The Hope
8.00 – 8.30 Tweak Bird http://www.myspace.com/tweakbird
10.00 – 10.30 Chickenhawk http://www.myspace.com/chickenhawk
11.00 – 11.45 Jaguar Love http://www.myspace.com/jaguarloveband

Concorde 2
9.15 – 9.45 Pulled Apart By Horses @ http://www.myspace.com/pulledapartbyhorses

Friday

Life
2.00 – 2.30 Let’s Go To War http://www.myspace.com/letsgotowarmusic

Hector’s House
8.00 – 8.30 Let’s Go To War http://www.myspace.com/letsgotowarmusic

Corn Exchange
9.30 – 10 Sound of Guns http://www.myspace.com/soundofguns

Pavilion Theatre
9.40 – 10.10 Dead Confederate http://www.myspace.com/deadconfederate

Saturday

The Hope
12.00 – 4.00pm Artrocker presents… Double Dagger + more http://www.myspace.com/doubledaggersucks

Queen’s Hotel
9.15 – 9.45 Mother Mother http://www.myspace.com/mothermotherspace

Pavilion Theatre
10.35 – 11.05 Ganglians http://www.myspace.com/ganglian

THE GREAT ESCAPE ADDS EVEN MORE CUTTING EDGE BANDS TO THE BILL

Wild Beasts / Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster / Band Of Skulls / Stornoway / Lonelady / White Rose Movement / Seun Kuti (Brighton Festival Co-Promotion) / Canterbury / The Boy Who Trapped The Sun / Summer Camp / Think About Life / Jim Jones Revue / Codeine Velvet Club / Hook & The Twin / Young Guns / John & Jehn / Lucky Soul / Birds Of Tokyo / Chicken Hawk / Chief / Lauren Pritchard / Kassidy / North Atlantic Oscillation / Bo-Ningen / Larissa McKay / John Smith

www.escapegreat.com

Plus
**EARLY BIRD TICKETS EXPIRE ON MARCH 19TH**

With heavy hitting live acts including Chase & Status, Delphic, Broken Social Scene and Marina & The Diamonds already confirmed for this year’s event, The Great Escape are set to unveil even more amazing additions that will make up part of the more than 300 bands that will play in 30+ venues from May 13th to 15th on the south coast. With a burgeoning reputation for mixing the most exciting new acts with some of the best established bands around, this year’s line up is shaping up to be their finest yet.

Adding their not inconsiderable weight to proceedings, Cumbrian quartet Wild Beats will be travelling to Brighton to showcase their baroque ‘n’ roll stylings underpinned by frontman Hayden Thorpe’s beguiling countertenor vocals. Brighton favourites Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster will be making a storming hometown appearance and there will also be sets from bare bones rockers Band of Skulls, blissful folk from Oxford’s Stornoway, Warp Records’ captivating Lonelady, electro punk from White Rose Movement and visceral riffing from Canterbury.

Other acts confirmed to appear at The Great Escape this year include the folk pop of The Boy Who Trapped The Sun, Chill-wavers Summer Camp, Canadian indie purveyors Think About Life, super-psyche rockers Jim Jones Revue, Fratellis spin-off Codeine Velvet Club, the mesmerizing Hook & The Twin Kerrang! Best New Band winners for 2009 Young Guns and London based French duo John & Jehn. Plus there will be Lucky Soul, Birds Of Tokyo, Chicken Hawk, Chief, Lauren Pritchard, Kassidy, North Atlantic Oscillation, Bo-Ningen, Larissa McKay and John Smith.

Seun Kuti, youngest son of legendary afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti, who now leads the sublime Fela’s Egypt 80 band, will be making a special TGE appearance as part of a co-promotion with Brighton Festival. With such an incredible act playing there will only be limited space for TGE wristband holders at the Corn Exchange so make sure you get down the front early.

With plenty more top drawer artists still to announce for the festival, there are plenty of reasons to make sure you’re at the best TGE so far. Early Bird weekend tickets, that not only get you in to see all the bands but will also get you access to outdoor gigs, afternoon shows, club nights, after parties and much more, are currently on sale from www.escapegreat.com for just £45.00 but time is running out as the Early Bird deal will expire on Friday March 19th so get in there quick.

Words by Anja Pomeroy / Photos by Marcus Maschwitz

This month is Bloctober. Yes that’s the name of Bloc Party’s English tour that has been full on. We went to go watch them in Brighton and once again Bloc Party did not disappoint.

“Let’s drive to Brighton on the weekend”

I’d seen Bloc Party earlier this year so I was full of excitement as I knew what they would deliver but I really hoped that the Brighton show would be as amazing as London’s. This could be hard seeing that the band is from London and has a huge following here but the Brighton Centre soon filled up and around me I saw the mix of people that I saw at the London show. There were a few more different types of people and it really is wonderful Bloc Party has the diverse appeal that it does, they attract all kinds of people from so many different backgrounds, ages and lifestyles.

Some guy in the balcony section who I assume is a big fan started screaming “Bloc Party! Bloc Party!” while the DJ played Dizzee Rascal’s Bonkers. The rest of the crowd soon started clapping and before we knew it the lights went down and Bloc Party burst onto the stage with breathtaking lights. They opened their set with Waiting For The 7.18, which was perfect as the chorus is “Let’s drive to Brighton on the weekend”. During the beginning of the show Kele (the lead singer) was already off the stage and against the barrier. The crowd was now in a frenzy of joy created by the guys. The set included good old favourites in the form of Signs, Hunting for Witches and Modern Love. They also played their one of the new songs One More Chance which is absolutely excellent and makes me so excited to hear the new album.

Matt Tong, the drummer, removed his shirt which managed to get the girls all hot and bothered and so many started shouting for the rest of the band to get their kit off, alas it wasn’t happening and Kele said “It’s so hot in here I feel like I should take my shirt of but then again we are a bloody rock band not JLS”. Bloc Party really know how to get the party started and to keep it going and even though I had a seated ticket I found myself getting up and dancing and singing the words at the top of my voice (and I wasn’t alone). The band really performs so well and Kele has an awe-inspiring voice. The lights and music work so well together and there is no denying that they put on a damn good show.

The second half of four songs included the favourite Flux and they managed to keep everyone up and dancing for the last part of the show. The band left the stage and the crowd started to disperse which was a silly mistake – we always want more from Bloc Party. The band quickly returned to the stage to end the show with She’s Hearing Voices. Kele was amazing as he ended the show by getting over the barrier and joining the standing crowd. Flashes of cameras were non stop as fans were singing the end of this song with their hero. It was a marvelous show.