The Great Escape 2014 - Day One

Brighton is once again playing host to The Great Escape festival and this year, it’s bigger than ever.

It’s a mammoth operation with up to 15,000 visitors across over 35 venues to see 400 new bands

in just three days. Therefore one of the first things you realise is that there is no way you will see all

the acts that you want to and as the weekend continues, there are some very hard choices to make.

However our general train of thought was that the further away an act or band had travelled the

more we would try and see them. The idea being that UK acts would be more accessible.

The typical day is spilt into two main sections. An afternoon section runs from 12pm to 4pm. This

allowed you to visit any venue and access was no problem. The evening section runs from 6pm

to after midnight with access far more difficult. Therefore the pre-festival planning is as much an

essential part of the weekend as the festival itself. This can start months before, trawling various

music apps, listening to bands and deciding usually on the strength of one song whether they would

be worth a visit. This is a wonderful tool and exposes you to a host of new bands even if you do not

eventually manage to see them.

However our experience is that just because you have planned to see a band does not always mean

you will. This can usually be determined by the venue, with many of the more popular venues at full

capacity from the peak hours of 8pm to 11pm.

Regardless of this, we set off on Day 1 with enthusiasm high, despite being welcomed by torrential

rain, our first taste of the festival featuring great performances from the John Steel Singers and The

Animen and after battling the rain we're warmed by the bass and reggae stylings of Stylo G, Smoove

And Turrell and Pablo Nouvelle. PS I Love You ended the afternoon session, or so we thought.

Part of the appeal of The Great Escape is the secret gigs that pop up at random venues at various

times; the not-so-secret gig of Day 1 was the Kaiser Chiefs, and as this gig was advertised on Amazon,

a huge crowd has already gathered at The Concorde to see the boys strut their stuff. If anyone's

under the illusion that the Chiefs are a spent force, such thoughts are quickly dispelled thanks to

a jaw dropping show. The fact it's billed as a secret gig seems to infuse the crowd and afterwards

we're very aware that we were just part of something special.

The evening starts with a wonderful holy performance in a church from Gambles, their soft, acoustic

sound perfect for the location. Next we mix up genres with indie shouters Beautiful Boy, Max

Marshall providing laid back funk and soul followed by full on rock and free t-shirts via New York

rockers Bear Hands. The main acts of tonight are Little Dragon and Albert Hammond Jr. However

the queue makes us decide that looking at other venues is probably the way forward and we decide

to head down the secret gig route once more. Thankfully we're rewarded via an intimate show in a small

location by keyboard supremos the Klaxons, and our night finally draws to a close at around

1:30am via the digital jump up sounds of LE1F.

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