‘VARIOUS ARTISTS’ – ‘234 FEST’, GREEN DOOR STORE, BRIGHTON 29.9.24
The Green Door Store music venue in Brighton have been supporting local grassroots music and night clubbing for thirteen years and this weekend they hosted their popular annual ‘234 Fest’, which featured no less than 20 bands performing across the two days. The free entry event is aimed at highlighting the plethora of exciting new up-and-coming local talent. It’s fair to say that the ‘234 Fest’ is just like a mini Great Escape new music festival, as the selected bands perform half hour showcase sets to eager punters who are searching for the next big thing or who are simply out for a decent afternoon and evening entertainment. The festival takes its name from the Green Door Store’s location, which is Unit 2, 3, & 4 Trafalgar Arches, Lower Goods Yard, Brighton Train Station, Brighton, BN1 4FQ.
We are now going to concentrate on Day Two of the Fest, this being the Sunday. If you missed our account of Saturday, then you can read it HERE.
Without further ado, let’s get down to the action. Here’s our account of Day Two:
Sunday 29th September 2024:
Tinman (2pm)
After the loud rock sounds of Saturday at ‘234 Fest’, Sunday was generally a less raucous affair. The opening band Tinman (stylised as TINMAN) with their psychedelic folk hit the right note for the Sunday afternoon. Tinman is a five-piece band, led by songwriter and frontman Austin Pritchard, which blends acoustic guitar, piano synthesiser, bass and drums to craft dreamy melodies and four-part vocal harmonies.
There was a good size crowd in early for Tinman, whose set started with a very mellow feel. One noticeable observation was how Miles’s keyboards were not an afterthought as with some guitar bands, but central to the band’s sound. It was interesting to hear how Tinman’s sound has developed from smooth folk to incorporate more variety. On some instrumental sections of songs, notably ‘The Paradox’ and their closing number ‘Out Of Shape’, there was a much punchier, louder side to the band. On an instrumental track ‘Aviation’, it bordered on a folk-rock break. During those parts the band never lost their psychedelic almost mystical sound. Tinman fittingly closed their Sunday afternoon set gently to Scott Pearce’s flute. I thought it was the best performance I’ve seen from Tinman, adding variety and good changes in tempo throughout their set.
Tinman:
Austin Pritchard – lead vocal, guitar
Miles Goodall – keyboard, vocals
Vale Tesorone – guitar, keyboard, backing vox
Scott Pearce – bass, flute
Tom Tollyfield – drums
(Peter Greenfield)
Goodbye (3pm)
Making only their third ever live performance, and their first of Sunday were exciting new band Goodbye (stylised as goodbye). They had an evening show at The George Tavern in East London afterwards.
Goodbye’s first song ‘MEAT’ had a sublime intro which climbed after a few bars and built into an impressive wall of sound, while their second song, ‘Stoic Friend’, had an indie pop feel. The rich quality of Megan Wheeler’s vocals was clear throughout Goodbye’s performance. Her soft, husky, and soaring ethereal voice was one of my highlights of the weekend. As were her vocal harmonies with Sarah Ryan the guitarist and keyboards. There was another vocal duo during Goodbye’s set. It was guitarist Alfie Beer’s granny’s 80th birthday, and he was joined on stage by his brother Bertie to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to her over the phone. The audience also joined them on backing vocals. It was a lovely touch! Alfie also took lead vocals on ‘The Boy’ which showed influences of The Smiths with its jangly guitars. Goodbye close another great performance with ‘Tolgus Wartha’. Elik Eddy’s drumming shone in particular on this number as he set an increasingly faster tempo, which the others matched and above which Megan’s soaring voice shone.
The contrast between the two days at ‘234 Fest’ could be best summed up by bassist Jake Smith’s two appearances, first on Saturday for Jar Of Blind Flies and on Sunday with Goodbye. He gave two great performances, both very different in style.
Goodbye:
Megan Wheeler – vocals
Sarah Ryan – guitar, synth, vocals
Alfie Beer – guitar, vocals
Jake Smith – bass
Elik Eddy – drums
(Peter Greenfield)
Glasshouse Red Spider Mite (4pm)
Alex, Anthony, Benji, and Ethan are Brighton band Glasshouse Red Spider Mite, who first emerged on to the circuit in early 2023. Interestingly, they played their first headline show here at the Green Door Store and have also dropped their first single ‘Erstwhile’ which came out back in March. Their musical influences include Scottish post-rock band Mogwai, California’s Duster and Nebraskan born Elliott Smith who sadly took his own life back in 2003 by ‘apparently’ stabbing himself twice in the chest. One could argue at ‘The Mites’ own sound falls under the banner of slow core and post-rock, with a smattering of psych.
The quartet unobtrusively grace us with their presence of around half an hour and in that time quite possibly only gave us four tunes. 1-2-3-4 sub 3-minute punks they are not and so would definitely be appreciated by the likes of ‘Whispering’ (“Mock Rock”) Bob Harris, who I have NEVER been a fan of! The first thing I noticed about ‘The Mites’ this afternoon is that Benji’s cymbal is at an unusual side position as opposed to lying flat. In fact I can ever recall seeing this before! He is also using brushes instead of drumsticks. They begin with a drums and guitar combo which has the effect of a droning sound. The composition builds slowly and calmly and swirling guitar sounds are a specialty of this quartet, with plenty of pedals hooked ups. I note the use of an EBow (electronic bow/energy bow) and it’s evident that these chaps can master their instruments very well. After their second song finished, they stood almost motionless and tuned their guitars and bass whilst a tape recording of spoken words played out for a couple of minutes. This seemed a strange thing to do. Their Sunday afternoon set ambled on and it was as if punk had never happened! Bring on ‘New Rose’ I say!
Glasshouse Red Spider Mite:
Alex – bass, vocals
Antony – lead guitar
Ethan – guitar, vocals
Benji – drums
linktr.ee/glasshouseredspidermite
(Nick Linazasoro)
Vanity Fairy (5pm)
I guess you’ve heard the saying “as mad as a box of frogs”, well you could arguably say this of Daisy Capri’s alter ego Vanity Fairy, especially if following on from the last three bands who were rather similar. Coming at you like a giant disco ball rolling down a mountain is one way of summing up this particular set. I’m pretty sure that, unlike myself, a vast majority of the punters had not previously had the pleasure of experiencing the off-the-wall Vanity Fairy set before, the poor darlings didn’t know what hit them! Imagine winding the clock back to 1977 and ‘Saturday Night Fever’ is all the rage, Giorgio Moroder has just dropped his epic ‘From Here To Eternity’ single and album of the same name and Chic have just unleashed ‘Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)’ and the space disco genre is literally around the corner with Dee D. Jackson’s ‘Automatic Lover’. OK got that?
Now riding off the back of that three years down the disco road is Kelly Marie’s ‘Feels Like I’m In Love’. Back then you find yourself out in town and enter a neon lit bar and in one corner a sequinned being emerges from behind the red drapes and offers up over the top karaoke songs. Your brain is thinking “What the hell’s going on here” and you believe that you should leave the establishment post-haste, but your feet keep you there and you realise that you should hate it but in fact you have just stumbled across your guilty pleasure. You can’t help yourself, as you find yourself warming to the quirky person and actually really enjoying the music and before you know it you are absorbed into that person’s own universe! Well folks, this is exactly what it is like when you observe a Vanity Fairy set. Daisy is awkwardly funny and loves to engage her parishioners with her comedic banter in between songs which are pre-recorded and presumably recorded by Daisy. Her over the top dance moves always bring a smile to one’s face.
This afternoon’s set commences with ‘Sentimental Lover’ and is followed by ‘He Can Be Your Lady’ and ‘Vanity’s Dream’ after which self promoting naughty playing cards are tossed into the crowd. ‘Superstar’ is the next selection and Daisy climbed atop the back speakers and then came down and mingled with her new bemused friends. There were cowbells a plenty as the disco ditties kept on coming and she signed off with her recent ‘Top Of The Pops’ single.
Vanity Fairy will be returning to Brighton as support artist for Altered Images at Concorde 2 on 19th October – Tickets HERE.
Vanity Fairy:
Daisy Capri – vocals, presets
(Nick Linazasoro)
Welly (5:35pm)
Amazingly, some of our team had worked out a few days ago that the ‘234 Fest’ secret act this year was to be the rather wonderful Welly. Suffice to say that we weren’t one bit displeased with this, as we knew that Welly and his chums (Hanna Witkamp – keyboards, percussion; Joe Holden-Brown – guitar; Matt Gleeson – guitar; and Jacob Whitear – bass) always put on an energetic ear-worm filled set. This performance immediately followed on from Vanity Fairy’s in the main performance room, but this Welly set was taking place in the corner of the bar, which was much more cramped than their enjoyable set just three days earlier up at The Con Club in Lewes – Review HERE.
Suffice to say everyone this afternoon were packed in like sardines as the loveable quintet kicked off with a warm-up acapella of The Foundations ‘Build Me Up Buttercup’, before launching in to ‘It’s Not Like This In France’. Unusually, it appears that today is a dress down day for the up-and-coming band as their trademark school gym wear must have been in the wash after their ‘National Service’ tour which has just finished. Hanna was particularly pleased with the dress-down as she was allowed to put on her striking red lipstick, which is of course banned in school.
Next up was ‘Soak Up The Culture’ from their recent ‘Cul-de-Sac’ EP, a tune which discusses gap years. After this Welly jokingly informed us that the next track is about ‘Infinity Foods’, this being ‘Shopping’, which can also be found on their EP. During this tune, Jacob somehow broke his bass guitar strap, but they eventually managed to play on. They were (as always) going down a storm. Quite often with these bar sets, the vocalists and sometimes other members head on off into the crowd, but I guess the fans were so tightly packed that this might not have been possible, so Welly did a spot of climbing instead. The Welly feel-good-factor continued with ‘Cul-de-Sac’ and rounded off nicely with my fave of theirs, this being the 2022 ‘Me And Your Mates’ single. It was a short set, but a corker!
Welly:
Welly – vocals
Hanna Witkamp – keyboards, percussion
Joe Holden-Brown – guitar
Matt Gleeson – guitar
Jacob Whitear – bass
(Nick Linazasoro)
Ideal Living (6pm)
Back on the main stage after Welly’s bar set, were Ideal Living. A few technical issues delayed the start of their set, but it was well worth the wait. Ideal Living are an exciting art-rock group led by Billy Marsh, who had a very captivating style, often appearing angry and agitated. His spoken word delivery ranged from a softer side as if reciting a poem as on a new song ‘Go Gently’, to shouting and even screaming out desperately to get his message across without delay. He often varied his delivery within songs. His mannerisms and facial expressions, often theatrical, matched his vocals, adding to the performance. Contrasting that, ‘Roam’ featured a stunning a cappella section started by bassist Alyx Ashton and included the whole band.
Musically there was a dark moody side to Ideal Living’s sound, which the trumpet and keyboards helped create. This changed for the last to number. ‘Down’ was introduced as “This is one to dance to”, with its glam rock beat. Ideal Living closed with a softer song, ‘Chocolate And Wine’. It featured a great bass line by Alyx and the different guitar styles of Billy and Austin Pritchard worked well together.
Ideal Living return to headline the Green Door Store on Saturday 26th October – Tickets available HERE.
Ideal Living:
Billy Marsh – lead vocals, bass
Austin Pritchard – guitar, backing vocals
Alyx Ashton – bass, backing vocals
Miles Goodall – keyboard, backing vocals
Bertie Beer – drums, backing vocals
Jamie Broughton – trumpet, egg shaker, drum
Freddy – saxophonist (not present tonight)
(Peter Greenfield)
Van Zon (7pm)
Experimental post-rockers Van Zon were next up. This enigmatic five-piece featured multiple lead vocalists, guitar, violin, keys, clarinet, bass and drums. Van Zon’s innovative side was evident from the opening notes of ‘She Moves Through The Fair’ as Charlie West played his guitar with a violin bow. There was a beautiful mystical folk style to Van Zon’s sound, which had a haunting dream-like quality. It simultaneously had the feel of a long bygone era yet was remarkably fresh and new. It was almost minimalist at times. But when it rose, as on that opening number, Mina Alexander’s voice rose with it.
The lead vocal duties were shared around between the band, with each bringing something different to the mix. While Charlie’s voice often had a soft folk quality to it, on one introduced as an old one. ‘Cannon Fodder’ he mixed it up with angry screaming in parts. Mina’s violin matched the change in mood perfectly on those sections.
On a new untitled song in their set, their drummer Ewan Vellinga switched to acoustic guitar. Daniel Scott-Warren’s clarinet part stood out on this song. Van Zon closed another impressive showing with a different sound on a more contemporary upbeat number, which still kept their magical style.
Van Zon:
Mina Alexander – violin and vocals
Charlie West – guitar and vocals
Lottie Skala – bass and vocals
Ewan Vellinga – drums and acoustic guitar
Daniel Scott-Warren – clarinet, keyboards and laptop
(Peter Greenfield)
Flip Top Head (8pm)
Flip Top Head are a seven-piece band whose orchestral post-rock sound merges shoegaze soundscapes with jazz-influenced post-punk. This was the first time I had seen Flip Top Head since trombonist Alfie Beer had left to form Goodbye. His place was taken by Alyx Ashton (who had appeared earlier with Ideal Living) on saxophone and flute. Flip Top Head’s set started with Bowie Bartlett’s spoken word narrative to Alyx’s saxophone.
On Sunday there seemed to be even more variety from Bowie’s vocals. There was her distinctive ethereal otherworldly voice, as well as her narrative style. At times she almost shouted out the lyrics showing the more powerful side of her voice. After an earlier rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ with his brother during Goodbye’s set, Bertie Beer took turns on lead vocals for Flip Top Head, often with Bowie’s haunting backing vocals providing a perfect accompaniment.
Amongst their catchy melodies and harmonies with multiple layers of instruments, there was a wonderful unpredictable nature to Flip Top Head with bursts of sound within their songs. Their song structures seemed to have a free jazz format, with Marie Friess’s bass lines adding a funkier feel. All through the set Harry Giles’s drumming was incredibly tight, even when he played half a song with only one drumstick.
Flip Top Head announced they are launching their debut EP at Alphabet on Wednesday 13th November – Tickets available HERE.
Flip Top Head:
Bowie Bartlett – vocals
Bertie Beer – vocals and guitar
Ollie White – guitar and synth
Marie Friess – bass
Harry Giles – drums
Harrison Spooner – guitar
Alyx Ashton – saxophone and flute
(Peter Greenfield)
Ellis.D (9pm)
Ellis·D (stylised as ELLiS·D) blends the glam-rock extravagance of Marc Bolan and New York Dolls, and new wave art pop of Talking Heads to create something uniquely contradictory. Their opening number ‘Chasing The Blue’ with its thumping drums from Jed Johnson and fast guitars was typical of Ellis·D’s fast, energetic live shows. It had a clever cheeky way of building to a crescendo. then stopping sharply and restarting with another musical frenzy. Later in the set, Ellis would playfully tease the audience with a cheeky grin, as they thought the song may have finished, and he said “Not yet” as the band then played a few more bars.
Their second track ‘Humdrum’ had a fresh take on 1960’s psychedelic rock and soon got the Green Door Store crowd dancing. ‘Degenerate Effeminate’ was a relatively slower number, the pace of which rose and fell in cleverly constructed step changes.
Ellis gave another very charismatic performance, which was matched with the quality of his vocal acrobatics, often explosive and sometimes more abstract. Ellis’s vocals reminded me at times of David Byrne and Marc Bolan. Among the loud quiet structure of ‘Homecoming Queen’, the slower sections showed another softer side to Ellis’s vocals. For the last two numbers in the set ‘Shakedown’ and ‘Drifting’ some of the enthusiastic dancing turned into a bit of a moshpit. Ellis·D gave the loudest and fastest set of Sunday at this year’s ‘234 Fest’. The quality and tightness of the musicians to increase the tempo, when you thought it was as fast as it was going to get, was remarkable, and will be a lasting memory of my ‘234 Fest’ experience.
ELLiS.D:
Ellis D – vocals and guitar
Sammy Jones – bass
Oscar Godfrey – tambourine and backing vocals
Jed Johnson – drums
Charlie Hales – guitar
Ben Buckley – keyboards
(Peter Greenfield)
Hutch (10pm)
Local four-piece band Hutch, who accurately describe themselves as “Twang-Pop Post Yacht-Rock Soft Psychers” were the final band on stage at this year’s ‘234 Fest’. Their sound was built around 1960’s guitars and Jack Pritchard’s distinctive soft vocals. At times it reminded me of 1970’s Beach Boys after the ‘Sunflower’ album. Hutch mixed up their set with some punchier soft rock parts and some very ingenious intricate guitar work. As well as backing vocals, Dan Shepherd took the lead on one song.
One of the most noticeable features of Hutch’s performance was their refreshing innocence and sense of fun on stage. They did not seem to be taking themselves over seriously, which I should add didn’t distract from their music and added to the upbeat happy feel of their performance. Another was their connection with the audience at the Green Door Store, who probably should get a mention as “backing vocals” in the line up below, as many sang along to their favourite Hutch songs. During their set, Jack mentioned how they enjoyed playing the Green Door Store and how they felt honoured to headline the final day. Hutch were clearly a popular choice to close the two days of music by those who stayed to the end to see their set.
Hutch:
Jack Pritchard – lead vocals, guitar
Dan Shepherd – guitar, backing vocals
Charlie Bogg – bass, backing vocals
Owen Bullock – drums, backing vocals
(Peter Greenfield)
Read our accounts of post-Covid lockdown ‘234 Fest’s’ below:
