More about: Katy J PearsonSoftcultMUNAKAM-BUTAAHLIAH

How I do like to stroll along the prom! prom prom! where the brass bands play...it's a joyful return to seaside town Brighton for The Great Escape after a two year hiatus, and the schedule is more than making up for the break with a metric tonne of artists on the bill.

While proceedings opened on Wednesday night (11 May), Thursday saw the first full day of music, with our fondness for the queues and crowds of a pre-Covid world only just starting to wear off and our step counts spiking. Read on for gig reports from Day One at TGE 2022. 

MUNA

Packing out the festivals biggest stage, MUNA truly are at the top of their game right now. As we prep for their upcoming new album, the band perform a musically tight and endlessly energetic set. Launching in with ‘Number One Fan’, you can see the crowds walking towards the stage suddenly pick up the pace to try and secure a spot to see the three piece. Setting the tone for a fan-pleasing set, they play all the hits alongside as yet unreleased tracks. ‘Silk Chiffon’ is a natural highlight, engaging in a whole room in a way that only the best artists can manage at a festival. (LH)

Katy J Pearson

Komedia Basement becomes quite the place to be Thursday, the first full day of The Great Escape. It seems to all start with Katy J Pearson, who has a queue all the way down Regent Street (the Brighton one, that is). While Katy’s tracks are stunning be-ribboned folk bombes, nothing can quite prepare you for the sound of Pearson singing live: her vocals are quite simply astounding, and her band are the perfect buoy for her to float them on. New tune ‘Talk Over Town’ sounds particularly fabulous, as does her much-loved live moment ‘Willow’s Song’, a cover of a Paul Giovanni track from The Wicker Man soundtrack. Her forthcoming new album Sound Of The Morning, which will contain both of these tracks, is shaping up to be very big indeed. (JA)

Softcult

Phoenix and Mercedes Arn-Horn have a busy schedule for their first visit to the UK this weekend. They’ll play Manchester’s Deaf Institute tonight (13 May) and The Camden Assembly on Sunday (15 May), with another slot in Brighton tomorrow. Kicking things off is a set at Volt, a venue that ordinarily hosts Drum n Bass nights on the seafront. Rock journalists fill the small room, re-emphasising the duo’s immediate popularity with the UK press. To everyone’s delight, songs like ‘Uzumaki’, ‘Take It Off’ and ‘Gaslight’ are just as lush live, Mercedes’ voice easily matching up to her recorded self and the shoegaze-inspired rock with emo-pop overtones proving itself in the live space with ease. (JA)

KAM-BU

In a sausage-fest downstairs of Brighton’s Patterns, KAM-BU and his trusty hype man took the stage with a 23-minute no-stops raving set. The performance saw the Southwest Londoner’s return to his uni city of Brighton, blasting out his greatest songs like ‘Black on Black’ and skimming through the genres — garage, DnB, grime, drill, you name it — keeping the crowds heads nodding and bodies bouncing. (MO)

TAAHLIAH

Glasgow-based DJ and Producer TAAHLIAH commanded Patterns Upstairs with back-to-back futuristic floorfillers, entertaining the crowd of the energetic TGE attendees that refused to end their Thursday night. Her 1.15am set covered all bases, playing favourites like ‘Never Lose’ and ‘Bourgeoisie’ off her breakthrough album Angelica, teasing an upcoming song with newcomer Tsatsamis and putting a TAAHLIAH-spin on the LVL1’s infectious banger ‘FVN’. Where hyper-pop meets jacking techno, it was impossible to not bust, at the bare minimum, a cheeky two-step. (MO)

See photos from further afield at The Great Escape below...

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More about: Katy J PearsonSoftcultMUNAKAM-BUTAAHLIAH