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The Great Escape, Day Two - Friday 15th May 2009.
Big Seagulls, torrential rain and a festival highlight.

After the worst car journey to Brighton I have ever experienced, I felt lucky to be alive after travelling in torrential rain, what better way to celebrate my continual living by having a FREE can of Red Stripe, or two....or three? But before the drinking malarkey, we had important mINtSOUTH business to attend to.

Myself and Rob were running extremely late due to the terrible weather on the journey up, but once parked on Brighton’s lovely but very windy seafront we ran, yes ran, to The Pavilion Theatre to interview a very tired Orlando Weeks, front man of The Maccabees. (please see Orlando weeks Interview)

After a very quick but entertaining ten minutes later The mINtSOUTH team headed back to The Thistle Hotel for, wait for it......  Some Red Stripe, and of course some more amazing nibbles. I began to feel very lucky and privileged to be apart of a great team and to be sitting, eating and drinking amongst some quite influential people, It made me smile.

I headed to Coalition early as I knew The Great Escape masses would want to head there to see The Charlatans. It was busy, very busy.

Immersed in various camera crews to promote 'The Road To V' I was relatively pleased with myself to find a fantastic spot in the middle of the venue on a ledge so even my 5'1 little self could see the stage perfectly. First act that I saw was Paul Dixon, a guy who is showing great talent on the music scene. Again I had not heard his music before and I'm really happy that I've now seen him live. His name was written down and underlined twice as a 'To myspace' note to myself.

This was Paul’s first time in Brighton and he pointed out that this seaside resort had 'Seriously Big Seagulls' and I completely agree, earlier that day a Seagull went for my face, literally flew into my face and it was HUGE. I kid not, Rob was my witness.

Check out 'Constellation' Its a great song and was the highlight of the set for me.
http://www.myspace.com/iampauldixon

I decided to take a short break and get some air before the next act was to perform, I found myself sat briefly with The Charlatans. Not really sure how it happened, but they all seemed like relatively nice guys and I noted that front man Tim Burgess has an amazing smile.

Anyhow, after managing to successfully butter up a random woman to look after my spot while I mingled with The Charlatans, I returned to my well guarded area (thank you random woman) and watched as Bleech came onto the stage. Bleech are a three piece band, fronted by two gorgeous girls with guitars. My Editor will also concur on this point as when I checked his pictures afterwards it seems that 90% of them taken that evening were of Bleech.

Their music reminded me of a modern day Garbage, they oozed confidence and maybe even came across a little arrogant, however to give them their due, they produced some great punk rock songs and the audience seemed to really enjoy them too.
http://www.myspace.com/bleech

After what felt like a life time of waiting, The Charlatans came on stage and the crowd went mental, I was so pleased that I had my lovely little spot or without a doubt I would of been lost amongst the drunken men going crazy for some Charlatans classics.

Front man Tim Burgess made so much effort with the whole audience, his eyes seemed to gaze amongst every individual crowd member and he seemed really interested in how they were reacting to the songs preformed. In between posing for cameras and talking to people in the crowd, The Charlatans knocked out song after song and hit after hit. Covering new and old tracks. ‘Country Boy’ drove the crowd crazy. The Charlatans really put on a fantastic show, and after a very successful encore people really showed their appreciation, and cheers of contentment rang out throughout the venue.

Once The Charlatans had finished it was up to Rob and I to run to The Corn Exchange to see Mumford and Sons, I did not want to miss them perform as I love their live performances. We arrived to a queue that looked a mile long, time to get out the ‘Press Pass’ I declared. Walking up to the front door we went in, and the bouncer then declared after us ‘No more delegates now, were too busy’ Well thank god for that.

I walked into The Corn Exchange, stood still and my mouth just fell open. What a beautiful and amazing venue. It has a magnificent single span of arched ceiling and a sprung maple floor. Just beautiful.

I ran to the front of the stage just at Mumford And Sons came on. They were beaming with smiles and said this had been the largest venue they had ever played in. The crowd went mad for them and the majority of the 2000 people in the venue were defiantly there to witness what this four piece folk group would conjure up. I had only seen them perform two days earlier in Southampton, but again, the set was completely different. I was blown away by the effort they all put in. The highlights for me was..well all of it. ‘Little Lion Man’ and ‘Liar’ got the audience singing with them, and me so much so that I left the venue without a voice.

I was absolutely blown away by these guys…again! They were fantastic, bloody brilliant. I cannot wait to see them perform again.
http://www.myspace.com/mumfordandsons

The second day of the festival was again yet another success, What I learnt today was that Free Red Stripe still tastes great. Big Brighton Seagulls want to attack my face and Mumford And Sons are Amazing.