FailBetter presents the Bait Escape / The Prince Albert
Wednesday 14th:
The Beluga Escape / The Freemasons
Escape Week / Pink Moon
Ebb Music Presents / Daltons
The Considerable Departure / Pipeline
Alt Alt Escape Kick Off Party / Green Door Store
The Greatest Ape / Bella Union Vinyl Shop
Village Escape / Village
Escape The End / World’s End
Thursday 15th:
The Beluga Escape / Southern Belle
Turtle Tempo’s GR8 Escape / SPRO coffee, 47 Norfolk Square
End of the Trail Juicebox Brighton Music Showcase / Grand Central
Brighton Rock’n’Roll Circus / The Font
Escape Week / Pink Moon
The Greatest Cape / Presuming Eds
AX Escape / Freemasons
Acid Box Superfuzz / Daltons
Bella Union & Friends / Folklore Rooms
Joy RSVP Party / Unbarred
No Friends in the Industry / Love Thy Neighbour / Fiddlers Elbow
No Friends in the Industry / Love Thy Neighbour / Hope & Ruin downstairs
Planetary & Impressive PR / Secret Comedy Club
The Considerable Departure / Pipeline
Adder FM Showcase / The Oak
Swimming in Sound / Alphabet
Smithereen Takeover / Black Lion
Smithereen Takeover / Mesmerist
Smithereen Takeover / Spiegel Gardens
Godzilla vs Great Escape / Godzilla Records
The Greatest Ape / Bella Union Vinyl Shop
Escape The End / World’s End
Friday 16th:
The Beluga Escape / Martha Gunn
The Great Peliscape / Hotel Pelirocco
Brighton Rock’n’Roll Circus / The Font
The Fake Escape / The Rosehill
Escape Week / Pink Moon
The Greatest Cape / Presuming Eds
Back in the Woods Alt Alt Escape / St Nicholas Church
Joy RSVP Party / Unbarred
No Friends in the Industry / Love Thy Neighbour / Fiddlers Elbow
No Friends in the Industry / Love Thy Neighbour / Hope & Ruin downstairs
Blitz Cat records / Folklore Rooms
The Revolt Escape / Rossi Bar
End of the Trail, Play it Loud & Kick out the Jams presents / The Font
Slackscape / Alphabet
Escapism / Alphabet
Escape The Escape / Daltons
Oak Showcase / The Oak
Escape to the Pipeline / Pipeline
Shipwright’s Yard Sessions / Shipwright’s Yard
Smithereen Takeover / Black Lion
Smithereen Takeover / Mesmerist
Smithereen Takeover / Spiegel Gardens
The Lanyard Bonfire / Molly Malones
The Greatest Ape / Bella Union Vinyl Shop
Escape The End / World’s End
Form Presents / Folklore Rooms
Saturday 17th:
Brighton Rock’n’Roll Circus / The Font
The Fake Escape / The Rosehill
The Beluga Escape / Gladstone
Escape Week / Pink Moon
The Greatest Cape / Presuming Eds
Smugglers Escape / Manchester Street Arts Club
Slactors / The Actors
Back in the Woods Alt Alt Escape / St Nicholas Church
End of the Trail music showcase / Pipeline
Alt Alt Escape / Folklore Rooms
Sidequest x Stoned x Starving presents Alt Alt escape / Rossi Bar
Joy RSVP Party / Alphabet
No Friends in the Industry / Love Thy Neighbour / Fiddlers Elbow
No Friends in the Industry / Love Thy Neighbour / Hope & Ruin downstairs
Jules Emporium Magic Escape / Jules Emporium, 5 New Road
ffthefuture / Pink Moon (Garden)
Oak Showcase / The Oak
Midnight Mass / Daltons
Smithereen Takeover / Black Lion
Smithereen Takeover / Mesmerist
The Great Peliscape / Hotel Pelirocco
The Lanyard Bonfire / Molly Malones
Escape The End / World’s End
Sunday 18th:
The Beluga Escape / Lion & Lobster
The Great garage Punk Escape / Daltons
I haven’t made too many posts recently. Some gig pics are still going up on Instagram, but last night wasn’t just some gig. It was the launch of Sad Dads new single Surf Instructor, supported by Room Service and Telecom, as well as the reveal of who was behind I Flipping Luv Brighton. There was a raffle (where two of the prizes were won by Miles Soft Top and Maximilian, surely some kind of fix!), excursions from the stage into the audience, swimming pool noodles being thrown about, even a light sabre fight from Room Service, and a whole load of love in the room. Some bands take music very seriously indeed, but last night showed that you can have a great time when you don’t
Surf Instructor is out now
Hot on the heels of the release of their top twenty debut album One More Thing, Lime Garden closed their UK tour on Friday night with a sold out gig at Chalk. Support came from Ladylike (who are locals so also feature in the gallery below) and Ugly.
There was a shoutout to Chloe’s mum up in the balcony when they played Mother, quips about seeing the four coolest women on International Women’s Day, one of the friendliest mosh pits I’ve seen in a while, and, by all accounts, massive queues at the Green Door Store after they announced that’s where the afterparty would be.
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Yesterday Lime Garden released their debut album One More Time. After a strong run of singles, of which only those released in the last twelve months feature on the record, and years of playing live honing their skills, they’ve come up with an accomplished collection of songs dealing with hope, humdrum and matters of the heart. Broadening their palette beyond guitar pop Floor and Pop Star casually toss in a bit of autotune, and Fears almost ditches guitars altogether save for a few riffs towards the end. The closing pair of tracks, It and Looking, strip things right back and remind us that it’s not parties every night. And then clocking in barely over half an hour it’s done, leaving us thirsting for more.
Promotion for the album kicked off last night with an in store at Resident (and an anecdote about how at a previous instore Chloe had asked Marika Hackman to sign a sanitary pad), followed by a launch party around the corner. A whole bunch of live dates are coming up including their biggest ever headline gig at Chalk on Friday 8th March, and no doubt a summer full of festivals
HAPPY NEW YEAR! When we first saw Van Zon supporting Flip Top Head last year we knew it wouldn’t be long before they were headlining gigs, and last night they did, playing their first bill topping gig at Green Door Store. If you missed it, they’ve got a whole bunch more shows coming up – check their instagram for details. Support came from Moon Idle, playing their modern take on trip hop, and Nina Kohout, whose layered vocal tracks definitely pushed our buttons. As usual, click through to view large
Earlier this week Flip Top Head topped the bill at a fantastic gig at the Prince Albert, joined by Brighton Music Blog faves The New Eves, and future stars Van Zon. It comes a few weeks after Flip Top Head released their latest single Alfred Street, which didn’t have a single launch at the time, so let’s shout about it now. Anyway, here’s a whole load of photos from the gig. Click through to view large
It’s been a bit quiet on the blog over the summer, as the local scene always gets quiet in festival season (although there has been a few gigs where we haven’t taken so many photos, which just ended up on our Insta feed). Gigs are firmly back now though, and last night saw the return of Nanocluster – Immersion‘s live night where they invite guests to collaborate for a week culminating in a performances at the Rosehill. As noted last night, it’s been four years since the last local Nanocluster (although they took the event to SXSW festival earlier this year), and it was a joy to see the event return. Last night’s guest was Cubzoa AKA Jack from Penelope Isles, who brought psychedelic guitar squalls to Immersion’s kraut based electronica, all accompanied by visuals that I assume were put together by Malka Spiegel, judging by the output of her personal Instagram feed, which featured emotive views of Brighton and beyond. There’s no word yet on when the next one will be, but hopefully it won’t be in another four years!
Last night ARXX played the closing date of their tour to promote new album Ride or Die with a hometown gig at Patterns, supported by Currls. We got there early and bagged a prime spot to take photos from:
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Brighton Music Blog 