The Great Escape

21 May 2017 - Press release

The Great Escape – the festival for new music – brought an historic edition of the festival to a close last night, with some of its biggest and best shows ever and an unrivalled journey through the musical universe cementing its position as the agenda-setting fulcrum of the UK music scene.

After 450 performances, over forty venues, 20,000 festivalgoers and delegates, and a hugely exciting and colourful new partnership with BBC Music there are far too many highlights to mention in one piffling press release, but memories of Slaves riding out apocalyptic weather on the top floor of Horror Hotel, Kano setting his infectious and powerful rhymes against an epic nine-piece band or Rag’N’Bone Man ripping the Brighton Dome to shreds are unlikely to fade any time soon, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The BBC’s residency in Jubilee Square kicked off on Thursday with an onslaught of bombastic brass from the Brass Funkeys and Dat Brass, with the two then combining for a Brass Off which got the whole of Brighton swinging. Other Thursday highlights from the Beeb included live sets from Brighton-based psych-rockers The Magic Gang and punchy yet ethereal electro-pop from Sigrid – one of three show-stopping sets she played at the festival - a surprise visit for Steve Lamacq from Kate Tempest and a fantastic live broadcast of MistaJam’s BBC Radio 1 show.

The first day of the Great Escape Convention featured a packed-out Music Media Conference in which a panel of top music journalists including the BBC’s Mark Savage set the world to rights in discussing the future of music journalism, where defiant optimism was tempered with debate about the morality of brand partnerships and sponsored content, before the panel on the future of music PR ruminated on the evolution of music publicity from all-out promotional attack to pragmatic reputation management.

The Drugs Conference provoked equally lively debate, with the old guard adamant that a hedonistic lifestyle was in music’s DNA, while academics argued that the professionalisation of the music industry has led the new generation of artists to clean up their act. Friday also saw some exclusive insights into Export and Royalties.

Thursday highlights from the length and breadth of the musical spectrum included Marika Hackman’s dreamy indie-folk ballads, Sløtface’s trashy pop-punk (which they then transfigured into ‘Sløtface Karaoke’, where the crowd at Patterns got to sing the band’s versions of such classics as Smash Mouth’s All Star), the first of three hip-hop masterclasses from KillASon, ballsy R’n’B from Songe, Afro-electro-funk from Ibibio Sound Machine and Zeal & Ardor – part of the contingent provided by this year’s international partner, Switzerland – whose inimitable, gospel-influenced sound they describe as ‘slave metal’.

Thursday’s spotlight show saw Slaves cap their unstoppable rise to festival headliner status by taking over Brighton Palace Pier and kitting it out with DJs, free rides, exclusive merch, a hotdog-eating competition and support from Superfood and Cabbage at Horatio’s, before braving the downpour alongside 1,000 other hardy souls to perform a storming first ever gig in the Horror Hotel.

Friday kicked off with a live Lauren Laverne for BBC 6 Music which saw the likes of contemporary-folk wordsmith LA Salami (who had already performed twice but stuck around ‘cos he loves us so much) drop by for exclusive sessions. Edinburgh singer-songwriter Callum Beattie performed a soulful, heartfelt session in Jubilee Square before helping BBC Radio One’s Nesta McGregor with Newsbeat’s Beginner’s Guide to TGE.

Just some of the other great shows on Friday included Baby Queens - who harmonised their way stylishly through rock, pop and soul via hip-hop and R’n’B - soulful and contemporary singer-songwriter Mullally, multi-instrumentalist party animal Youngr, Zack Able - who captured the Coalition crowd’s hearts with his fantastic funk and soul and huge stage presence, The Fedz, who rang in the sunshine with their effortlessly cool reggae-hip-hop grooves, and Perturbator who closed the night at Komedia with a late-night explosion of Gabber-style hardcore techno.

Meanwhile, legendarily prolific gig-goer and augur of many a rise to stardom, Big Jeff ‘the Bristol Yeti’ was spotted in Kojey Radical’s charismatic, charged tour-de-force of blues and hardcore-infused hip-hop at the Queen’s Hotel. Kojey then bolted across town to discuss Streaming in the Modern Age with Soundcloud - the platform on which he first made his name - before opening Soundcloud’s takeover of Volks, an intimate but pulsating show headlined with aplomb by ambient electro duo Mount Kimbie.

Other extracurricular activities and secret shows included Cosima performing a stunning panoramic set at the top of the i360 and a debut outing for Youth of the Apocalypse - a supergroup featuring members of Gorillaz and Klaxons.

The second spotlight show saw Kano & Friends build on TGE’s burgeoning reputation as a champion of the best live Grime performers in the land, with a guitar-wielding Little Simz and Ghetts showing themselves to be future superstars against an awesome laser-show backdrop, before the man himself Kano launched into a stunning show where his effortlessly catchy flow and profound lyrics were given wings by an incredible production featuring full band: guitar, drums, keyboard, tuba, trombone and string quartet (yeah, Grime = Art, deal with it). New Gen at Patterns then kept the Grime party LIT into the small hours.

The final day offered yet more insight into great musical minds, as Tom Robinson & John Grant shared a fascinating in-conversation for BBC Radio 6 Music.

Local charity Audio Active – who seek to improve young people’s lives through music – ran a special session in Jubilee Square which gave some of their young prodigies a chance to lay down some freestyle beats and were joined by a very special guest...only bloody Rag’N’Bone Man who laid down some phat rhymes of his own.

Elsewhere, The Rhythm Method mixed chilled out Brit-Hop melodies with cutting humour and joined several other acts over the course of the festival (notably Slaves) by proving that political spirit is alive and well in contemporary British music and invoking the general election.

Other acts causing a stir included a secret show from hotly-tipped bashment grime maestro Abra Cadabra, Kudu Blue – who spent Wednesday playing an acoustic gig on the pier with Martha Gunn and won many admirers for their distinctive indie-triphop style, funky K-Pop madmen Sultans of the Disco - whose showmanship and glorious sense of fun created a massive party atmosphere, melancholic Scottish songstress Emme Woods, Daniel Wakeford, who shot to fame on Channel 4’s The Undatables and has also been causing a stir with his own brand of spoken word-punk, and Raketkanon and HMLTD, both of whom provided welcome bursts of innovation and aggression to traditional grunge and punk sounds.

The final Spotlight show of the festival saw Ray BLK strut her stuff around Brighton Dome in a brilliant display of R’N’B pizzazz featuring a sizzling cover of Destiny’s Child’s Say My Name, before the man of the hour, a local hero and one of the music world’s next superstars Rag’N’Bone Man returned to The Great Escape with an all-conquering performance that showed off his stunningly powerful vocals and ability to transcend multiple genres in a single bar of music.

The Great Escape Festival Manager Kevin Moore said: “What an amazing three days it’s been; we’ve seen incredible performances of every imaginable genre of music and a staggering range of different spaces and contexts, we’ve launched a thrilling new partnership with the BBC that’s been really well-received, produced some brilliant musical moments and added an extra layer of buzz to the festival, and we’ve put on spotlight shows by two artists who grew up within an hour’s drive of Brighton in Slaves and Rag’N’Bone man, and another from Kano who’s re-shaping his entire genre. It’s been incredible and we’re already planning even bigger and better stuff for next year.”