Preview: The Great Escape 2017 (Part 2.1 - Music Tips)

With less than a couple of weeks until 450 bands and solo performers and 1000s of punters descend to the seaside in Brighton for the annual orgy of new music that is The Great Escape, most music geeks will already have worked out their must sees, possible sees and might sees, with spreadsheets, apps and good old fashioned bits of paper being utilised to work out their timetables.

If you’re one of those people then this post isn’t for you. However, if you are organised but haven’t been to Great Escape before you might want to check out Breaking More Waves practical tips guide for making the festival work for you by clicking this link here.

If you’ve been less industrious in your timetabling or are looking at the full list of artists and are thinking ‘I only know about 4 of these’ then this post is for you. Put your trust in Breaking More Waves and allow this blog to act as your filter. With no messing, I’m recommending 10 acts playing Great Escape 2017 that come with the Breaking More Waves seal of approval – 5 are featured in this post and 5 in a further post published tomorrow. There should be no surprises that they’ve all featured in some form on the site before.

1. Confidence Man (Australia)

The fact that the two front persons in Australia’s Confidence Man are called Janet Planet and Sugar Bones should be enough to recommend them to you without any further information, but if I add in on point dance routines, pop songs that buzz so hard with energy that they might explode into confetti showers at any point and more fun than you thought humanly possible, then you’ll understand why Confidence Man are one of the must sees of Great Escape. Take a look at the live video below and you’ll see exactly what I mean. Novelty pop maybe, but life (and therefore music) doesn't always have to be serious.

Komedia 12.10pm May 18th
Sticky Mike's Frog Bar 23.30pm May 18th
Horatio's Bar 13.30pm May 20th




2. Jade Bird (UK)

Jade Bird was the subject of an introducing post on Breaking More Waves in Summer 2016 and still there’s been no official single or EP release. Yet with slots supporting the likes of Rag ‘N’ Bone Man, Tom Odell and Mahalia and a number of festival slots besides Great Escape confirmed (Latitude, Bushstock, Field Day) Jade is clearly working towards that. Catch her mix of acoustic folk, country Americana and pop early.

Patterns (Upstairs) 13:15pm May 18th 
Prince Albert 22.30pm May 20th



3. Sigrid (Norway)

In 2015 one of the main highlights of my Great Escape was Norway’s Aurora whose mesmerising performances were so good I ended up seeing her twice. Norway could win again in 2017 with another single named pop star. Sigrid’s Don’t Kill My Vibe has already been a huge on line hit and Great Escape is her’s for the taking.

Coalition 20.00pm May 18th
Wagner Hall 16.30pm May 19th



4. Rosie Carney (Ireland)

Rosie Carney is another artist that first featured on Breaking More Waves in 2016. Making beautifully poignant songs awash with meaning and melancholy, Rosie will appeal to those who love the music of the likes of Billie Marten, Lucy Rose and Laura Marling.

Jubilee Square - 13.45pm May 19th



5. Tom Adams (Germany)

His debut album Silence was largely recorded in his one bedroom flat in Berlin and is already one of my favourites of the year. It’s a quiet and gentle record formed largely of soft piano, ambient electronics and Tom’s haunting falsetto that transports you to another place. Thankfully his one show at Great Escape is in a church – which seems the perfect location for his music. If you want something far away from the rock ‘n’ roll shenanigans of much of Great Escape, mark down Tom Adams as one to watch.

Unitarian Church 22.30pm May 19th

New Music: Rosie Carney - Awake Me (Acoustic)

“A couple of months ago on a dark, cold day in January, we moved all the furniture out of my living room and pushed the piano to the middle of the room. So happy to bring to you the acoustic version of Awake Me, recorded in my home in Donegal. Thank you to Charlie Doherty and Orri McBrearty for helping to bring it to life,” says Rosie Carney of this beautiful recording of a song that featured in its original form on Breaking More Waves in January. 

This new take of Awake Me, played on just piano, has a beautifully still intimacy to it, but perhaps more surprising is with that intimacy comes an even greater power. Keep an eye out for an unscheduled appearance of a cat in the video as well.

Rosie Carney will be playing the Great Escape Festival in Brighton May and will also be out on tour with Saint Sister in the UK between 30th May and 3rd June. 

Rosie Carney - Awake Me (Acoustic)

New Music: Rosie Carney - Awake Me

Somewhere out there on Spotify there’s a playlist with the rather hyperbolic title of The Most Beautiful Songs in The World. Yet despite the slight over exaggeration, I would at least endorse the fact that there are many spellbinding, often quiet, pieces of music on the playist, including the likes of Billie Marten, Bon Iver, Arctic Lake, Robyn Sherwell, The Slow Show and London Grammar, all of whom have featured on Breaking More Waves. It’s a soundtrack for staring out the window on a rainy day and letting the world go by. 

If you play the whole list, then right near the bottom you’ll discover something very special. It’s by 19-year-old Rosie Carney, a resident of Ireland who I’ve featured a couple of times on the blog in 2016. The song in question is Better Man. It’s a rare and devastatingly beautiful thing.

Now after a period of quiet Rosie returns with Awake Me and frankly at this rate Spotify might as well just create a list called The Most Beautiful Songs in The World by Rosie Carney.

Considering that Rosie’s life has been far from gentle and calm (click here to read her story of abuse, mental illness, anorexia and being dropped by a major record label at a young age) it seems even the more incredible that her music is so serene, so gracious, so perfectly painted – but then maybe sometimes, music can be an anchor in the sh*t life throws at you. Awake Me is poignant, honest, vulnerable and tenderly moving. In short, it got me.

Hear more of the most beautiful songs in the world on Spotify by clicking here.

Rosie Carney - Awake Me

New Music: Rosie Carney - Better Man

If you’re a fan of the likes of The Staves and tender melancholy, then ready yourself for this this calm composed piece of beautiful folk.

It’s rare for me to post the same song twice on Breaking More Waves, and when I do it’s usually because the second time round a video has been released, as there's something extra to add to the mix. But today it’s the other way round. Nothing extra needs to be added. How can you add to something that is already perfect? What is needed is just the time to appreciate it over and over again. Hence the post.

I first featured Rosie Carney back in March when I streamed her song Antidote (which has now mysteriously vanished from Soundcloud) and a video for this song. Now it appears that Better Man is getting its own well deserved bit of promotion and an official release on 17th June via X Novo, with what is being billed as her debut EP being released in the autumn. The first time I heard Better Man it left me speechless. Then having finally mustered up some words in that previous post, this time I really have nothing more to add, except that this exquisite song is guaranteed to make your day better. 

Rosie Carney - Better Man

New Music: Introducing - Rosie Carney

I first came across Rosie Carney, originally from my home city of Portsmouth but currently based in Downings co Donegal, Ireland in 2013 when her name cropped up near the bottom of the bill at Bushstock festival. At the time I thought she had plenty of potential but the songs weren’t quite there yet. Now, three years on and still only at the age of 18, that lurking talent has turned into something rather wonderful.

Rosie’s song Antidote mixes a delicate country twang, an acoustic folk beauty and a soft voice that creates magic and musical kisses. Carney describes Antidote as a “plea to embrace and feel - rather than reject and mask - the heartbreak associated with loss,” but frankly she could be singing about shoving a chocolate bar in her mouth and I’d have been impressed. Then there’s Better Man, a song so awash with melancholy that it left me speechless and haunted. A word of advice, don’t as I did, watch the video for the first time at 2am after a very long day - it had me welling up. Another tune Winter (which you can find using this link or on Spotify) reminds me a little of first album Laura Marling (my favourite of Laura’s work)

With a guest vocal on Seafret’s song To The Sea, a slot at this year’s SXSW festival and a cover version of Cyndi Lauper’s party anthem Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (that sounds nothing like a party anthem - watch here), Rosie Carney is slowly getting her name out there. Having cast a spell on me, let her do the same for you.

Rosie Carney - Antidote



Rosie Carney - Better Man (Video)