Wednesday at The Great Escape 2025
Words by Willow Shields, Photographs by Briony Graham-Rudd
It’s the first day of The Great Escape and Brighton’s streets are slowly filling up with the best and brightest of the global music industry. Fresh new bands, stars on the up and seasoned pros begin to take to the stages of Brighton’s beloved venues. Leaving the everyday behind us with the slam of a front door, we step into the searing heat and make our way down to the beach. Photographers Briony Graham-Rudd, Rosie Carne and interviewer extraordinaire Julia Weaver are in tow. And so it begins.
The first band of The Great Escape were heard through the double glazed windows of Bella Union Record Shop. Ladylike took to the mismatched chairs of in-front-of-the-Bella-Union-till with a calm grace only facilitated by a capacity of maybe fifteen bodies, plus some free sandwiches. Next up were Groupie alumni Holiday Ghosts, when we arrived at Patterns they were still ironing out some first day wrinkles. But after going downstairs then upstairs and finally downstairs again, Holiday Ghosts were promptly onto the pitch black stage and opening our official Great Escape experience. Treating us with crowd favourites like Mr. Herandi, which tells a story of their ex-landlord living abroad while their home rotted away. Drummer/ Vocalist Katja Ratkin introduced a genuine sounding question of “who here knows Mr. Herandi?” as if she expected one of the older gentlemen present to raise their hand and shout “ooh I do!” Finishing their set with Off Grid, the enthusiastic man next to me started to dance so viciously he was shaking the monitors next to him, it was great fun.
After parting with Julia and Rosie who were off onto more Westside Cowboy flavoured pastures, Briony and I made the grueling and treacherous journey towards The Great Escape Beach Stages. Wednesday’s hosts of the ‘Soundwaves’ and ‘The Deep End’ stages was Strap Originals, “a label forged with love by Peter Doherty.” Who happens to be putting out records from the following three acts we were about to wrap our ears around. The first of them being Swansea’s Trampolene. “This is the first time we’ve played together in a year,” laughed frontman Jack Jones as the tent gradually continued to fill after their first few minutes of stage time. Their quirky countenance grabbed the audience, even pointing out individuals from the crowd and then remarking on how “polite” this crowd was. “Usually we’d have tomatoes being thrown at us by now,” that finally got a collective giggle. Their emotive, whirring guitar forward-tunes set the tone for the evening of Doherty flavoured fun. Ending on their big hitter ‘Alcohol Kiss’ Jones blew kisses into the crowd and heartfully told the crowd “you’re all beautiful, thank you.” Then drummer, Kyle "Mr" Williams, did a cartwheel.
Warmduscher were next to grace the Strap Originals stage, a sea of sunglasses and in the air, paired with a synth so mighty it cut through every chest cavity present. Having never experienced the power of Warmduscher, I was blown away, starstruck then left with cartoon birds flying around my head. Warmduscher exude the energy of a band that ‘you have to know to get,’. A quick glance at their Wikipedia will give you that impression also. Having apparently formed in London in 2014 and gaining their namesake from the German phrase ‘warm showerer’ aka you’re a little wimp. Frontman Craig Higgins strutted around the beach stage, luring the still-growing crowd to shout along. The tent finally started to sweat a little. Midway through their set Mr. Peter Doherty opened the hidden door in the barrier to join the crowd in worshiping the almighty Warmduscher.
Before Pete Doherty’s set we were told that they were kicking everyone out of the tent before letting everyone back in and this was because “Mr Doherty will be walking through before his set.” Very normal. Once the head of security came down and she decided it was a useless measure, everyone was back on their merry way. The lights finally started to dim after the various line checks of all the guitars, drums and microphones had been done. Suddenly through the dark, Beyond The Sea by Bobby Darin started to blare out of the speakers, and if I wasn't having such a good time I would have thought it was quite scary. The gangway to the stage was then filled with people, Pete's band, and then Peter Doherty himself. Cane in hand, he began to dance around the stage as if he was in ‘Singin 'In The Rain’ and we were nice and cozy in our cinema seats. Breaking from the illusion by a man loudly gurgling his beer next to me. Mr. Doherty began his set and became bathed in flashing lights, sometimes red and sometimes…greyscale? I love lighting science because the whole stage turned black and white for minute seconds during the first few songs of the set and that makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. Having never listened to a Pete Doherty song, aside from The Libertines days, I was coming into the experience really quite blind. My personal highlight of the headliner set was ‘I Don't Love Anyone (But You're Not Just Anyone)’.
Running from one headliner to another, we raced towards Paganini Ballroom at a rate of knots. To catch a glimpse of Lonnie Gunn. As we entered the ballroom - hosted by BBC Introducing - now reunited as the entire Groupie Team, the chandeliers were the first thing I noticed, sparkling within the vastness of the gigantic room. Or was the carpet the first thing? So uniquely comforting underfoot and so very strange for a venue, which normally have dark walls and sticky floors painted with a thousand different liquids you don't want to think about. Lonnie Gunn’s set was monumental, filling the lofty space above our heads with thick, sultry, heavy Rock Music. Hearing her new single ‘EX GF’ was a personal highlight for me. Although the set was fraught with technical issues and all the quirks that come with having an entirely new band, she played it off very well. Leaving the spaces between songs for entertaining stories about beetroots, peeing herself on The Voice and ovaries. Emmiating charm, expertly done.
Much more to come tomorrow and the next day and the next day…
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