Live – VLURE at The Great Escape – Breaking Glass Magazine

VLURE, The Great Escape 2023, Brighton (11th May at Paganini Ballroom / 12th May at Charles Street Tap)

One of the joys of a festival is discovering new artists. However, there are times when you know you’ve already discovered the best artist there so why look elsewhere. After stealing the limelight and taking the roof off at Horatio’s in 2022, VLURE were back with two shows this year, once again blowing everything else out of the sea.

First up, at the invitation of Steve Lamacq and BBC Introducing, Paganini Ballroom saw justifiable queues down the street. As always, an intense and beguiling performance – made for the radio but fit for any media channel you’d care to pick. Dating back to the 17th century, Paganini offered a classy venue for a class act.

Over to Pias hosting at Charles Street Tap for show number two, a venue not without its tech issues throughout the day. Whatever problems were flagging up during line check were happily forgotten as another faultless set kicked in. With a multitude of genre-crossing sets happening all across Brighton there was a lot of talent on display at TGE, but the crown remains firmly with VLURE. Those who were there will come back, those who weren’t should make it their mission to be there next time.