The Great Escape: Where Are They Now?

With its unrivalled array of graduates from years gone by, we've picked out five of the best as the festival nears its 10th edition.

Ben Smith

Last updated: 13th Apr 2015

Image: The Great Escape

In anticipation of Europe's biggest festival for new music, we thought we'd dig through the archives to take a look back on years gone by.

When scouring the music programmes from down the years, you'd find it hard not to mistake them for line ups curated by the major festivals this year.

Amongst the sea of previous acts to have blessed The Great Escape's quarters, there is main stage headliners, mercury prize winners, chart toppers and more; confirming the festival to be a factory of the future festival elite.

Evidencing that thought, we picked out five acts to tell their story from then and now, giving you all the more reason to flock to the festival in search of tomorrow's artists, today.

Paolo Nutini - 2006

The beauty of this appearance is that Paolo was a relatively unknown entity at the time. Imagine that, a point when Paolo Nutini was just another name on a festival poster?

Of course that didn't last long due to the Scot's undeniable talents when given a mic and guitar (see him at Glastonbury above). His debut album These Streets came that year, the start of a trio of albums added to by Sunny Side Up and Caustic Love that all went multi-platinum.

Foals - 2007

It seems like they've been about for a decade (well they almost have), 'Cassius' played a major part in many of our teenage years during a golden period for indie music that was spawning bands like the Arctic Monkeys.

In 2007, Foals landed at TGE as yet another unknown force, one year before their high spirited math-rock debut Antidotes.

This day they've never lost their way, churning out incredible albums like their most recent Holy Fire. We suspect, and are probably correct in thinking that many chapters are still to be written for Foals, adding to another on-going story that started at The Great Escape.

Mumford & Sons - 2009

When Mumford & Sons appeared at the festival in 2009, they'd just released 'Little Lion Man', it was really that long ago.

That was only the start of a reign that produced the acclaimed album Babel played out at just about every festival you could imagine (see them at Reading the following year).

This year the folk-pop ensemble now find themselves in headline slots at Leeds and Reading, marking one of The Great Escape's biggest success stories to date.

Alt-J - 2012

The same year that they released their debut album An Awesome Wave, Alt-J appeared at the festival for the first time.

That album turned out to be Mercury Prize winning material, and what an awesome record it was.

They later returned in 2014 with a further masterpiece to their name, This Is All Yours was received with equal acclaim and even managed to sample in Miley Cyrus. This year they find themselves on a world tour (see them at Coachella above) before they take on just about every major festival in Europe.

Royal Blood - 2014

As the old cliché goes, consistency is key, so we thought we'd introduce you to one more band to have rocked the festival from just last year.

We're talking pre Ten Tonne Skeleton Royal Blood. You've all heard of them right? Of course you have, they're the hottest band on the circuit right now and they thrashed out songs like 'Out Of The Black' (above) at the festival last year.

The Great Escape takes place from Thursday 14th - Saturday 16th May in Brighton and tickets can be found here or via the ticket box below.

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