Disappear Here at the Great Escape
Words by Dan Jude
Arriving at Day two of The Great Escape, the gripes and grumbles are rife. “You can’t get in anywhere”, one chap moans. “All the bands are on at the same time” another chips in. “And it won’t bloody stop raining”, complains a third onlooker, apparently not wanting to feel left out.
And so it is with my queue jump ticket, umbrella and meticulously mapped out timetable that I make my way to Arc, the location of an all-day showcase of Canadian talent. There are, I soon discover, a few things that Canadians do exceptionally well. One: Grow beards. Two: Be extraordinarily polite. Three: Make incredibly good music.
None of the acts exemplify these traits more than Dan Mangan, a hirsute, nicer-than-nice folk-pop wonder who combines Damien Rice-esque goose bump-inducing vocals with charming Bright Eyes influenced melodies. Playing a handful of tracks from recently released EP ‘Robots’, Mangan doesn’t put a foot wrong, and when he closes with the EP’s eponymous track, he sparks a mass singalong of ‘Robots need love too / they want to be loved by you’ as he comes into the crowd to be mobbed by his newly acquired fans. Unfortunately for his compatriots, Dan The Man has set the bar so high that even though Arkells, Hey Rosetta and Ultimate Duo – the other Candian offerings –tick all the right boxes, they can’t quite compete.
After a somewhat inexplicable four hour wait until the next round of live music, I make my way down to see much-hyped Micachu who, with her by-now-trademark air of indifference, belts out tracks from recently released Marmite album Jewellery. The songs are strong, but her performance is weak and she never really grips the crowd, who are more than happy to chat away through the entirety of her set. Despite the gradual introduction of more instruments than you could shake a glockenspiel at, the whole thing feels rather flat, and you can’t help but feel that if she wants to live up to the hype, she’s going to have to up her live game quite a bit.
Onwards I go, to a quaint coffee shop in the winding streets of Brighton’s Kemp Town, just in time to catch Britain’s best kept folk secret, Neil ‘Mojave 3’ Halstead, who ambles onto the stage sporting a tatty red bobble hat and a beard so tremendous that even the most bewhiskered Canadian would be green with envy. From the age of 17, Halstead has gradually accumulated a cult following, playing in critically lauded groups such as Slowdive and, in particular, Mojave 3. Now he’s on his own though, and two solo albums down the line is finally starting to earn a reputation as one of Britain’s greatest songwriters.
Thankfully, he doesn’t disappoint, and his beautifully constructed melodies simultaneously calm and rouse the crowd, sending them into hushed silence followed by rapturous applause. This cycle continues throughout his half-hour set, during which he plays a selection of Mojave 3 classics and more recent solo tracks. While his newer material fails to match the brilliance of earlier songs such as ‘Two Stones In My Pocket’, it’s difficult to fault his performance, and his grainy, heart-on-sleeve vocals and cutesy folk melodies keep the twee coffee-shop crowd mesmerized from start to finish.
From little to large; with weary legs I make my way to The Corn Exchange, one of Brighton’s bigger venues, to see electro-pop scenesters Metronomy, who deliver an explosive (if slightly short) set that has the crowd in euphoric undulation from the first drum beat. Blasting out hits including ‘My Heart Rate Rapid’, ‘On Dancefloors’ and ‘Radio Ladio’, tonight’s show suggests that there is no reason why, in what is being called the year of the synth, 2009 will not be Metronomy’s year.
The final day sees a perplexing dearth of daytime acts, and it’s not until early evening that I’m actually able to feast my eyes on some live music. As a crowd gathers around miniscule venue Audio, there’s a buzz going round that the Levi’s Ones To Watch team have bagged a secret extra-special surprise act who will be making an imminent appearance.
As I blag my way in, there’s all sorts of rumours as to who it may be, (one woman is convinced it’s Noel Gallagher) but after a rather long and expectant wait, I’m not to be disappointed, as a sweaty trilby-clad Pete Doherty, alongside his Babyshambles cohorts, saunters onto an elevated outdoor stage. The unveiling of Pete and the gang as the mystery act is met by conflicting emotions – ecstasy by the baying crowds trying to climb the walls to get closer to their idol, and ambivalence by many of the music press, who were perhaps expecting someone a little less predictable.
They needn’t be disappointed though – and through a stirring six song set that includes ‘Killamangiro’, ‘Fuck Forever’, ‘Beg Steal And Borrow’ as well as a rendition of ‘Oh We Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside’, Doherty reminds us that for all his multifarious faults he is still, underneath it all, in a league of his own as a songwriter, performer and entertainer.
Sweaty and beer-soaked, I amble down to the sea front to the tiny Volks club, to see the bewilderingly superb Voluntary Butler Scheme who, despite only attracting a crowd of about 30 people, turn out to be my surprise hit of the weekend. The VBS, if you don’t already know them, consists of: Vocals: Rob Jones. Lead guitar: Rob Jones. Rhythm guitar: Rob Jones. Keyboard: Rob Jones. Harmonica: Rob Jones. Maracas: Rob Jones. Kazoo: Rob Jones. Accordian…
Yes, that’s right, The VBS is actually just one man: Rob Jones. He did have a band to help him out, but after apparently realising that he could manage it all on his own, he decided to go solo. Using a multitude of loops and various effects pedals, he produces rich harmonies and choruses that, were you to shut your eyes for a moment, sound astonishingly like a 10-piece band.
What’s more, he’s got the personality to match, and his cheeky, droll sense of humour comes across in lyrics that are as poetic as they are mundane. “This is a song about fruit” he warns, before singing the catchy refrain ‘Banananananan-banananananana’, then going on to extol the virtues of fruit. Clearly a nutrition-freak, veg also gets a mention, as he sings how ‘If you were a broccoli / I’d turn vegetarian for you’. Although his voice is a little weak, his talent is strong, and with a bit of work and perhaps an extra pair of hands to help out, there’s nothing to say Jones can’t turn himself into a national treasure. Watch this space.
As soon as he finishes, I quickly make my way to the final gig of the festival – Oregon’s garage-rock revivalists Hockey. Having been informed by everyone and anyone that their live shows are not to be missed, I’m ready for something special, and boy do they deliver. Channelling the raw post-punk brilliance of Strokes circa ‘Is This It?’, they manage to throw in deep synths, dance-beats and even a hint of glam-rock magic to create a sound that is sure to sweep across the world when album ‘Mind Chaos’ is released later this year. Closing with first single ‘Too Fake’, the crowd erupts and, whisper it softly, but the feeling here is that we’ve just witnessed the next big thing.
Battered and bruised, I wonder home, delirious from the weekend’s entertainment. People say that music is dead, that everything on the radio sounds the same, that nothing means anything any more. But based on what I’ve witnessed over the past 48 hours, I just say they’re not looking hard enough.
Posted Wed, May 20, 2009