LUVCAT + TTSSFU + KEO – MOTH CLUB, HACKNEY, LONDON 13.11.24
‘The Great Escape’ new music festival is arguably one of Europe’s largest festivals of its kind and thankfully this takes place annually each May here in Brighton. Of late it has featured around 450 artists performing live through various grassroots music venues in the city, with many of them performing more than one concert during the four day festival.
‘The Great Escape’ have now started announcing their ‘First Fifty’ acts that will be performing at the following year’s event and some of these are recruited to perform taster concerts at a selection of east London venues in mid November. This year’s date was Wednesday 13th November and was held across eight different grassroots venues with one of these being the Moth Club which is located on Valette Street, in the London Borough of Hackney. On the bill for this event were Luvcat, TTSSFU and Keo and as we didn’t want to miss out on the action, we sent Max Tollworthy along to grab some photos and pen a few words on the event. Here’s his account of proceedings….
The ‘First Fifty’ has once again returned to various east London venues and my gig choice this year was Luvcat, TTSSFU and Keo who were playing at the Moth Club. Back in 2023 I was at the same venue for The Dinner Party. This gig was staged before they had to change their name to ‘The Last Dinner Party’ due to a name clash with a funk band. Since that concert, the band has gone on to tremendous success, with their debut album, ‘Prelude to Ecstasy’, entering the UK Official Albums Chart at No.1, with the biggest opening week of any band in nine years, since Years & Years in 2015. The Last Dinner Party also delivered the fastest-selling vinyl debut of any group this century, surpassing Wet Leg by selling more than 14,000 units on vinyl in its first week on sale. They then opened for the Rolling Stones at BST Hyde Park and played Glastonbury. They were winners of the BRITs Rising Star 2024 award, following in the footsteps of previous recipients including Adele and Sam Fender, plus they were also the winners of the BBC Sound Of…2024 poll, beating out the likes of Peggy Gou, Tyla and Olivia Dean.
Clearly ‘The Great Escape’ is a great breeding ground for new talent and on my way to the Moth Club, I was wondering to myself whether any of tonight’s artists would eventually be hitting the same heights? I concluded that this year it’s Luvcat’s turn as she appears to be on a similar trajectory to The Last Dinner Party.
Before we get to Luvcat, we get to meet Keo, who take to the stage at 7:30pm, and TTSSFU who arrive at 8:30pm.
So let’s begin with Keo…
The night starts with Keo who I’ve seen live a few times before, they are led by brothers Finn and Conor Keogh and they formed the band after moving down from Devon. Their sound is very much influenced by the 90’s grunge/alternative bands such as Soundgarden, Smashing Pumpkins, Jeff Buckley and by the current frontrunners Wunderhorse. Tonight at the Moth Club they have brought their own legion of fans along who know every word to their songs! It’s an impressive start to the night as the lads rattle through their seven track set which is made up of: ‘Deserts’, ‘Fly’, ‘Roadkill’, ‘Stand Myself’, ‘Thorn’, ‘I Lied, Amber’ and ‘Stolen Cars’.
Next up is TTSSFU…
Tasmin takes to the stage at 8:30pm along with her funky heart-shaped guitar and her band are suited and booted and ready to go! TTSSFU is also influenced by the 90’s grunge scene but with a touch of shoegaze added into the mix. She recently signed to Partisan records who have another future star on their hands! She spends the gig laughing and smiling along with her band and you can tell she loves being up on stage! Apart from the few minutes she spends amongst the crowd, when she returns to the stage, she has a lie down unaware that a beer has been spilled, she becomes drenched her in beer, but I tell you what, it certainly didn’t dampen her spirit! She exits the stage to an impressive applause, having given us ‘California’, ‘At All’, ‘Growing Older’, ‘Baggage’, ‘Studio 54’, ‘I Hope You Die’ and ‘Remember’.
The time hits 9:30pm and it’s finally time for Luvcat to grace us with her presence.
Now to the headliner Luvcat. This is my second Luvcat gig this week, after seeing her performing live at the sold out Green Door Store in Brighton last night. Luvcat’s band is looking rather dapper dressed in their suits whilst Luvcat herself is dressed in a white shirt and black tie and leopard print shorts, finished off with fishnet tights. The crowd belts out almost every word to all her songs despite most of them being unreleased. This is due to her huge TikTok fanbase uploading live recordings from her gigs, and from south London’s finest videographer Louis Smith capturing her early live shows for his YouTube channel.
The songs that have been released such as ‘Dinner @ Brasserie Zédel’, ‘Matador’ and her poisoning murder ballad ‘He’s My Man’, which tells the tale of a doomed romance, get the biggest singalongs this evening, and it’s fair to say that Luvcat laps it up and this encourages the crowd to get even louder!
Her music is a cocktail of Gothic Romantic drama and she recently named Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits and her dads love of Frank Sinatra, and the Rat Pack as her main influences. Her songs are very theatrical and I’m certain they will be performed on much bigger stages in the future. She’s on the path to super-stardom, so make sure you catch her at next year’s festival which will be a must see!
Tonight’s setlist reads: ‘Lipstick’, ‘Alien’, ‘Alchemy’, ‘Matador’, ‘Love & Money’, ‘Spider’, ‘Bad Books’, ‘Poppies’, ‘He’s My Man’ and ‘Dinner @ Brasserie Zédel’.
To coincide with this evening’s 8 concerts going down in east London, ‘The Great Escape’ have announced the names of the ‘First Fifty’ acts to play live in Brighton next May. The new wave of acts includes raw and rising Welsh pop-rock singer-songwriter CATTY, Mercury Prize-nominated jazz group corto.alto, eclectic Worldbeat group Sirens Of Lesbos, anti-establishment, genre-defying rap singer-songwriter Miss Kaninna, Indigenous Australian alt singer-songwriter Tia Gostelow, Viennese indie band Laundromat Chicks and rock, reggae and hip-hop inspired South Summit.
From the world of jazz, the new names also include four-piece London group Oreglo and Mongolian singer-songwriter Enji, while emerging songwriter Daffo and rousing Faroese-Nordic artist Eivør are flying the flag for folk. Nods to indie-rock come from Canadian rockers Nap Eyes and indie-grime genre-blender JD Cliffe, while a selection of bedroom-pop artists including Australian singer-songwriter Nick Ward and dreamy electro-pop act Clara Kimera also join the line-up.
The First Fifty is completed by buzzy Chicago rapper Kaicrewsade, indie-pop TikTok stars Zimmer90, grunge-soul singer Ashaine White, London-based harpist Marysia Osu, electrifying brother-sister duo PUNCHBAG, wistful soul-inspired singer-songwriter Nectar Woode, Japanese dance-pop act Chameleon Lime Whoopiepie, promising New Zealand group NO CIGAR, tender Irish singer Ellie O’Neill and Dutch five piece The Klittens.
Synonymous with new music discovery and acting as a springboard for rising artists, ‘The Great Escape’ is the festival for new music. Playing host to over 450 up-and-coming artists and hotly tipped talent across 35+ walkable venues, alongside the music industry-led TGE conference, the festival will kick off the 2025 season from 14 – 17th May in Brighton. Tickets for The Great Escape festival start from £81.24 and are on sale HERE.
With several thousands of music fans from across the country and globe descending on the Brighton seaside for The Great Escape every May, fans are urged to book their accommodation early. Festival dates at recommended hotels are available for booking now via The Great Escape website HERE.
THE GREAT ESCAPE 2025 LINE UP SO FAR (A-Z):
Allie Sherlock
Ashaine White
Betty
Brògeal
CATTY
Chameleon Lime Whoopiepie
Chloe Qisha
Chloe Slater
Citizen Papes
Clara Kimera
Cliffords
common goldfish
corto.alto
Curtisy
Daffo
Disgusting Sisters
Elinborg
Ellie O’Neill
Eivør
Enji
JD Cliffe
Jessy Blakemore
Kaicrewsade
Keo
Konyikeh
Laundromat Chicks
Loshh
Luvcat
Marysia Osu
Miss Kaninna
mudi sama
Nap Eyes
Nectar Woode
Nick Ward
NO CIGAR
Orgelo
PUNCHBAG
Queen Cult
Ray Bull
Rizzle Kicks – Spotlight Show
RUBII
Saïna
Sirens of Lesbos
South Summit
The Klittens
The Orchestra (For Now)
The Stingrays
Tia Gostelow
TTSSFU
urika’s bedroom
Zimmer90
