2000s
The Strokes’ Is This It album sparked an indie revival in 2001, which was reflected by an increased demand for live music throughout the ‘00s. The success of bands like the Libertines and the Arctic Monkeys inspired a generation to pick up guitars, and Brighton was given its very own festival – The Great Escape – in 2006, focusing largely on showcasing new music. Meanwhile, 2003 saw the opening of the Brighton and Hove Medical School, and long-serving Chancellor Richard Attenborough was succeeded by Sanjeev Bhaskar in 2009.
The Kooks
From The Argus, February 2007: Two members of rock band The Kooks made a surprise appearance before hundreds of students. Singer Luke Pritchard and guitarist Hugh Harris, from the Brighton chart-toppers, played a secret gig at the East Slope Bar at the University of Sussex in Falmer, Brighton.
Fans filled the 200-capacity bar and crowded outside, desperate to get a glimpse of the stars performing after rumours spread round campus that they were there on Tuesday night. Student Neil Hawkins said: "It was amazing, the atmosphere in the place was really good."
Mystery Jets
From The Badger, October 2008: "When Blaine and drummer Kapil talk about their acoustic set on campus last year at East Slope bar...their appreciation is clear. ‘It was wicked – a really pleasant surprise,’ says Blaine. ‘I think East Slope was my best gig of the whole tour.’ Adds Kapil.
Blaine continues, ‘It was a really odd tour. It was kind of pitched by the record label – quite cynically – to appeal to the student population of all these towns, and we we’re kind of like, “Well, we’ll see how it goes”, but Sussex was one of the first ones we did and they were really into it. By the end I think we did Preston, and that was enough. We kind of cancelled the last couple of them…’
Amy Winehouse
"I was there when Amy Winehouse played at Falmer Bar. It was a lunchtime and since she was completely unknown at that point, no one listened to her (it was just before her first album was released; I had a friend who knew her in London). When I congratulated her at the end she looked pretty depressed since there had been only - maybe - two tables of hungry students that had bothered to listen to her - the rest had continued chatting and eating. She had an amazing voice, it was a shame people didn't notice at the time." - Saskia Hampton (English 2002)
(Image courtesy of Wikipedia)
Animal Collective
Animal Collective, Gardner Arts Centre, 10 May 2003