May 26, 2012

May 26th, 2012 • Introducing

Despite the likes of Austin’s SXSW and Brighton’s The Great Escape being little more than industry piss ups, where buzz bands are more or less pre-determined, thus rendering the idea of walking into a venue and discovering an exciting new artist void at worst and unlikely at best, it’s refreshing to learn that this utopian notion remains possible.

Indeed, during The Great Escape a week or so back, we came across local folky singer-songwriter Jade Hopcroft, who captured our attention for a full thirty minutes during her set at Life by the seaside, where she opened the “Jeah” event (also featuring the likes of I Dream In Colour, Escapists, Draper, Dems and Worship) at around noon.

This was no mean feat, having stumbled out of bed half an hour previously after a long night of ‘networking’. The cobwebs were removed quickly: like all good singers, Jade’s vocal was the highlight here, all Stevie Nicks ripping through “Rhianon” meets Laura Marling taking on “New Romantic”, it possessed that great head-turning, move-away-from-the-bar ability. What’s more, her songs appeared to be well-written, concise and memorable, with “The Game” and “Saint” (below) being two particular stand out moments (the latter’s chorus ingrained itself into our consciousness and didn’t leave for quite some time).

To date, Jade has slowly been establishing herself on the Brighton and London scenes, and we expect her name to appear in many more places before the year is up if she continues in this vein. First up, we’ve booked to her to play at the London leg of Jake Mattison’s “Sorrow” single launch on 7 June, where she’ll open things up at around 8pm, if you needed any further incentive to attend.

Tags: BRIGHTON, Jade Hopcroft, Jeah, Life, Saint, The Game, The Great Escape