The Great Escape 2024 - A peerless celebration of new music

This year’s festival ran into trouble before a single chord was strummed with the announcement that more than 100 acts decided to boycott in protest against Barclays Bank, one of the event’s sponsors, and the organisation’s ties to companies that supply arms to Israel.

Some of the bands played unofficial shows in the city, and the BBC reported that one act Big Special, performed within the official festival line-up but said it would donate its fee to the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund.

For the gig-goers it appeared not to have made a big dent in the programme, save for perhaps fewer late-night gigs and a slightly longer than usual gap between the afternoon and evening shows.

As a long-time Great Escaper, I found the 2024 variant featured much of what I’d enjoyed in previous years – new music, and lots of it.

The concept remains the same, hundreds (literally, 450 acts this year) of acts doing their thing at 30-odd venues all over Brighton, and to a lesser extent Hove.

It's a music industry showcase similar to South by South West in Austin, Texas, and attracts music labels from all over the world.

The event has grown since its inception in 2006 and is a far more diverse affair with far fewer male white guitar bands.

It’s a three-day festival (from Thursday to Friday) but increasingly there are a few shows on the Wednesday, as the performers and music industry types begin to make their presence felt in the city.

Baba Ali played one of these early shows at the outdoor Jubilee Square stage and their sparky brand of electro-disco was a good start to proceedings, and included the first of a surprisingly high number of charismatic lead singers.

Day one proper began for us at the One Church on Gloucester Place, a favourite bright and airy Great Escape venue which this year was hosting Welsh performers.

Aleighacia Scott is a Cardiff girl who sings sweet sweet reggae songs with soul.

She sang about her Grandparents journey from Jamaica to Wales and encouraged dancing and good vibes for the midday crowd.

Similarly, Canadian rapper Haviah Mighty began a bustling set Upstairs at Patterns by telling the crowd – “Let's bounce!”

And bounce they did to the rapid rhymes and insistent beats, and highlight of the impressive Ontarian set was the very personal In Women Colour which detailed her triumphant progression after she was told she was “too black” and “too loud.

On that day Patterns was home to (mostly) Montreal performers upstairs and New Zealanders downstairs for a double showcase entitled What’s 14,000 Kilometres Between Friends?

French speaking (and singing) Choses Sauvages, kept up the bouncy groove with a heavily layered electronic slice of smooth 80’s-inspired new wave and disco.

Félix Bélisle was very much a mic-abusing, hyperactive, crowd-wandering frontman and declared we were going to have an ‘afternoon disco party together’.

Tom Lark (the stage name for Kiwi producer and artist Shannon Fowler) was far less theatrical but very engaging, with a Evan Dando-esque vocal style and, like so many TGE performers, oozing with easy talent.

The noise levels were ratcheted up for Earth Tongue, a psych-rock duo from Wellington, whose riff-heavy guitar and drum workouts worked well in the gloomy depths of Patterns basement nightclub

A definite improvement to this year’s TGE was the number of alternative/guerrilla performances which took place around Brighton.

The city was already busy from the Brighton Festival and Fringe, but increasingly more venues host live performers on the back of TGE.

These additional shows are ideal when you can’t get into a TGE show or during the aforementioned lull between the daytime and evening show.

Songwriter and former Suede founder member Bernard Butler appeared at one such show at an absolutely rammed Black Lion, and showed he’s still fighting the good fight with some ace new material to boot.

Back to festival-proper, day one ended with three superb but very different acts which ably demonstrated the range of music at TGE.

We followed the cool and posturing Aussie rock and roll of Full Flower Moon Band (with immensely watchable frontwoman Babyshakes Dillon) at the Hope and Ruin, with the hypnotic post-rock sound blizzard of South Korea’s Jaminai, wielding some very interesting looking trad instruments among the usual electrics.

Our busiest day closed in flamboyant style with the lovely Vanity Fairy, a charming Dietrich-Disco diva whose Silver Screen styling provided a suitable image for soaring smooth vocals and bouncy vintage electronica.

Day two saw a return to the One Church for some more Welsh sounds at Showcase Cymru.

N’famady Kouyaté, Cardiff via Guinea, provided some beguiling rhythms on the balafon (a traditional wooden xylophone) and guitar sounds with a distinct Tuareg desert blues vibe

Cardiff’s Slate are purveyors of epic wide-screen post-punk, who attracted a bevy of photographers, presumably word had gotten out about the few-more intense stage presence of the band's striking young frontman Jake Shephard.

Welsh-singing Pys Melyn (translated as Yellow Peas) hail from North Wales, and provided a slightly off-kilter slow-burn contrast to Slate, and at its best they were in the same chateau as Stones at their loosest in 1970s tax-exiled France.

French singer and producer Halo Maud was fresh from vocals on the last Chemical Brother’s long-player, and played some nice pop-infused tunes in the darkness and dry ice of Charles Street Tap, with elements of a Sugarcubes rolling rhythm, shuffling Afro-beats drumming, and Cocteau Twins basslines.

At the same venue Loverman provided another festival highlight with a singular stirring set.

Anglo-Belgian singer, and artist James de Graef has created an alter-ego with the vocal stylings of Cave and Cohen, combined with energetic, verging on acrobatic moves.

The lithe and muscular musician strummed ferociously on a small acoustic between leaping on and off the stage, and crouching precariously on the tall PA stack like an inspired gene-splicing of Lou Reed and Wayne Sleep.

A wonderful charismatic turn which deserves a bigger stage (literally and figuratively).

Horatio’s proved a bridge/pier too far for us and many other TGE-goers on Friday evening as we couldn’t even make it past the gates of the Palace Pier. The venue was at capacity, and a larger number were already queuing on the pier, presumably backed up to racing dolphins.

Instead the Paganini Bar (an all too rarely used hall within the Ship Hotel) was a comfortable, carpeted last venue of the day and the temporary home of the Asian Network radio station.

British Bengali producer and rapper Surya Sen was back on stage after a long break, and although a little under-rehearsed at times, was blistering when he did hit his straps, and, as predicted by the Asian Network presenter, found the sweet spot between rap and drum n bass.

Day three of fun and music (which I think is about the sensible cut-off point for fun and music) began for us with some more of those groovy Canadians.

Our first festival visit to a packed Green Door (where you’ll often find Canadians at TGE) saw Hotel Mira, a second slice of Haviah Mighty and Witch Prophet.

Hotel Mira from Vancouver and Los Angeles had some nice moments in a popular set of lively pop, and had the advantage of a quietly theatrical and impossibly handsome frontman in Charlie Kerr.

Haviah Mighty was making the most of her third show of the festival and spoke positively about both the venue and The Great Escape, while the spectacularly attired Witch Prophet’s rich soul voice was reminiscent of Lauryn Hill, and was spurred on by beats, loops and soundscapes from her DJ Sun Sun.

Singer-songwriter Eaves Wilder seemed nervous ahead of a show with her band at the Prince Albert but explained: “There aren't many brain cells on this stage, we’ve just got back from Amsterdam.”

But the young brain-drained group turned in a darn good set. Nailing the fuzzy indie-pop sound and sounding as bright as peak Breeders.

The Haribo sweet-chomping Wilder gave indications of a bright future, with The Man who was Lonely (partly stolen from her favourite Paul McCartney song apparently) and Are you Diagnosed? – A angry but nicely delivered attack on the badly funded mental health services she experienced as a teen.

Helsinki Lambda Club from Japan, ripped up a rammo-kerblammoed Jubilee Square stage (so rammo-kerblammed, we couldn’t get a photo) with squealing surf guitar and plenty of noise. There was a questionable excursion into pop-funk but all was forgiven with Suzi Quatro-style footstomping set-closer.

Given the globe-trotting feel of the festival it was a surprise to end the festival with Brighton band Nature TV.

Their clear jangly style has been likened to Yacht Rock (I suppose there are a few at the Marina), but performing as a three-piece, at the Unitarian Church, without a drummer, the set had an understandably different feel to their recorded output.

Instead the songs achieved a pleasant intimacy and the two guitarists gently picked out some lovely melodies on their Telecasters.

After three days and thousands upon thousands of steps around town, every festival goer should have plenty of new material to seek out and performers to follow.