So with bands galore all playing at different venues across fair Brighton, an impossibly difficult task of fitting them all in – and plenty of people to chat, negotiate and drink with – Great Escape was always going to be a tough experience… And it wasn’t made any easier with the inordinate amount of booze supplied by The Australian Tourist Board (thanks), Red Stripe (thanks more so) and Mr Pimms (I love you), all of whom contributed to quite the most enjoyable Friday eve I’ve had in a long time.
Starting off with a quick chat and passes from the irrepressibly ace Sam Isaac (or Sam Isaacs if the programme was to be believed) – the Alcopop (or Alchopop if the programme was to be believed – are you spotting a theme here?) boys (AKA Kev and I) hooked up with some charming industry types in the *FREE* hotel bar. Bliss! Smashing back the booze till it was all done, we then managed to take in a few bands between downing shots of Pimms in a boat, inadvertently fighting with the sea in a vague attempt to skim stones in it (I lost) and eventually being thrown out of some god-awful Brighton club for ‘spinning on a chair’.
Yup! Spinning on a chair! If you put spinny chairs in a club, surely people are bound to spin on them?? Still, one of the bouncers was quite pleasant, offering to go stone skimming at 4 if I stuck around – I politely declined his offer though – incensed that in an otherwise well-mannered war of words, another door-devil had called my hair greasy… Que? Shiny and lustrous surely?
As for the bands themselves, probably my pick of the night was Sam Isaac and This City, both of whom played storming sets – although rumours of lots of other inspirational gigs sparking off about town (of which Tellison were widely mooted as delivering) only made me wish that the shows had gone on all day, so there weren’t quite so may clashes.
Overall though – a great festival experience, and even the crappy, overly salted rubbish served up in a seafront American diner (called something like JB’s I think) the next morning couldn’t spoil it. Oh and lots of thanks to Paul Steel and The XCERTS who let us stay in their house… Very kind, and I’m sorry if my sea-splashed trainers left any salty residue (that sounds really unpleasant doesn’t it)….
I’m feeling v. festivally though now – net stop, Boring by the Sea!
