Last year at The Great Escape, the Alcopop!/Big Scary Monsters all-dayer at the less than salubrious Pavillion Tavern – a pub known for its insanely cheap drinks – ended in carnage. With a capital CARNAGE. The headliners – Scottish noiseniks The Xcerts – and, before them quirky indie-popsters Stagecoach, turned the whole pub into a raucous, ridiculous moshpit – bodies were flying everywhere, bouncers were throttling people, light bulbs and glasses were smashed, spectacles were dropped and trampled on, the promoter was nearly kicked out of his own gig and a chandelier was pulled off the ceiling and carried out by one supremely cheeky ...

The 405 team was out in force for The Great Escape this year, so rather than bringing you a band-by-band account of our time in Brighton, our editors/writers have chosen their five favourite bands from the event. Who came out on top? Read on to find out... Photos by Tim Boddy James Canham Swords">Forest Swords - Tim and myself arrived partway through Swords">Forest Swords set (they started at the same time AlunaGeorge finished) to a stunned and mostly silent crowd. The two of them on stage (one at the mic, laptop and electronics and another on the bass ...

Welcome to the 24th edition of New Music by Region . Every fortnight we aim to present the best new music in 7 major cities and regions from across the UK (and Ireland). With the help of regional correspondents, we present our shortlist of new music in Birmingham, Cardiff, Dublin, Glasgow, London and Oxford. New Music by Region #23 can be found here ! Name : Electric Swing Circus – ‘The Penniless Optimist (C@ in the H@ remix)’ For Fans Of : Gogol Bordello and Basement Jaxx Website : Official site Correspondent : Lyle Bignon A musical cooperative in all senses, ESC capture and bottle the carnivalesque ...

I headed down to Bristol for Simple Things festival this bank holiday, and had a pretty good time. Having been stuck in a house for a few days with two poorly housemates, I was glad to get out and away from Nottingham for a couple of days; however I hadn't quite escaped their sickliness and managed to contract some sort of virus that made my legs feel like lead whilst being plagued by a horrible nauseous feeling, which didn't make for very good festival-going, but I did what I could. First of all, I'm going to start ...

WHAT: More than 400 acts across 30 venues WHY: Because Liverpool has no shortage of musical outlets and keenness to foster its history and reputation. Like its spiritual precursor, Manchester's In The City, there's also talks and conferences, including Arthur Baker in conversation with Nelson George (Friday 1pm) and a DIY label panel (Thursday 1.30pm) with Rich The Line Of Best Fit, John Brainlove, Whiskas Dance To The Radio, Alex Holy Roar and Shell Amazing Radio. WHEN: 17th-19th May WHERE: Across Liverpool HOW: £45 for all the gigs, £150 for everything WHO: THURSDAY: Slow Club, Still Corners ...

Latitude Festival have unveiled a few more additions to this year's line-up, and they are as follows: Lucy Rose, Weird Dreams, Hooray For Earth, The Cast Of Cheers, Peace, Alt-J, Seye, Polica, Cate Le Bon, Toy, The Crookes, Kews, Tall Ships, Theme Park, Slow Club, Smoke Fairies, Clock Opera, Los Campesinos and Herman Dune. Not only that, but they've also announced a few additions for the art portion of the event, which you can see by heading to latitudefestival.co.uk .

To note: the STN Tumblr has been relaunched at sweeping-the-nation.tumblr.com/ , and that's where you'll find the new tracks from now on, this blog left for more general news and feature stuff. Yes, there will actually be some of that. As a sideline Music Of Quality And Distinction has been launched to act as a repository for online vintage clips of interest. In other news, following the Great Escape preview the other day STN and nine other UK bloggers have contributed to Hype Machine's artist picks feature. To elucidate on why you should trust our judgement ...

As 300 acts prepare to descend on Brighton for this year's festival, we gather some of your top-notch recommendations. Plus, listen to a Spotify playlist of hotly tipped bands Ahead of this weekend's Great Escape festival in Brighton, we asked you to recommend who to see from a lineup of more than 300 artists. Kitty Empire recommended the Black Belles, Spoek Mathambo, Devin, Django Django and Willis Earl Beal . Here are some more recommendations from @guardianmusic followers. Tall Ships: Pav Tav 1am Sat, The Hope 10.15pm Sat @patrick_kane_ " Tall Ships – debut album released later this year and ...

Taking the opportunity of the bank holiday for a bit of a clearout of accumulated new songs, three from bands new to STN, one who've had a couple of mentions down the years. Doctrines - Climbing Yggdrasil (Everybody Loves Ray Kay) From the new Big Scary Monsters sampler Making Music's For Pussies #001 ( free with a T-shirt , which seems almost entirely wrong given the compilation includes Tall Ships, Shoes And Socks Off and Bear Cavalry), Manchester's Doctrines have just signed to the mighty Alcopop!, bringing with them hefty amounts of Japandroids' impacted ferocity, Titus Andronicus' bar-room cluster bombing ...

Throwing the migratory concept of the multi-venue multi-gig idea out of the window, due to a weird combination of the organisers timetable programming and our own summer festival schedule which gives opportunities to see certain artists at numerous events and therefore not necessarily this weekend in London, our whole second day  of the Camden Crawl is spent in the bunting dressed Wheelbarrow pub. Camden Crawl ? More like Camden Stationary. As the music and alcohol flows a constant stream of bladder-stressed punters are found pushing their way towards the front, for the location of the toilets is like a space planners ...

Festival season is now so close you can nearly touch it, and The Great Escape is not only one of the first, but is also guaranteed to be one of the best. This year's event is taking place from Thursday 10th May and culminates on the Saturday 12th of May. Across the three days three hundred plus bands will be providing Brighton rock, indie, electronica and more in 30 venues on the south coast. Listing all the great acts playing may break the internet but some names we’re excited about include: Perfume Genius, Niki & The Dove, Alt-J, Shabazz Palaces, Grimes, Friends, Zulu Winter and Django Django. There will be shows in the Brighton Dome, in churches and pubs around the city. Add to that an array of fringe events, club nights and a daytime conference - plus a bar on the famous Brighton pier - and you have all the ingredients for a very special time indeed. Amazingly tickets are still available and you can get them here . For a full of who’s playing and for more info visit escapegreat.com . See you there, yeah? Listen to our Great Escape playlist by clicking here . ***** Editors Picks: James Canham (Live Editor): Retro Stefson Possibly the most interesting and entertaining live act I've ever personally witnessed, Retro Stefson would need no introduction in their homeland of Iceland. Renowned on the Reykjavík circuit for their unique mix of pop ethics and peculiar, yet stunning, execution they're definitely one to catch. [ Listen ] Performances: 10th May - Latest Music Bar - 23:15 11th May - Above Audio - 14:30 11th May - Green Door Store - 19:30 Fever Fever Art punk isn't dead, and with bands like Fever Fever it never will die. On top of their fantastically literate lyrics their layers of dissonant yet raw guitar and pounding drums give the festival one of the best and most interesting performances. [ Listen ] Performance: 10th May - The Hope - 20:30 AlunaGeorge With an EP coming soon on the illustrious Tri-Angle records, and with an arsenal of future pop hits to hand, now is the time to see AlunaGeorge before they make it huge. Every song they've released so far is dredged in a fantastic drape of smooth and sexy vocals with rich synthy backing, and their near-midnight show at Coalition on the Friday is shaping up to be one of the best of the festival. [ Listen ] Performance: 11th May - Coalition - 23:30 Seams While Seams will be playing the sounds at his Corn exchange, the real reason anyone will be going is to see his fringe jumping excitedly on stage. We've loved him from the word go (especially his remarkable Tourist EP, a piece of work focused and composed from sounds heard in Berlin, the city he's now based in) and by all reports his live show is just as great as his recordings (mainly because of his fringe...). [ Listen ] Performance: 12th May - Corn Exchange - 21:30 Micachu & The Shapes Along with many others we've eagerly awaited the next move from Micachu and The Shapes . After a few interesting diversions (most notably their chopped and screwed mixtape performance piece with the London Sinfonietta Orchestra) they've finally got a sequel to 2009's Jewellery in the pipeline and, with any luck, we'll hear something new from the makers of one of the last decade's most fascinating albums. [ Listen ] Performance: 12th May - The Haunt - 21:45 ***** Alt-J Editors Picks: Wil Cook (Music Editor): As they prepare to drop one of the albums of the year, Alt-J are the band to be excited about. Engaging, melodic songs full of depth, songs that linger on longer than you expect. Remnants appear in your head for days after and they are welcome. I cannot wait to see this band play live. [ Listen ] Blind Tiger Friday 21:15 Jonquil I have been screaming from the rooftops about Jonquil since 2006 when I caught them playing in a horrible little bar in Ipswich. It's been fascinating to watch them evolve from a folk band who evidently had a bit of a crush on Boards of Canada into this massive summery behemoth of a band. I love this band more than I could ever put into words for you, which says a lot, because I love to talk. [ Listen ] Prince Albert Thursday 22:15 Green Door Store Friday 14:00 Cloud Nothings Since releasing the wonderfully nihilistic Attack on Memory earlier in the year Cloud Nothings have been on my "must see" list. It's a crunching punk rock pop fix that simultaneously restores my faith in my ability to feel alive and reverts me back to a mindset where I wanted to die. Basically, they are the hipster Nirvana. I just hope they are as ramshackle and urgent in the flesh as they are on this record. [ Listen ] Above Audio Thursday 21:45 Perfume Genius I'm not who St. Mary is, but she doesn't half know how to book a gig, last year she hosted Dustin O Halloran and Richter">Max Richter for one of the shows of the festival. This year it's the turn of Perfume Genius who plays after Loney, Dear making one of the sexiest double bills of the three days. The chance to see songs like Hood and Dirge performed in the beautifully intimate surroundings of the church is not something that you should pass up. [ Listen ] St. Mary's Church 21:15 Tall Ships One of my favourite memories from last year was the mass sing-along during Vessels, mid afternoon in the Pav Tav, it placed in my mind an idea that has been reaffirmed several times since, Tall Ships have it. They have whatever it is that every band is trying to achieve when they write songs, that feeling. Y'know that feeling when your hairs prickle up with your skin bumps as you realise that you are lucky to be alive and in a world full of potential. Yes, that is quite a bold statement, but have you seen Tall Ships play? If you haven't, then you really need to catch them soon, this years Great escape is the place. [ Listen ] Pav Tav Friday 1am The Hope Saturday 22:15 ***** Editors Picks: Tim Boddy (Photography Editor): Gang Colours The 405 have been following Will Ozanne's Gang Colours closely since the release of the violently monikered EP, In Your Gut Like A Knife , last summer. Recently the chap from Southampton released full-length debut album The Keychain Collection on Brownswood Recordings, to positive appraise. It's the kind of album that rewards enormously on repeated listens, the reflective soundscapes burying deep into the skin, and cut-up homages to garage swirl smoothy through the bloodstream. The result is rather Beautiful stuff, like if Mount Kimbie went into ballad territory - but with a very definite Gang Colours personal grace to proceedings. [ Listen ] Swords">Forest Swords Oh Swords">Forest Swords , where have you been? The solo project from Liverpool-based Matthew Barnes has been quiet of recent, following the release of 2010's gorgeous and beguiling LP Dagger Paths . Beguiling in that a myriad of differing styles are sewn into each other; Barnes' passion and knowledge ...

WHAT: Up to 15,000 people, 300 bands, 30 venues WHY: It's become a one-stop shop for big names with something to prove to themselves, up and coming acts getting set for big summers and the little men fighting their corner WHEN: 10th-12th May WHERE: Across Brighton WHO: THURSDAY: Maximo Park, Friends, Niki & The Dove, Jonquil, Toy, Mystery Jets, Eugene McGuinness, Zulu Winter, Django Django, Willy Mason, Cloud Nothings, Fever Fever, Deaf Club, Jamie N Commons, Bastille, Ben Kweller, Francois & The Atlas Mountains, White Arrows, Weird Dreams, Gross Magic, Cut Ribbons, Shabazz Palaces, Sunless 97, Gemma Hayes, Tribes, Gaz ...

Openers Tall Ships have been slowly carving out a name for themselves amongst those who prefer their indie slightly more cerebral than average. Demonstrating remarkable proficiency with loop pedals, instrument swapping, and inventive song-structuring, whilst still remaining pleasingly catchy and danceable. S... Read more..

Photos by Eleonora Collini Tall Ships opened the proceedings providing the audience with their strong blend of mathy indie-rock. The band were fantastically tight and managed to be full of energy despite the concentration that was probably needed to play their complicated songs. The group have a wealth of strong material and this became particularly apparent during their short set. The occasional quite moment was rudely ignored by the crowd but generally this was a high tempo set that kept the audience wanting more. After a short wait the main attracting for the evening Maps and Atlases arrived on stage ...

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