Electric Soft Parade hit the Great Escape

Homegrown talent take over

20 May 06 - It was the turn of home-grown talent Electric Soft Parade to take over at the Great Escape festival last night.

Brighton played host to more than 180 bands over the three-day event including The Kooks, Martha Wainwright, British Sea Power and Richard Hawley and it's all set to wrap up tonight at the 17 venues across town.

Speaking to 6 Music after ESP's packed gig at the Freebutt, frontman Tom told us what he made of the new event on his home turf.

He said: "The only worry for me is that either you're out of your face or the audience is too industry heavy and I've come to realise that it's not really that kind of thing. The Great Escape has kind of borrowed the South By South West format in a way, but it's basically just for punters and the craic of it and the bands." 

However, the guest lists at the industry showcase event do read like a Who's Who of the music business, as record chiefs attend to check out up and coming music. Tom explained that the sheer volume of fresh bands is what keeps groups on their toes.

He explained: "I got excited when I was watching Misty's Big Adventure 'cos I'd seen British Sea Power last night and it dawned on me there is actually all these gigs going on all evening for three days and everyone knows about it and it's kind of like where you choose to go. You can't help but feel like you wanna go to an exciting show you might be missing this or missing that and I think that's what eggs the bands on to make their bit a bit special."

"We like to play places like this where you can have some kind of reaction"
Ryan, The Cribs

The Cribs headlined the Beach venue on Friday (18 May) and Ryan Jarman from the band told 6 music after being on tour ,it was a bit of a reality check playing a small club:

He explained: "We're a punk band. We like to play places like this where you can at least have some kind of like reaction with the crowd. I think after doing seven weeks of music, it really reminds you of why you liked being in a band in the first place."

Friday also saw headline sets from the likes of The Spinto Band, 65 Days of Static, The Bees and Vincent Vincent and The Villains.

Aussie four piece and 6 Music favourites The Howling Bells played the Zap Club, and singer Juanita Stein told us they were really looking forward to getting back by the sea because they missed their home town of Sydney:

She said: "You're gonna get a bunch of happy kids! I think we're gonna try and go swimming for the first time in like a year and a half and we're dying to play. There's some really good bands playing and we're gonna spend the whole day band hopping with a lot of good energy and love."



Jo Youle