THE great escape festival

Things started off strongly on Thursday with THE LATE GREATS’ at the Water Margin, playing a blend of pop infused - occasionally Pavement touched - guitar pop. By the end of the afternoon the basement room was near over spilling, with people waiting to see OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT. They didn’t disappoint and rolled out a set of concise mid-nineties style guitar pop, such as ‘The girl from the BBC ’. With the evening now in view, IDA MARIA kicked off the main event off at Audio - though if anything her songs appeared to be a little lack lustre tonight. If there was an award for the Artist people most wanted to see, there is no doubt the winner would be THE TING TINGS. At one point rumour had it they had 2000 people queing outside the Barfly to see them. You have to question people’s logic though; The Ting Tings performance was more lifeless then a dead jellyfish washed up on the Brighton beach. Using the same formula time after time only added to the fact that the band a) frequently drift away from their pre recorded backing tracks and b) only have two good songs. If this was the criteria for a great band, people would still be singing the praises of Aqua and maybe even The Venga Boys. Friday, not surprisingly, had even more bands playing than the previous day. HOT CLUB DE PARIS did what they do best in a tiny pub on the end of the pier, which was a little odd. They fired out a range of old favourites such as ‘Welcome to The Hop’ with a few new songs that didn’t stray too far from their regular formula. BLACK LIPS were drunkenly shambolic - and not in a good way either. Being a little rough around the edges is fine, even a little charming. But trying to ape The Jesus & Mary Chain and The Stooges while struggling to play your instruments is not. Two things they do succeed at are posing, and getting people to retreat. Saturday the final day. MATHS CLASS livened up the afternoon playing an action packed set of synth driven tunes to a heady audience. CHEEKY CHEEKY & THE NOSEBLEEDS sound far too much like those bands we’ve already had time after time after time again. To say they owe a small debt to The Libertines wouldn’t surprise anyone. TIMES NEW VIKING on the other hand were great, even if they did come across as a mix between Yo La Tengo and Pavement. XX TEENS were the perfect band to leave the festival on, headlining back at the Water Margin. Efortlessly cool, the new songs they aired were a return to form and just as strong as ‘Darlin’ and ‘My Favourite Hat’. No doubt some people will already be looking forward to next year’s event - we sure are. FOR MORE ON THE GREAT ESCAPE CHECK OUT NEXT MONTH’S ARTROCKER MAGAZINE!