The 6 best things we saw at The Great Escape 2025
Here are our highlights from the annual seaside showcase
By Nick Reilly & Will Richards
So farewell to Brighton for another year then. The Great Escape returned last week, and team RS UK were on the ground all weekend to try and find the artists who might come to define your life in the coming months and years. The festival – widely regarded as the UK’s primary showcase – lived up to its deserved reputation in showcasing rulebreakers, innovators and artists who could be the stars of tomorrow. After a weekend of running between the bars and basements of Brighton, here’s the best things we saw at The Great Escape 2025.
Aaron Rowe
Having honed his craft in the bars and streets of Dublin, rising star Aaron Rowe is a dab hand at delivering rich, guitar-led stories that can break your heart one minute and lift it up the next. This was reflected in the silence he commanded over at Brighthelm on Thursday night and especially so on ‘Hey Ma’ – a universal ode to moving away and feeling homesick even when home is a mere matter of hours away. That song will emerge as his debut single next week and we spotted his good mate Lewis Capaldi in the crowd singing back every single word of it. With friends in high places like these, it feels only a matter of time before bigger things await. (NR)
Chartreuse
Sometimes, the most initially unassuming sets at The Great Escape are the best. The tiny stage and standing room at The Bootlegger feels like the setup for an open mic night, but – as the divine sound of Chartreuse wafts out into the sunny streets a few years from the beach – today it hosts a band whose 2025 could be transformative. There’s more than a hint of Radiohead to the West Midlands quartet’s slinky rhythms, and the dual vocals of Mike Wagstaff and Hattie Wilson intertwine gorgeously. A new album is set to arrive this year, they promise before the end of the set, and its previews show a dizzying step up from their debut. (WR)
Fiona-Lee
As our recent Play Next interview explained, Yorkshire newcomer Fiona-Lee is a dab hand at creating guitar anthems that dance through the darkness. It’s exemplified on her debut single ‘Mother’, which pulls no punches in tackling the warped power dynamic she experienced when she previously moved to London and ended up living in her then manager’s basement. But The Great Escape proved that Fiona’s live shows are where her songs truly come alive, with haunting vocals allowing her guitar anthems to soar in front of a crowd. We’d be inclined to argue that getting a full band onboard might elevate her sound to the next level, but for now this festival proved to be the perfect snapshot of a very special artist. (NR)
Getdown Services
It’s nothing revelatory to say that Getdown Services are unrepentantly silly and constantly deliver one of the most joyously deranged live shows out there at the moment. But their Great Escape shows proved that Josh Law and Ben Sadler are just one of the best live bands out there full stop. Law’s glam rock flecked guitar lines are genuinely impressive and perfectly balance out the surreal moments that usually mean that half the crowd are leaving with a massive grin on their face. In the case of their Jubilee Square BBC 6Music set on Thursday evening, this meant an airing of ‘Get Back Jamie’ – which gave them the chance to hit out at Turkey Twizzler banisher-in-chief Jamie Oliver on the national airwaves. It’s silly stuff, but so, so fun. (NR)
Sunday (1994)
Guitarist and songwriter Lee Newell (readers of a certain vintage might recognise him from ‘00s bolshy indie bunch Viva Brother) is pretty miffed for most of the set of his new band Sunday (1994), downstairs at Komedia on Friday lunchtime. The sound, he says, is not showing the band at their best. Despite what we’re told is a shoddy mix, the transatlantic band’s Smiths-y jangle and the glorious vocals of Paige Turner sound pretty delightful. They’re clear perfectionists, and have the tunes to back it up. (WR)
Westside Cowboy
Every year at The Great Escape, there’s one band whose name reverberates around venues, pubs, street corners and the pebbly beach all weekend, beckoning you to see what the fuss is about. Fresh from winning Glastonbury’s Emerging Talent Competition this month, Manchester quartet Westside Cowboy are the top draw in Brighton, and – once we finally track them down at the huge stage on the beach and wait for half their set to actually be allowed in – the hype is worth it. There’s a youthful exuberance that bursts out of the band, and the songs to back it up. Indie, punk and more filter into their songs, but most powerful is when they end the set all shouting into the same mic, soundtracked only by the brisk rhythm of one floor tom. That Glastonbury win looks to be just the start. (WR)