Great Escape 2009 - Day3 - It's Too Late, Too Late, Too Late, Too Late...

Saturday began late as the Tales team woke up mid-afternoon and very slowly got going. And what started off quite badly turned into the best festival day yet.
Got a text informing of a 'secret' Babyshambles show, so went down to the Levi's store to get tickets. Sold Out. So went over to the Queens Hotel for free beers and sushi. Finished. So far, so shite.
But, turned out we would be able to see Babyshambles from the street as their show wa outdoors. So we went over and after an hour wait witnessed an awesome (but short) set from Pete Doherty and his crew.
While waiting we were treated to seeing a waster get chucked out the side door of Above Audio, obviously fucked on a cocktail of drugs. But, this wasn't the worlds most famous crack addict - Pete was on good behaviour - but a random hanger on who drifted off soon enough. Oh dear. What would his mother think?
Here's a video of the band playing their Killamanjiro hit:

And, a photo of Pete doing his job. The gig was very entertaining and sounded great. It was fun watching buses driving by full of old people peering out trying to work out what was going on, and all the people leaning out of windows, balconys and bars to watch the band.

Stopped off at HQ for a bite and to get some warm clothes as the clouds were rolling in. Then we went by Hector's House, saw The Gay Blades and drank a few Carlings.Couldn't decide if they were any good or not. But they were interesting to watch and SkyHigh gave the lead singer a few classic heckles from a couple of rows back.

Then we went into town to Audio and bumped into Simone who had got himself into a bit of trouble after pretending to be Sky Larkin and losing far too many drinking games. We were like guiding angles and saved him from a gang of police who were planning on putting him in a cell for the night. Unfortunately, he had lost his drivers license the night before and now his wristband was gone: his weekend was over. We said farewell, hoped for the best and stepped into Audio to catch the end of a set from Hockey.
After the show we downed a few absinths and went to Coalition. The festival was winding down but Coalition had gigs till 2am. First off was Tucker - another Japanese. He was rubbish, but he set his keyboard on fire which was preety awesome!Next was a band called Heartbreak.They sung songs about doner meat and meal deals but we'd had a few more absinths by then to care much about anything.
To finish the festival was a biggy: Mr Hudson (no library). I wanted to see him due to the attention he got at last years Glastonbury from Jay-Z and because he signed to Kanye West's record label and has a single featuring him. No sign of Kanye sadly but I was happy to have G.O.O.D music in the building!He played a great set and then came back for more. I predict big things for this man.
After the show we went back stage to chat to the guy. He was cool and SkyHigh snatched a cheeky photo:
With the festival ended we grabbed some beers and went boating, then slowly made our way home, drunk and happy. We had become giants in Brighton and found time for a spot of late night gardening.

The Great Escape festival was mighty fun. We saw some amazing new music, partied hard and gave our livers a good work out. Can't wait for next year!

Great Escape 2009 - Day1 - Lying in My Bed Looking at the Clouds

Last night was the first night of Brighton's Great Escape festival - tipped as UKs version of SXSW. And, it started well and turned into some real carnage! Below is my account (prepare for quite a lengthy post) of day 1:

In the beginning we went up to catch Nulifer at the Freebutt but got distracted my cheap beer on the way and missed the show. So we caught the end of a set by a band called Calories at Hector's House. The phrase volume over talent came to my head. But, they weren't bad it was just too early for this level of noise and anger so we slipped to the back for more booze. When this show finished we wandered over to Ocean Rooms because there was 2 bands playing: I Was A King (slit your wrists music) and Hoodlums:

I thought they were alright until they announced a song called "The Sadness of My Manhood". We quickly left.

While we were there, I snapped a photo of this sign which I really liked:

Escaping outside we discovered it was raining. Not good for standing in queues. Bit of a mission (via. Burger King - £1.99 for a cheeseburger, fries and coke!!) to Horatio's on the end of the pier to see Race Horses. And we grabbed ourselves a bargain jug of Kronenberg to make the Welsh indie music sound better!

Race Horses. Not a bad sound but the crowd were rubbish- I hate indie posers and shoe gazers - Simone lightened things up though with some stumbles and comedy glasses.

I think Sanj Sanj enjoyed the beer more than anything else.
The show finished so we left for Komedia. And the rain had stopped! We were happy so we tooke some happy photos!

Got to Komedia and saw the Speed Bumps (read: Rumble Strips). They were awesome and the crowd were really loving it- bit of crowd surfing, small mosh pit and a one man stage invasion. This was the indie sweat I'd been waiting for!

We had an awesome time and came out soaked and smiling. Some of the crowd worried us a little however, seemed they had gotten a little carried away:

Then we went to Coalition to catch the human beatbox Killa Kela. He was entertaining but since I'd last seen him he has changed. Seem's he's discovered cake, butt plugs and Take That 'cause he looked and acted like a fatter gayer version of Robbie Williams.

Still, he's got skills.
Waiting for the next act I got chatting to 88kidz member and realised I can't speak Japanese anymore. He told me that he liked England but the food was shit and the weather was cloudy. Probably gonna try and catch his band when they play tonight.

So gigs turned inot clubs and clubs turned into chips and chips turned into stumbling back up the hill to the tales HQ.
And we saw two snails fucking!