“A lot of our songs are influenced by literature”. Alex Hill talks music and The Great Escape
Sometimes you interview a band and they only have to say one thing and you’re hooked. “We’re all big Big Patti Smith fans” said Kate from The New Eves, one of the brightest sparks to be playing The Great Escape. Patti Smith. That’s us sold. It gets better. “We’d have to write a book listing all our influences, but Talking Heads are a big inspiration…”. And it gets more interesting. “… as well as more unique inspirations such as Bulgarian choir music”. Wasn’t expecting that.
If you’re even a little tired of the regular ‘guitar-bass-drums-vocals’ set up, The New Eves should make you smile. The Brighton based band feature Nina Winder-Lind (cello, guitar, vocals), Ella Oona Russell (drums, flute, vocals), Kate Mager (bass, vocals), and Violet Farrer (violin, guitar, vocals, dance) and it’s a little more arty – and can we say darker – than your average band.
“A lot of our songs are influenced by literature”, says Kate and there’s a lot of the unexpeced here. Their new single, “Highway Man” is a darkly-energised, female-first retelling of Alfred Noyes’ classic 1906 romantic poem that, as they put it, flips the lens. “In the original version it’s this dude, who’s being the dude, and the girl doesn’t do anything and then dies,” says Nina. “So I was like, ‘We can’t have that…’”
If all that sounds a bit too much, there’s still a bit of guitar solo rock’n’roll. “It was when I first started to find my guitar style, which is basically just weird noises and bashing” said Violet. And it is. Kinda cool though. The distorted guitar turns into adistorted cello – which is also kinda cool.
“It’s really good to play The Great Esacpe but it can be a bit overwhelming. We’re also playing The Alternative Esacpe because more of our friends can come and there’s more of a local buzz.”
The New Eves are playing Chalk on Friday May 16 at 6.15pm
“Yeah, I saw them a few years ago at The Great Escape”. Everyone likes to be ahead of the game, everyone likes to catch the New Big Thing before they become the new big thing. And there’s no better place to do that than at The Great Escape. But so many bands, so many venues, so many names, so many… places to go and have a drink. What do you do? Where do you go? Who do you see?
Man/Woman/Chainsaw
A fascinating band with an intriguing and unrevealing name. They’ve been described as ‘one of the most exciting and unpredictable young acts in the town’, and with their mix of atmospheric indie style, joint vocals, melodic guitar and bass and haunting violin playing, you can understand why. It’s not their first time in Brighton either – they put on a brilliant show at Green Door Store a few months ago and I’ve been awaiting their return ever since.
Rizzle Kicks
OK, not new, but they’re Brighton legends – yes they are – and we love them. This local hip hop duo grabbed national attention with their fresh sounding, early 2010’s hits ‘Down With The Trumpets’ and ‘Mama Do The Hump’ encapsulating a groovy and upbeat spin on hip hop which incorporates elements of reggae, funk and jazz – they’ve even sampled classic punk tracks for their tunes. These guys definitely have the knack needed to get a crowd moving with their unique and catchy feel-good sound that’s immediately recognisable. It’s great to have them back.
Heavy Lungs
One of the heaviest bands playing this year’s festival, as their name might have led you to believe, and their hardcore punk sound immediately grabbed my attention. With riff driven songs, relentless drumming and Johnny Rotten-esque vocals – they pay homage to classic punk while making it their own; I’d liken their sound to an intriguing mix of Black Flag and The Damned brought to the modern era – which can be heard in their most popular ‘(A Bit of a) Birthday’.
Peter Doherty
Again, not new, but am I looking forward to this. The daring, yet loveable frontman of The Libertines and Babyshambles is one of the headliners for this year’s festival and an obvious choice for first place on this list. He plays Brighton beach on the 14th May championing the release of his new album.
I saw Doherty play live last year in a grotty industrial estate in Wolverhampton. While perhaps an unlikely location, this intimate acoustic set with Doherty playing a mix of Libertines and Babyshambles songs along with his solo material was a fantastic gig. He has the brilliant ability to captivate an audience with just his guitar, oftentimes accompanied by Bob Dylan style harmonica playing. Doherty maintains the poetic songwriter charm that made him famous.
Queen Cult
One of the newest acts around are one to keep an eye on. With a high energy indie rock sound and heavily distorted instruments, Queen Cult have hints of garage rock greats Royal Blood and Queens of the Stone Age and are unforgivingly loud and proud. Just the thing we need to see. Their new single, ‘Figure It Out’, last month is hard not to like.
The story of Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club and how they have evolved over the last few decades is one of the most remarkable in modern football, but has success led to a feeling of imposter syndrome for many of their fans?
Jimmy Case was sacked as Brighton manager on Wednesday 4th December 1996. The Seagulls had been relegated into Division 3 (today’s League 2) but were on course to be sent down in back-to-back seasons. The club were 13 points adrift at the bottom of the table and their stadium, Goldstone Ground, was set to be sold to pay off the ever-increasing debts.
Despite an improvement in performance under new management, Brighton became under greater threat that season, after a two-point deduction was imposed when fans invaded the pitch in protest of the club’s stadium being sold. The future of the seaside club looked troubling.
However, lifelong supporter Dick Knight took control of the club in 1997 after ousting the previous board for eventually selling the stadium. Despite having to share a home stadium with Gillingham for two seasons, Knight helped the Seagulls slowly and steadily get back on track. Brighton had managed to maintain their Football League status based on goals scored and finished above Hereford United.
Division 3 remained Brighton’s home for a few years, but it could have been a lot worse if it wasn’t for Knight stepping in. They finally moved to playing their home games at converted athletics track, Withdean Stadium, in 1999. Two years later, Micky Adams finally led the Seagulls to league triumph and promotion back to Division 2 (today’s League 1).
A new league saw new management and this transition proved to be a successful one. Peter Taylor led the club to back-to-back promotions into Division 1. All thanks to Dick Knight, Brighton had gone from being a near-non-league side, being one division under the Premier League in the space of five years.
The decade that followed saw the Seagulls drift between the second and third tiers of the football pyramid. Their final season at Withdean in 2010/11 saw them promoted from League One, back into the Championship. Brighton moved to Falmer and remained in the new second tier for a considerable period.
After years of fighting various demons – whether it be money problems, stadium issues or pure bad luck in promotion play-offs, the 2016/17 season saw Brighton finally promoted into the Premier League. They became a topflight outfit for the first time in 34 years and fans were buzzing. Dick Knight and later Tony Bloom, who were not just chairmen for the Seagulls, but lifelong supporters too and it means a lot when having pure love for the club rather than for money, finally and deservingly rewards you.
In a Guardian article written just before their first Premier League season, Brighton fan Alan Wares said: “At the end of last season, the sense of pride was massive. This was a club that was almost extinct, that had to fight tooth and nail to be here,” which shows how lifelong fans have kept on believing in their team through thick and thin.”
So, where are the Seagulls been flying nowadays?
Well, they haven’t flown downwards that’s for sure. The Premier League has been Brighton’s home for almost eight seasons and therefore they have grown into an even more respectable club, delivering plenty of talented players.
The first few seasons were a fight to survive but in 2022/23, something amazing happened. Brighton finished in sixth place and therefore qualified for European football for the first time in their history. Roberto De Zerbi truly transformed the Seagulls into a new ‘Bird of Prey’ in English football terms and even led his team to the FA Cup semi-finals for the second time in four years.
Brighton were unlucky with injuries during their time in the Europa League but still managed to achieve a round-of-16 finish and topped a group that included European giants Marseille and Ajax.
As of now, the Seagulls currently sit in ninth place in the Premier League table; holding on to their status as a topflight club and they definitely won’t be taking flight anytime soon. It’s a competitive league but new manager Fabian Hurzeler has made sure that his team keeps going.
The story of Brighton & Hove Albion is a genuinely underrated tale, and it is truly amazing how thirty years can turn you from the brink of becoming a non-league club to a top half Premier League team.
The story of a seaside club with passionate fans has made the Seagulls a force to be reckoned with.
Imposter syndrome? What is that?
When a football club evolves, so does its identity and Brighton have been able to reach these levels of achievement at a deserving rate. The evidence of their success is there, and they no longer have a reason to feel inadequate – supporters know who they are and where they have come from and that is what will continue to shape the future of the club.
That makes sense. There’s none of that “being in character” with these guys because if we know anything about Graham and John we know they’re very down to earth.
Graham is Graham Fellows and John is John Shuttleworth and John is Graham’s… I was going to say creation, but that sounds a bit Frankenstein, so let’s say friend who he’s been touring as – or with – for 40 years.
You might know Graham from his 1979 hit ‘Jilted John’. “Yeah, of course, though weirdly, a lot of people don’t know that. They know “Gordon is a moron”, which wasn’t even the title of the song.” And then Graham met John. Or maybe found John.
“I was trying to be a serious songwriter like John Shuttleworth is trying to be a serious songwriter. I had a songwriting deal, and I used to hear these awful demos that they were used to get. They called them Turkey tapes, and they were very funny. And it was people just like John Shuttleworth sitting with their organs, usually a keyboard with the built-in drums, and you could hear someone washing up in the background, that sort of thing. Very funny and but very heartfelt. And I decided to do my own version of that. So that’s how John Shuttleworth was created.
“I sent a tape into my publisher in disguise thing, hoping to trick them, and for a few days, they didn’t know who it was”.
What was the reaction? “Well, it got the right reaction – or maybe the wrong reaction because they lost interest in my serious, Graham Fellows songs and suddenly wanted more John Shuttleworth. So then, yeah, put all my stuff on the back burner and start doing more Shuttleworth – and 40 years later, here we are.”
And John, with respect, has done rather better than Graham. A Perrier aeward, a Eurovision Special, supporting Blur and Robert Plant, two highly successful books with a third on the way along with a new CD (The Pumice Stone and Other Rock Songs)… Do you ever get a bit grumpy, a bit resentful and think ‘he gets all the attention, but I’m better than he is’.
“Well, no, it’s funny because it’s taken a long time, but I‘ve realised that when I write my own songs, they’re like John Shuttleworth songs. Or put it the other way around. When I do a John Shuttleworth song, it’s a Graham Fellows song. It’s got my sense of humour, but it’s putting it in a kind of dramatic scenario, you know.
Do you like him? “Yes, I do. I like him immensely, though I also slightly I pity him. He’s totally asexual, isn’t he? You just cannot imagine John talking about sex or doing it. I mean, I’m not saying I’m, you know, I’m not a particularly sexy man but I am more sexy than John. Definitely.”
That’s not a high bar. Graham.
“No, but I do like him. I don’t know if I’d want to hang out with him for too long though”.
You might have moved to West Hill from London so you could commute to work. When I lived in Alexandra Villas, my partner was on that train every day.
As a coastal city with a mild climate, Brighton has been a magnet for migrants for centuries. Brighton and London have been strongly connected since the 19th-century development of the railways turned the seaside town into a popular destination for leisure and pleasure. The London to Brighton train line was electrified in 1933, and the ‘service was considered to be fast, frequent, clean and reliable.’ The journey took 60 minutes – little longer than the fastest trains today.
With the ability to commute to work, alongside comparatively lower rents and house prices, many Londoners have opted to move to Brighton, particularly in recent decades.
“I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life in London, and there were various reasons for choosing Brighton, one of them was… that it wasn’t terribly far from London, another was that my parents lived in Sussex.” Rachel
The growth of the creative industries in Brighton from the 1980s has brought migrants to the city.
“I had a job in London working for the Arts Council, but the daily commute was exhausting and I was searching for a Brighton-based role.’ Alongside Chris Bailey, I set up Same Sky, which became the largest community arts charity in the south-east, and is best known for the annual winter solstice festival Burning the Clocks.”
Pippa Smith, moved down in 1986
Brighton has been a destination for gays and lesbians for nearly a century. In the 1950s and 1960s – before the legalisation of male homosexuality in 1967 – many LGBTQIA+ people moved to the city. The relative freedom was a revelation.
“When I came to Brighton I discovered that there were real bars only for men who liked other men. And that there were a lot of these kind of men here. And so I suddenly found myself like a pig in clover. I was here in paradise, a paradise which in my wildest dreams I’d never seen as possible” Pat
The settlement of newcomers has helped to create a Brighton and Hove multiculture. Thousands line the streets to watch the colourful Pride Parade every August, ice-cream parlours provide a welcome space for non-alcohol drinkers, and there is a greater ease with difference. The city has drawn migrants from outside Brighton, too. Many have come for jobs or have set up small businesses. Italian couple Eugenio and Enza run Buon Appetito in Western Road, Hove. Eugenio moved to England in 1995 to learn English and work in a pizza restaurant to see if his dream of opening a restaurant was realistic. He decided it was.
He and Enza married in 1997, and five days later, they moved to England, where they frantically saved money to buy their own restaurant. The first restaurant the couple owned was in Haywards Heath. They set up two other successful restaurants in the South East, and then established Buon Appetito near Palmeira Square.
“It’s still run as a family business. My wife is involved, my brother, my brother-in-law. So we are a big family. Everybody cooking in the kitchen…. And all the staff around like to work with me because they feel like their own home. Some [of] them call me Papa” Eugenio
Nowadays, Brighton is full of eateries established by entrepreneurs like Eugenio and Enza.
One of those places is right on our doorstep. Luqman Onikosi, originally from Nigeria, helped to establish the Jollof Café at the West Hill Community Centre. Every Wednesday lunchtime, refugee volunteers cook a hearty, nutritious vegetarian meal on a ‘pay as you feel’ basis. Local West Hill residents are most welcome to come along.
Brighton Bound features these and other stories, the stories of people and communities who have made Brighton their home over the past 100 years.
l Brighton Bound: Stories of moving to, around and out of the city, 1920s–2020s
By Cath Senker, Ben Rogaly and Amy Clarke (QueenSpark Books, 2024) is available from Kemptown Bookshop, City Books and from QueenSpark Books:
The Whistler 