Scotland at The Great Escape 2023
photo by Cameron Brisbane
Scotland returns to The Great Escape (10-13 May) with 16 Amazing acts!
Scottish acts performing at TGE 2023
Becky Sikasa
Calum Bowie
Christy
Dylan John Thomas
Helen Ganya
Humour
The Joy Hotel
Katie Gregson-MacLeod
LVRA
Redolent
Rianne Downey
Siights
Spyres
Terra Kin
VLURE
Yabba
photo by Jannica Honey
Scottish Showcases
Thursday 11 | 12:00-16:00 | Horatio’s
Friday 12 | 12.00-16.00 | Brighthelm
THURSDAY
15:30 : Katie Gregson-MacLeod
14:30 : Redolent
13:30 : Dylan John Thomas
12:30 : Calum Bowie
FRIDAY
15:30 : The Joy Hotel
14:30 : Christy
13:30 : Terra kin
12:30 : Rianne Downey
photo by Jannica Honey
Scotland’s Networking Reception at The Great Escape
Thursday 11 May | 17.30-19.30 CST
The Old Ship Hotel (Kings Road, BN1 1NR) Map
Connect with Scotland's music industry and showcasing artists and enjoy a selection of Scottish delicacies at the Old Ship Hotel!
Join Wide Days and Creative Scotland at the Old Ship Hotel on Thursday 11 May from 17.30-19.30, to connect with key figures from the industry and the Scottish artists showcasing on Thursday and Friday!
Deep-fried confectionary and haggis will be served, along with soft drinks made from girders.
TGE SHOWS
Friday 12th May
12:15 Patterns (Upstairs)
Saturday 13th May
14:30 Three Wise Cats
Sikasa’s songs are scenes from life, art and literature. With a voice as versatile as it is grounded, she delves deep to tie her heart to her words. Trails of vocal harmony weave effortlessly through colourful arrangements to complete explorative, vibrant off-pop tracks. Songs about those questions of belonging, identity and connection. About being more than just one. About the belief in finding a home in the in-between. A home in music. For Becky Sikasa and for all those who listen.
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Calum Bowie
TGE SHOWS
Thursday 11th May
12:30 Horatio’s
Friday 12th May
20:30 Latest Music Bar
Calum Bowie is an Edinburgh based singer-songwriter from Banchory in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Since his debut release in 2018, Calum’s presence among the Scottish music scene has grown exponentially, with his captivating melodies and authentic lyrics fuelling his uplifting music.
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website | facebook | twitter | instagram | youtube | spotify | tiktok
Christy
TGE SHOWS
Thursday 11th May
14:30 ALPHABET
Friday 12th May
14:30 Brighthelm
Dylan John Thomas
TGE SHOWS
Thursday 11th May
13:30 Horatio’s
Thursday 11th May
23:15 Brighthelm
Dylan John Thomas is an up and coming singer songwriter from Scotland. Glasgow artist Dylan John Thomas has sold out both of his shows at Barrowlands set to take place in December.
The 24-year old singer-songwriter has sold out the two shows in his home city – selling out the iconic venue twice in just over two months.
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Helen Ganya
TGE SHOWS
Saturday 13th May
21:30 TGE Beach Stage
Brighton-based, Scottish-Thai musician Helen Ganya experiments with existentially-driven lyrics and off-kilter sounds to create a layered musical landscape. On her new album polish the machine (Bella Union), she stretches away from the suburban nightmare, seeking a cathartic reprieve that looks beyond the ordinary.
Her 2019 album Vanishing Lands explored environmental ruination via her monochrome dreams whilst 2017’s Consume Me, took influence from her own experiences of being mixed race. She has also toured as a session musician with post-punk band Fear of Men and alternative collective Lost Horizons, founded by Cocteau Twins’ member and Bella Union boss Simon Raymonde. Helen also produces and presents a regular radio show on Brighton’s Slack City, entitled Mixed Tapes, which highlights the work of musicians of colour.
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facebook l instagram l youtube l spotify l twitter l website
Humour
TGE SHOWS
Friday 12th May
21:30 TGE Beach Stage
Humour live together in Glasgow and formed across the 2021 lockdowns, writing and recording their material at home, with the music intended as a backdrop to Andreas' lyrics. Sometimes they’re about letting people down, sometimes they’re about pets dying, sometimes they’re about trying to say something when you don’t have anything worth saying.
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website I facebook I instagram I twitter I spotify I youtube
Katie Gregson-MacLeod
TGE SHOWS
Thursday 11th May
15:30 Horatio’s
Friday 12th May
20:15 Amazon New Music Stage
Hailing from Inverness in the Scottish Highlands and currently working in a coffee shop, Katie Gregson-MacLeod’s candid songwriting ability and stunning vocals have already captured a global audience. Released through Sony, ‘Complex’ follows the independently released single ‘Second Single Bed’ and her 2021 debut 5-track EP ‘Games I Play’. Katie has received support from BBC Music Introducing, Radio 1 and BBC Scotland, with Vic Galloway naming her one of BBC Scotland’s 25 Artists to Watch in 2022.
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LVRA
TGE SHOWS
Friday 12th May
00:15 Latest Music Bar
Born in Edinburgh to Chinese parents, 23-year-old singer and producer Rachel Lu emerged in 2020 under the moniker LVRA (pronounced loo-rah), an artist who draws from the molten core of industrial, hyperpop and deconstructed club music to crystallise a sound that’s both anthemic and experimental. Influenced by a vast array of left-field electronic artists such as Grimes, Eartheater, Shygirl, Coucou Chloe, Rosalia, and SOPHIE – LVRA is part of a new wave of artists providing a vital vision of club music that’s equally suited to the stadium as the basement.
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Redolent
TGE SHOWS
Thursday 11th May
14:30 Horatio’s
Friday 12th May
21:30 Horatio’s
Edinburgh-based, experimental five-piece Redolent have recentlyshared their anticipated dEP ‘make big money fast online now’ via Columbia Records. Their 5-tracker arrives alongside new single and video ‘Death In The Family’ placing Redolent as one of 2023’s most promising new bands.
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website I facebook I instagram I twitter I spotify I youtube I tiktok
Rianne Downey
TGE SHOWS
Friday 12th May
12:30 Brighthelm
Sunday 14th May
00:00 The Hope & Ruin
Country-indie lullabies with bite, sent to listeners from the equally beautiful and brutally honest heart of Scotland. Music to help us all get by when life isn’t easy.
With songs like Fuel To The Flame and Stand My Ground, the growing artist makes her first, big statements. They are her gentle way of raising a middle finger, then throwing it in the faces of every drag that ever pulled her down and banishing almost every thought of doubt she’d cast her own way.
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Siights
TGE SHOWS
Thursday 11th May
19:30 Zahara
SIIGHTS are a close knit duo of Mia and Toni: songwriters, producers, and multi instrumentalists doing everything themselves, the band’s music explores that limbo between happiness and heartbreak, empowerment and vulnerability. Born in Dublin and Glasgow
respectively, Mia and Toni first met by chance in Los Angeles, where they were hustling in the studio for others. A fish-out-of-water experience, even after the most grueling days, there proved to be an obvious connection between the pair (whether in the music they longed to make for themselves, or a shared Gaelic humour). As instant kindred spirits, Mia and Toni decided to put themselves first for a change instead, forming SIIGHTS.
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Spyres
TGE SHOWS
Friday 12th May
12:00 TGE Beach Stage
Making a name for themselves on stage, Spyres supporting credentials include The Jesus And Mary Chain, Nothing But Thieves, The Snuts, Soft Cult to name a few. In spite of the pandemic, in 2021 Spyres made serious ground in the live space in their own right. Their headline show at Glasgow’s King Tuts on the Summer Nights programme sold-out in less than 24 hours of the onsale date, and months later, the band sold-out London’s Old Blue Last, Glasgow’s Stereo and Edinburgh’s Mash House.
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Terra Kin
TGE SHOWS
Friday 12th May
13:30 Brighthelm
Friday 12th May
21:30 Unitarian Church
Terra Kin, “child of the earth”, hailing from Glasgow defines themself as a “weird little creature”. A love for jazz, ambient and folk music paired with a soft soulful voice collides into something she finds hard to genre bind. Terra considers everything to be fluid and aims to convey that both visually and sonically.
After a chance encoun on Instagram, Terra Kin featured as vocalist on the Fred Again track ‘Hannah (the sun)’ joining him on stage several times at his spectacular live shows to perform the song. Their intimate and immersive live show has not only sown the seeds of a devoted fan base, but has seen them invited to support Kokoroko, Macey Gray and Pip Millet and Charlie Burg among others.
Terra Kin’s debut EP is released on Island Records this October, with live shows throughout the year and beyond. Look out for the name on the tip of many tongues as one to watch for 2023.
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The Joy Hotel
TGE SHOWS
Thursday 11th May
22:15 Brighthelm
Friday 12th May
15:30 Brighthelm
The Joy Hotel is not so much a band as an experience. The Glasgow 7 piece – Emme, Luke, Juan, Jenny, Scott, Jack & Jack – bring a rolling musical thunder of influences to record and stage that may sound unknown and simultaneously familiar, and impossible to pin down. The call and responsevocal exchanges between Luke and Emme and the layered harmonies that evoke Laurel Canyon areat the centre of The Joy Hotel’s sound with a swirl of guitar, keys, singing bass lines and Scotty’s accomplished triangle playing making sure there is something new to discover in every song.About their vision for The Joy Hotel, singer/guitarist and songwriter Luke Boyce says “‘We want The Joy Hotel to be a multi-genre exploration that draws upon musical traditions and warps them into something new. What began as a creative partnership has grown into a gapless, cinematicexperience, all the while following the fundamental principles of good songwriting and story telling.”
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Vlure
TGE SHOWS
Thursday 11th May
21:15 Paganini Ballroom (The Old Ship)
Friday 12th May
19:00 Charles Street Tap
VLURE defy the rules, they rip up genre trends and create new ones. With a certain honesty and a visceral vulnerability, they confront you and get under your skin. They make you feel things, the way music should. The Glasgow five piece, made up of producers, poets, instrumentalists and multidisciplinary artists blur the lines between live electronics, modern production tech and the performance sensibilities of their post-punk contemporaries. Influenced by, and taking cues from everything from UK rave and trance to happy hardcore and leftfield pop, all packaged in a punk laced wrapper, self producing everything they have released til date, Vlure move genre around as if it was indeed fluid. Their synth laden hooks and heavy club influenced rhythms find their way twisting around emotionally confronting lyrics. The live performance presents itself in an intense, yet life affirming moment. Analogue synths bounce off samplers, live breakbeats and angular jagged guitars.
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Yabba
TGE SHOWS
Saturday 13th May
16:00 Volks
YABBA have raw and simple ambitions: to save music from mediocrity. YABBA is a carnal experience, one that takes the genre of rock n’ roll to dark places and spits it back out with its own gritty formulaic progressions carved into it. Within the first year of their existence, YABBA have seized attention with their dark and venomous sound. More a collective than a band, they do everything, they go everywhere musically, no limits. They create nothing from something and something from nothing. They go above and beyond all cultural norms to fecund a feeling in music that specialises in the dark and danceable.