Special Events

Great Escape 2018

Europe’s leading festival for new music! Details on where our acts are performing this year.

Wednesday May 16th

The Beach

Thursday May 17th

The Prince Albert

Green Door Store

Beach House

Hope & Ruin

Patterns

The Little Marlborough Theatre

East Street Tap

World's End

Dr Martens Beach Stage

Latest Music Bar

Friday May 18th

One Church

Volks Bar

BBC Introducing

Queens Hotel

The Hub

The Mesmerist

Patterns

Shortt's Bar

Hotel Pelirocco

Ama UK

Horatio's Bar

  • 77:78 | Heavenly Showcase 13:45

Komedia

Green Door Store

Saturday May 19th

The Arch

The Boyces Street Stage

Sticky Mikes

The Black Lion

Dr Martens Beach Stage


77:78

What’s the best thing about listening to records? There are a million and one answers to that in fairness, but of all the things that keep drawing you back in, that first got you hooked, it’s got to be the pure and simple joy of it. That feeling you get when a favourite tune comes crackling into life. The smile that melts across your face when the groove kicks in and the chorus tumbles out of the speakers. That love at first sight moment when someone digs out a tune they think you might be into. The knowledge that whatever’s going on outside, in here it’s going to be alright.

Shows

  • Friday 18/05/2018  13:45 Horatio's Bar Heavenly Showcase
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Alicaì Harley

Alicaì Harley birth name (Leslieann Alicia Harley) was born in Kingston, Jamaica where she developed an organic passion for music. She traveled to London at the age of 5 where she went to primary school and followed the rest of her education. In 2008 after losing her father she put out her first ever studio-recorded track titled ‘Daddy's gone’, this was then followed by many others.

Shows

  • Friday 18/05/2018  21:30 BBC Introducing
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Annabel Allum

Loaded with pulsating hooks and enigmatic tenacious vocals, Annabel Allum oozes charisma and showcases an adept ability to marry folk-style storytelling with snarling fuzzy indie. The Guildford-based singer-songwriter has been backed across tastemaker platforms as one of the most vitally sarcastic voices in the indie scene, with praise coming from key press voices in FADER, DIY and The Line of Best Fit as well as on the airwaves. ‘Beat the Birds’, taken from 2018’s ‘Sorry I’m Not Perceptible’ EP, found its place on the Radio 1 BBC Introducing Playlist and she earned herself a spot on the lineup of BBC Music’s The Biggest Weekend in Swansea. Huw Stephens is a vocal supporter of Annabel’s music and premiered her latest single ‘Fear Naught’ ahead of her Maida Vale live session.

Shows

  • Friday 18/05/2018  15:15 The Hub
  • Saturday 19/05/2018  15:30 Sticky Mikes
  • Saturday 19/05/2018  17:00 The Boyces Street Stage
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Boniface

Micah Visser named his band after the Winnipeg neighbourhood where he grew up, where he spent his childhood learning violin and saxophone, guitar, piano, computer programming, until he could no longer remember when he stopped playing other people’s songs and began writing his own.

Shows

  • Friday 18/05/2018  12:45 Green Door Store
  • Friday 18/05/2018  19:15 Patterns upstairs
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Bruno Major

One of the many endearing things about Bruno Major is that he doesn’t seem to have any idea – really, not a single clue – what a powerful and emotionally searing singer he is. Ask Bruno about his guitar-playing and, sheepish grin out of the way, he’ll wax lyrical about an instrument he first picked up at the age of seven, and which has seen him through good times and bad, triumphs and false starts, ever since. It comes as no surprise whatsoever to learn that Bruno studied and mastered jazz guitar (studies that saw him earning a living as a session guitarist from the young age of 16). The “extra chord” that is such a hallmark of the jazz greats – and eludes so many guitarists unversed in the musical language of the genre – is a constant in Bruno’s writing, and a quality that sets him far apart from that endless stable of like-minded peers.

Shows

  • Thursday 17/05/2018  22:00 Beach House
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Boy Azooga

"Boy Azooga is the project of Cardiff Born Davey Newington, whilst playing drums in Charlotte Church’ Pop Dungeon under the pseudonym “Bongo Fury” and other Cardiff bands such as Keys and Monico Blonde, Davey began writing his own music and recording it round his mate Dr Ed Boogie’s house.

Shows

  • Thursday 17/05/2018  12:00 Latest Music Bar
  • Thursday 17/05/2018  14:00 Dr Martens Beach Stage
  • Thursday 17/05/2018  21:15 Patterns Fender Stage
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Draper

If the previous decade was the age of the pop star, then we must now be in the age of producer. No one better exemplifies this than rising star Draper, who proves that producing is a true art form in its own right; with intelligent song writing and vibrant production, he is ready to take the music world by storm.

Shows

  • Friday 18/05/2018  20:00 The Hub
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FOREVER CULT

FOREVER CULT are a Leeds based fuzzed-up grunge poppers

Shows

  • Thursday 17/05/2018  18:30 World's End Tigmus Escape
  • Thursday 17/05/2018  23:30 The Prince Albert ITB Showcase
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The Frights

The Frights started out as a prank, a joke band that was meant to play one 30-minute set and disappear, but the gag worked well enough that the trio members became a "real" band almost in spite of themselves.

Shows

  • Thursday 17/05/2018  23:15 Green Door Store
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JoyCut

JOYCUT is a creative music outpost formed in Bologna_


Shows

  • Friday 18/05/2018  20:30 Queens Hotel Aim House
  • Saturday 19/05/2018  19:00 The Arch
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Jordan Mackampa

The Coventry raised, London based singer is the perfect combination of his Congolese roots and midlands upbringing. His soul soaked, deeply personal tracks swim in the sounds and stories of the cities he’s inhabited over the years. Inspired by his mother’s love of the great soul singers, Marvin Gaye, Bill Withers and Curtis Mayfield, Jordan combines his timeless vocal with catchy melodies and heart felt lyrics to create a soulful sound which will enchant and uplift in equal measure.

Shows

  • Thursday 17/05/2018  22:30 The Prince Albert ITB Showcase
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Lily Moore

Some artists seem to come into the world fully formed, emerging seemingly out of thin air with a raw talent that can’t help but grab your attention. Lily Moore is one such artist. The 19-year-old singer/songwriter has come a long way from her beginnings busking on the streets of Brighton to supporting Tom Grennan on his 2017 tour.

Shows

  • Thursday 17/05/2018  21:30 The Prince Albert ITB Showcase
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Love Ssega

Love Ssega ‘Minds EP’ released via Hometown/Sony

Shows

  • Thursday 17/05/2018  21:45 Hope & Ruin
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Lydmor

The Danish girl with the bruised knees jumping down from stage swinging the chord of the microphone like a whip while she sings as much of sex and drugs as emotions and far away places. At times it can seem like the Danish singer Lydmor is everywhere at once. One moment she is standing on the top of a bar in a venue in Sao Paolo singing her heart out while the beat is pumping over her sweaty dancing audience.

Shows

  • Thursday 17/05/2018  19:00 The Little Marlborough Theatre
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The Saxophones

“The most important factor when choosing bandmates is love,” says the Saxophones’ Alexi Erenkov. “Do you love the people you’re playing with? If so, everyone is going to be feeling relaxed and confident.” This approach is a useful one to have when your wife, Alison Alderdice, is in your band.

Shows

  • Friday 18/05/2018  22:30 One Church
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Robert Vincent

Robert Vincent is an award-winning singer/songwriter from Liverpool - having received the inaugural Emerging Artist Award from “Whispering” Bob Harris in 2016 and UK Americana Music Association’s UK Album of The Year in 2018.

Shows

  • Friday 18/05/2018  16:05 Ama UK
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Orchards

Combining left field experimentation with pop sensibilities Orchards are following in the footsteps of bands such as Everything Everything and Foals. Orchards have appeared at festivals such as Handmade, TRUCK, YNOT and Alternative Escape they have also performed as part of the global music series Sofar Sounds. As well as being featured on playlists curated by Spotify & Buzzfeed. Orchards have been played on Local and National radio shows. Including, BBC Introducing, Juice Radio and BBC Radio 6.

Shows

  • Thursday 17/05/2018  15:15 Hope & Ruin BIMM Showcase
  • Friday 18/05/2018  19:30 The Mesmerist Alt Escape Showcase
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Paceshifters

“Resurrecting the Alternative Rock of the 90s”

Shows

  • Friday 18/05/2018  13:45 Komedia Dutch Impact Party
  • Friday 18/05/2018  22:00 Volks Bar
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Pat Dam Smyth

PAT DAM SMYTH’S 2016 saw him scorch through packed out sets at Reeperbahn Festival, The Great Escape and several London showcases including a sell-out in The Roundhouse’s Sackler Theatre for the MVT #Fightback benefit, as well as a thunderous Lexington show at the start of the year.

Shows

  • Thursday 17/05/2018  21:15 The Little Marlborough Theatre
  • Friday 18/05/2018  18:45 Shortt's Bar
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Sonia Stein

Pop-songstress Sonia Stein was born in Berlin, but her crisscrossing of the globe started early, as she went on to spend thirteen years in Poland, before moving to New York where she studied at Boston Berklee College Of Music before leaving after a chance meeting with a producer. It was here her musical education really began; as studying music was eclipsed by actually making music.

Shows

  • Friday 18/05/2018  17:00 Hotel Pelirocco Alt Escape
  • Saturday 19/05/2018  13:20 The Black Lion
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Swimming Girls

Formed in Bath in their late teens Swimming Girls have been perfecting their early 80’s pop / Cure influenced sound for the last few months. Selling out venues in both Bath and Bristol the blonde haired 4 piece are ready to swim uptide and to smother you with their shimmering melodies, hooks and beauty.

Shows

  • Thursday 17/05/2018  19:30 The Prince Albert ITB Showcase


Teischa

Hailing from one of the world’s most isolated cities, twenty year-old West Australian Teischa is commanding attention with her gripping songwriting, natural gift for instrumentation and powerfully rich vocal. Combining her love of modern alternative pop, classical and soul music, Teischa delivers a full debut EP that offers up a silky, contemporary spin on classical technique, with each song as understated and charming as she is.

Shows

  • Thursday 17/05/2018  20:30 The Prince Albert ITB Showcase
  • Saturday 19/05/2018  12:00 Dr Martens Beach Stage
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Haunt The Woods

Blending sounds from alternative, prog, folk and pop and channelling influences from the likes of Pink Floyd, Muse, Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver, Haunt The Woods have crafted a distinctive sound, glistening with ambient swells and underpinned by expressive rhythms and masterly songwriting.

Shows

  • Thursday 17/05/2018  19:00 East Street Tap
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The Xcerts

Most often, albums are about what has happened, not what hasn't. Yet while the songs on 'There Is Only You', the third album from UK based trio The Xcerts, are very much rooted in personal his-tory and experience, they also double up as a premonition, a reaction to something that hadn't happened at the time the songs were written.

Shows

  • Wednesday 16/05/2018  22:00 The Beach Opening Party
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