I've just been recovering from a weekend at a music festival in Brighton...
The Great Escape Festival really lives up to its name. The seaside is always a good place to get away from it all and Brighton is no exception. Stick of rock, rides on the pier, lovely pebbled beach, stripey deck chairs and to top it all off a fantastic line up of new bands to dance away to.
Thursday
First couple of bands we saw on Thursday were Kid Barbados and
Dansette Junior on the pier... equally awesome although the audience annoyed me! No one wanted to get involved and i was ever so tempted to just jump in and dance like crazy... but Lee was there to stop such sillyness! Boo!
Next was the highlight of my weekend... Darwin Deez. This super cool New York foursome had everyone dancing and singing along in a happy frenzy. I had a serious style crush going on with the guitarist... retro sweater tucked into high rise jeans and a backward white baseball cap to finish it all off nicely.
In between songs Darwin Deez put on 80's pop and danced, showing off a few moves, they got moves. My fave song: 'Bad Day' for sure. As the beats of ' Radar Detector' kick in the crowd go crazy and jump up on stage to join the band, one cheeky chap even takes over the mike and sings along "you are a radar detector..." Its safe to say I share NME's opinion of this band - Totally fucking awesome.
Next up was Blood Red Shoes at Revenge. Rubbish venue. I could not see a thing and not just because I'm pocket sized. But i could still dance and sing (shout) along to my fave's - 'I wish i was someone better' and 'getting boring by the sea' I love them through and through.
To the Corn Exchange we quickly march to see indie-rock band Surfer Blood. They come from sunny Florida with sounds which remind me of the 60's, my feet are a-tapping. Its feel good indie at its best. Right after Surfer Blood are the Cribs and they are a band I've loved forever, although their new stuff hasn't quite grown on me yet and they played too much of it tonight!
Now its getting late and its time to dance dance dance so off to Audio we go for a set from Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs. They've had some love on NME Radio as well as Annie Mac's Friday night mash up and they didn't disappoint tonight, TEED sound described by NME is playful electro underpinned by seismic bass lines, that will do.
Fenech Soler: Electro-pop/synth-pop/techno pop - whatever, a move on from nu-rave and i liked it very much. I especially loved the glittery tops worn by all, great front man and what can i say they were hot. 'Lies' is tres good, give it a listen.
Time to stumble home after some more dancing and our tummy's are rumbling. We spy food in the form of pizza at Buddies. Best pizza ever... weirdest restaurant ever... people ordering cooked breakfast at 4 in the morning? No surely not. Off we trot to our cute little BnB to eat the pizza and fall sound asleep... what will Friday bring?
On the opening night there was a DJ set by Sophie Ellis Bextor and on the day I visited with Emma, Grazia magazine were hosting for the day and there was a Cocosa sample sale.... My excitement was uncontainable!
Everything about the event was just so enchanting and beautiful, I desired every peice of creative display to be seen. We even had a map of the Townhouse printed on handkerchiefs given to us and tiny keys to exchange for generous glasses Jacques cider at the bar. The event was a great success, with girls traveling from all over the country to visit....
