Ten years ago the charity Oxjam launched its month-long music festival Oxjam, which takes place every October. It's made up of hundreds of events happening all around the UK, all run by volunteers with all the money raised going towards funding the good work Oxfam does around the world. Brighton was a bit late to the party but the Brighton Takeover event has been running solidly for the last four years and has hosted an amazing variety of bands at numerous venues over the years. After scanning through the list of about 70+ bands and a dozen or so venues I filled my schedule up with a selection of bands I’d heard of but not seen, old favourites and the odd random act, then headed out into town to see what this year had in store.

I started off with the opening band Alternate Function at this year’s hub, The Price Albert.

This young band provided the perfect ease into the festival with their pleasant mix of melodic tuneful rock with the occasional heavy rock out parts. The singer and guitarist Joe has the perfect voice for this three-piece outfit and is backed up with droney guitars, slapping bass and captivating drumming. They have some good rock anthems in the set and more than enough head banging moments to get me into the mood for the rest of the day.

Next I headed up to the Junkyard Dogs cafe on Edward Street, in the pouring rain, catching the end of Kieren Dacey’s set. A smooth collection of humorous, downbeat, laid back tunes including a slowed down version of Supergrass’ ‘Rooster’ song. Though it was the following act Amelia Barnard that I had headed here to see and was glad I made the effort. Despite apologising for her voice being slightly off because she was still recovering from the flu, she pulled off a captivating set of tracks, mostly her own songs with a few covers thrown in. Her songs were confidently and forcefully delivered, kicking off with a track about music being her only friend, something many music lovers could relate to. Another of her songs called ‘Street Lights’ was about one of those trips home after a heavy night’s drinking where the world looks beautiful, magical and anything is possible. The covers included Kanye West’s 'Heartless' which caught everyone’s attention when she introduced it. She went on to explain that she was doing it in the same style as The Fray had, when they performed it on the BBC’s Late Lounge, and she did an equally good job of covering the song.

I wrapped up my afternoon session with Prisms back at The Prince Albert before sneaking off for a bite to eat and 45 minutes of footie. Prisms have a very laid-back dreamy sound overlaid with melodic instrumentals, with the occasional drawn-out vocal bathed in reverb. With the addition of modulated loops and some tribal rhythms it was diverse enough to keep your attention and lull you into their music.

After my break I headed up to The Rose Hill Tavern to see if I could catch half an hour of their “Spirit of Gravity and Beatabet all dayer of leftfield live music and improvisation music”, but unfortunately I caught them at a slow changeover time, so did not catch any of the music. Returning to The Prince Albert just after grasshopper had hit the stage, I first saw this band four years ago when they were the opening band at Oxjam playing in a pub to only a few people. Since then they have been through a few changes as well as collecting a healthy number of glowing reviews, impressive concerts and a steadily growing fan-base. Tonight they were down to a three-piece and this seemed to make the music sound even more gothic. Although it seemed to be lacking something that the duel guitars used to give the music, to my ears. It was not helped by the fact the guitar did not really seem to cut through the mix as it should have done. I’m not sure if their other guitarist Hannah was just unable to make it or if they are going through another change but unfortunately it was not quite hitting the spot for me tonight.

I then decided to break my carefully planned out schedule and wandered across the road to Under The Bridge Studios to see what was going on there. Gatera were on stage in the front studio as I got there, just wrapping up a song before switching to acoustic guitars for a bit of a flamenco number. Once they returned to the full electric, the band rejoined the stage and the Spanish vibe continued but with a more rocked-up feel to it. In places it was a little bit messy but the whole band played with passion and fun and it was a fun intimate gig in the little studio room. As they wrapped up, the music kicked off in the even smaller and even more intimate back room, where the punk band # (Hashtag) took up half the space. I only stayed for a couple of songs but they played heavy punky rock, well delivered and very in-your-face. They said they were planning a few more intimate gigs and are well worth catching if you can track them down. If you are going to shout about something it’s often politics and this band were delivering the goods with the track 'Selling the country', dedicated to the late Maggie Thatcher of course.

Then back to The Albert for the last time to check out Dead Whisky. The band is about as classic blues rock as the name implies. Both the guitarist and bassist take turns on the vocals with songs about life, whisky and women. With some nice bits of slide guitar and all the usual southern America blues rock tricks you get what you expect with no surprises but it was still an enjoyable listen.

Then I thought I’d check out what was going on at Synergy Music Hall’s electronic music event. As I got there The Private Sector were onstage. Probably the less I say about that the better. They were followed by Arcimago, who will be supporting John Carpenter at the Dome a week later, and he was much better. Simple catchy loops, mostly with a nice dirty bass loop and a simple melody dancing around over the top. Nothing too gripping but enjoyable to listen to and built up to an anthemic level in places. It was nice to just chill out there on the sofa and let the music wash over me.

My final journey was back to the other end of town at Bleach where One Eyed Jacks were wrapping up their set. I’d caught this lot at Together The People Festival over the summer and they caught my attention there. They sounded even better in the confines of the venue, their seriously funky sounds filled the room and got everyone dancing. I think this is a band I’m going to have to keep an eye on and try to catch their whole set sometime soon.

What seems to be an Oxjam Brighton tradition is having the Carnival Collective closing the event and they wrapped things up at Bleach with their usual set of very danceable, high energy tribal drums and swing sounds. Accompanied by their brass section and a couple of singers they got everyone dancing around like crazy and it was the perfect way to burn off that last bit of energy after a very full day of music. If you have never experienced the Carnival Collective do their thing then you really should, it’s something you will never forget.

It was another very enjoyable Oxjam Brighton again for me, with twice as many acts on the bill as the first year I went. There were even more bands I would have liked to have seen but there is only so much you can squeeze into one day. Whatever your taste of music there was something to match your mood going on somewhere during the festival and the extra feel-good factor of knowing all the profits are going to a good cause makes this one of the perfect ways to see a lot of bands for less than you would often pay to see one or two bands around town.
Jonski Mason

oxjambrighton.co.uk
facebook.com/OxjamBrightonTakeOver

Alternate Function
facebook.com/AlternateFunctionBand

Kieran Dacey
facebook.com/kierandaceymusic

Amelia Barnard
ameliabarnard.com

Prisms
facebook.com/Prisms-1107713682624310

grasshopper
facebook.com/bandgrasshopper
Gatera
facebook.com/gateramusic

#(Hashtag)
hashtagband.net
Dead Whisky
deadwhisky.co.uk

The Private Sector
facebook.com/theprivatesector.xyz

Arcimago
facebook.com/ciaoarcimago

One Eyed Jacks
facebook.com/One-Eyed-Jacks-1414502918863762

Carnival Collective
facebook.com/CarnivalCollective