Darwin Deez calls audience member ‘a massive jerk’ at Brighton’s Great Escape

Plus Delphic, Wild Beasts and Ellie Goulding play sets at the festival

Darwin Deez labelled an audience member “a massive jerk” after a confrontation during his gig at Brighton“s Great Escape festival last night (May 14).

The singer, who was playing at the Digital venue at the festival, made the announcement after the audience member managed to pull the lead out of one of his instruments halfway through the set, leading to mass boos from the rest of the crowd.

However, Deez and his band swiftly recovered and went on to play a set that included standout tracks ‘Radar Detector’, ‘Bedspace’ and ‘Constellations’. They finished the gig in extravagant fashion, performing synchronised dance moves to Beyonce‘s ‘Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)’ and The Simpsons‘Do The Bartman’.

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Elsewhere at the multi-venue bash, Wild Beasts packed out the Pavilion Theatre, despite coming onstage 30 minutes late. The band were in a light-hearted mood throughout their performance, though, with singer Hayden Thorpe joking before playing ‘All The Kings Men’ that “we’ve lost all our stage banter” due to a recent two-week break from touring.

Earlier in the day, newcomers Islet played an enthralling mid-afternoon slot at the Freebutt, complete with anarchic stage antics, whilst newcomers Best Coast also wooed festivalgoers back at Horatio’s with a set that included fan-favourite ‘Sun Was High (And So Was I)’.

Hotly-tipped Los Angeles four-piece Warpaint were up next as they played to a heaving crowd at the venue, but had to cut their set short due to time constraints.

However, after coming offstage the all-girl group decided to perform an impromptu gig “for anyone who wants to watch” outside the venue.

With that, they took just one guitar outside and performed a largely acapella version of ‘Billie Holiday’ to a dedicated congregation of fans and onlookers.

The band also hit it off with Egyptian Hip Hop, who followed them at the venue and played a rapturously received set, which saw them admit that they had been making the most of what Brighton had to offer by spending all day on the seaside town’s numerous arcade machines.

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Over at the Concorde 2 venue, Ellie Goulding pulled in a sizable crowd and showcased her debut album ‘Lights’, while Chew Lips got their audience dancing at Digital with a set that included singles ‘Salt Air’ and ‘Karen’, and atmospheric closer ‘Gold Key’. Frontwoman Tigs, clad in sequin trousers, joked around with the cheering crowd, at one point protesting that she was shy, before brashly saying: “Yeah…not really!”

Delphic rounded off day two of The Great Escape at the NME-curated bill at the Corn Exchange with a set that included singles ‘This Momentary’ and ‘Halcyon’.

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