Words: Róisín Warner

The Great Escape is well known for promoting the cream of up-and-coming musical talent from all over the world. We head-hunt incredible diverse acts for your pleasure and we have put together a list of some of artists we are proud to have as part of our TGE Alumni. Feast your eyes on the likes of successful artists before they were famous, from Foals at the second Great Escape, teenage Laura Marling, and Haim one year ago. Here they are, part two of "TGE Alumni: Then & Now"...

Laura Marling - TGE 2008
Sallis Benney Theatre


What we said then:
"Whilst Lily Allen, Adele & Kate Nash fight it out over who's more Lahhndaahn, Laura Marling is positively anti-Ze Capital. The Reading-based singer-songwriter's debut album was made up of bewitching, melancholic vignettes that belittled her not-yet-out-of-teens age and onstage she's just as enchanting."


Where is she now?
Laura Marling has been nominated for awards almost every year since 2008, her debut album Alas, I Cannot Swim (2008) and second album I Speak Because I Can (2010), were nominated for the Mercury Music Prize. In 2011 she won Best British Female at the BRIT Awards and Best Solo Artist at the NME Awards. And since then she has been nominated for best (British) female and solo artist at Q Awards, BRIT Awards, NME Awards.

Marling has enjoyed playing festivals all over the country and completed her solo tour of The US last year. Earlier this year she released her widely acclaimed fourth album Once I Was An Eagle and then stepped back into glamorous 1920 Britain when she performed at a Secret Cinema event at the fictitious "Grand Eagle Hotel' in July this year.

Vampire Weekend - TGE 2008
Concorde 2


What we said then:
"Vampire weekend make brilliant pop music. The widely available school of thought that they sound like Paul Simon is actually a load of bollocks, but probably stems from their say-yes-to-everything approach to instrumentality and a startling ability to attach their choruses, leech-like, to your subconscious. Band of the year?"


Where are they now?
Within two years of playing TGE '08 , Vampire Weekend played most major festivals in The USA and the UK, from Coachella to Glastonbury as well as playing festivals in Asia, Oceania and Europe. Their music has appeared in indie and hit films and television programmes from The Inbetweeners to The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. There are no limits to what Vampire Weekend will achieve!

Foals - TGE 2007
Concorde 2


What we said then:
"Hot new thangs Foals will reduce you to mere idiots with their bleepy, arty-angular indie mind meld ray."


Where are they now?
Six years and three albums later, Foals released Holy Fire earlier this year. Foals won the NME Award for Best Track for the second year in a row, this year with Inhaler. They are currently continuing their quest for world domination as they tour North America with sold out dates, before heading down under and coming back to Europe. 2013 has been a busy year for the band and it's great to see an early Great Escape band fledge into something magnificent.

The xx - TGE 2008
Ocean Rooms


What we said then:
"It's a bit of a silly name, but names are getting harder and harder to come by nowadays. Don't let that put you off, though - the murky, electro-sludge of this London-based band is well worth a listen."


Where are they now?
After XX (2009) the band's debut album was met with top class reviews from The NME and Rolling Stone, it broke the band enabling them to tour with the likes of Friendly Fires and The Big Pink. The xx were nominated for Best British Album, Best British Breakthrough and Best British Band at the BRIT Awards 2011 after XX won the Mercury prize for the best British and Irish album of the year 2010.

They have since released Coexist (2012), and their music has been featured in prestigious fashion shows and hit TV shows in Britain and America. And more recently the xx contributed Together to Baz Luhrmann's movie The Great Gatsby. They are currently on tour in North and South America until the end of the year.

Example - TGE 2008
The Pressure Point


What we said then:
"West London's rising rapper Example makes are-shaking electro-scuzz, his raps twisting and turning around dance-floor-dominating synth-riffs and injected with venomous wit that serves up notice to your eardrums that they are now The Property Of Example."


Where is he now?
Example's second album release Won't Go Quietly (2010) was the catalyst for his success as it hit the UK Albums Chart at number 4 before his third album Playing in the Shadows (2011) hit number 1 with two number 1 singles. Example has since released The Evolution of Man (2012), collaborated with the likes of the Pet Shop Boys and has plans to release his fourth album next year. He has announced that he is going a slightly different direction, with less rap, more rave. We're excited to know if he can pull it off, although judging on the huge success of Kickstarts we're sure he's on to a winner.

Haim - TGE 2012
Psychoscoial & Audio


What we said then:
"These three Californian sisters strike a pleasing balance between pert, pristine folk-pop, R&B beats and clipped instrumentation."


Where are they now?
Where aren't they now? The Haim girls have hit it big time and haven't even released their first album! The LA trio have skipped across America and the Pacific Ocean to conquer England within a year. Last year they supported Mumford & Sons in the US, and then Florence and the Machine in the UK following their first UK tour. Since the music industry voted Haim the most promising new music acts of 2013 in the BBC's annual Sound of 2013 poll, we can only predict great things for Haim...

Haim's debut album Days Are Gone is set to be released 27th September this year.