The inaugural Brighton Psych Fest will take place on Friday 30th August featuring performances from some of the hottest acts on the scene including, The Horrors, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, NewDad, Juniore, bdrmm, La Lu, The Bug Club, Hutch, Divorce, Genn, Plantoid and many more. Building on the huge success of Manchester and Edinburgh Psych Fest, JOY presents an exciting new venture in the Southcoast, where they have built a reputation as one of the leading independent promoters.
Spanning across some of Brighton’s most iconic venues, this one day metropolitan festival promises to be a celebration of all things psychedelic. Two waves of acts have been announced already and today Brighton Psych Fest are thrilled to announce a stage entirely curated by comedian and celebrated music fanatic Stewart Lee. The handpicked artists chosen by Lee at Komedia are truly putting the ‘Psych’ in Brighton Psych Fest, featuring an eclectic mixture of genre bending, innovative musicians with an emphasis on talent in and around Sussex.
Lee said, “Brighton Psych Fest asked me to host and program a stage, which is reckless of them as the last thing I curated, the 2016 Prestatyn All Tomorrow’s Parties, went bust,” said Lee,” And no, I didn’t get paid either. Nonetheless, here’s a mind-melting day out of acid-hued action from five of my favourite acts, with minimal onstage interruptions from me.” He continues “I’ve tried to skew the selection towards Brighton and Hastings talent because sometimes we don’t always acknowledge the geniuses on our own doorsteps.”
Joining what is already set to be an impressive day of music, Stuart Lee’s carefully considered selection of five avant-garde artists are described in his own words below.
The Bevis Frond
“Nick Saloman’s enduring underground legends enter their thirty-eighth year utterly undimmed, surging inland from the seafronts of the South Coast with paisley power-pop anthems Teenage Fanclub would’ve clobbered them for, short sharp shocks of Wipers-influenced melodic hardcore, and vast electrical storms of duelling guitars that sound like the ‘70s Miles Davis band battling The Quicksilver Messenger Service. The Bevis Frond are a silver thread running through my life.”
The Physics House Band
“Like punk never happened, the Brighton trio offers ugly-beautiful instrumental progressive rock that aging King Crimson fans think no-one can play anymore, leavened with a pastoral psychedelic seasoning, a Mondrian mathematical complexity, and a sly sense of its own audacious absurdity.”
Alison Cotton
“Formerly a folk rocker with The Left Outsides, the Sunderland multi-instrumentalist currently essays vast John Cale-coloured string-drones with incantatory overtones, wrenching ritual music for our ruined land from the overbowed strings of her viola and the breathy bellows of the harmonium. A Nico for now.”
Eliza Skelton
“Like a cross between Steve Nicks and a Stygian witch that can see into your soul, this long-term low-key local legend finally goes solo, and delivers an immersive and smoothly cinematic epic acid-folk music of widescreen grandeur, wyrd enough to thrill weirdoes, yet classy enough to subversively snaffle the casual consumer.”
Secluded Bronte
“People who hate my stand-up often deny it even constitutes ‘comedy’. Doubtless many would wonder if the work of the veteran improvisatory trio Secluded Bronte should be considered ‘music’. Instruments may be involved, perhaps furniture, maybe even words, or all three in a chance collision of calculated heterogenity. All that is certain – time will pass, and something will happen. Start your day in a right state.”
Tickets are on sale now at brightonpsychfest.com
Stewart Lee photo credit: Jody Hartley
General admission tickets to Brighton Psych Fest are available to buy now from the following link: brightonpsychfest.com
