Tired and emotional after an extraordinary few days at The Alt Escape, The Decibel Decoder decided to head to The Shovel’s event which had been moved at the last minute to The Lewes Road Inn. To say I was delighted to find a spacious pub with plenty of table space would be an understatement! The venue is a little north of the centre of Brighton and so I thought I could quietly hide under my baseball cap and just watch and enjoy from my seat. How wrong I was! The utter joy of this community around live music, I bumped into a bunch of pals who were all into the music on today, such was the quality of the line-up. The day was billed a noise-rock all-dayer including a bundle of bands I hadn’t seen before.
The all-dayer was put on by local promoters The Shovel. Digging a little deeper I discovered their website where they state:
“The Shovel was born out of a growing frustration at the current state of the music industry. With a growing number of parasitic venues and promoters ripping artists off and not putting any care into the lineups they curate, along with an ongoing cost of living crisis that means it’s never been harder to survive as a musician. We decided to try and take it into our own hands and put on gigs fully organised by ourselves. We only put on bands we love and think work well together, so there is always some cohesive theme tying the lineups together.”
The Shovel Manifesto
All shows will be all ages and free to attend
All gigs will happen in fully DIY spaces – no formal venues
All set times will be available in advance and shows will finish early, in time for public transport
We will be fully transparent with all monetary transactions
All money will go directly to the bands playing or reinvested into equipment for future shows
Every set will be fully documented with both photos and videos
We will always collect donations for local food banks at every show
There will be be a first aid kit present at all events
We will leave as little a trace as possible after shows
Scared Little Toaster
MORN released their second single ‘The Standard Model’ along with B side ‘I Watched You as Your Mind Slipped Far (Away from Me)’, via Speedy Wunderground and were playing 6 gigs across The Great Escape / The Alt Escape. What an opportunity to see the Welsh 4-piece in such an intimate room.
Skunkworm include one of the promoters on bass, not only that but he was also on sound and could be seen jumping in and out the mosh pit throughout the day!
Before SOFT started playing they had to find their lead singer, who was seen chatting outside! A raucous set then commenced which starred an inflatable Pink Flamingo. Just don’t ask me how many people are in the band! By the way take note, SOFT had just played at Supersonic Block Party in Paris.
Rampressure
paper hats
gegenpress
There was something joyously inevitable about the end of the night which saw two thirds of Alien Chicks jump onstage with members of SOFT for a couple of songs to round off the day. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: “Live Music. Bloody Hell”.
Band(s) of the Day: MORN, SOFT
All Hail The Shovel.
For more information on The Shovel please check their website and instagram.
Photos Credit: Julia Mason