THE MACCABEES + EDITORS + MILES KANE + ANNA CALVI + ASH + BADLY DRAWN BOY + LIME GARDEN – ‘ON THE BEACH’, BRIGHTON BEACH 25.7.26
In the mid-2000s post-Britpop hangover, any band with four chords and lyrics of lost love or boozy nights out could earn a record deal. While the likes of Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand avoided the label as they evolved, critical fatigue with early-2010s guitar music led to the term ‘Indie Landfill’ being coined as a catch-all. Unfairly caught amongst the criticism was The Maccabees. With fragile vocals and bouncing guitar lines, the group seemed to sum up young love and the mundane excitement of summer holidays with an earnestness that feels saccharine to the cynical.
While the bleeding-heart honesty had NME throwing up into their lukewarm pints of Carling, the band have been reevaluated. Whether this is due to nostalgia for breakfast radio, the memory of ‘Toothpaste Kisses’ from the soundtrack to ‘Angus, Thongs And Perfect Snogging’, or the discovery of their later records, their sentimentality has become endearing.
The Maccabees have become more than a nostalgia act with a point to prove following their 2025 reunion: they’re another reminder of just how harsh the music press can be. Arriving back in the city of Brighton, where they made their name, The Maccabees top a bill spanning indie’s past and present in an act of reframing their legacy.
If The Maccabees are the sound of youthful summers, opening act Lime Garden are the sound of the post-uni pissup – the anxious chats in the smoking area about what’s next as music blares in the background.
Opening with ‘Body’, the rhythmic interlock between Leila Deeley on lead guitar and Annabel Whittle on drums drives the melancholic euphoria. “You’ve got a long day of drinking ahead of you”, frontwoman Chloe Howard teases after the honking, rapid-fire rollicking of ‘Maybe Not Tonight.’
While staples of Brighton’s smaller stages, their sound is suitably beefed up for ‘On The Beach’ with ‘Downtown Lover’ given the electric treatment; the folky “ooos” abandoned in favour of its 3-chord pulse. With shoutouts to Tippi’s dad from Howard with ‘Big Up Paul’, Lime Garden seem entirely unfazed by the opening slot and are genuinely happy to be here.
By the time the closers of downstroked disco ‘All Bad Parts’ and the reality-hits wonk-pop of ‘23’ land, Lime Garden have planted their flag in the ground in the first set of the day. They may just be Brighton’s best band!
Lime Garden setlist:
‘Body’
‘Maybe Not Tonight’
‘Lifestyle’
‘Like Clockwork’
‘Downtown Lover’
‘Love Song’
‘Cross My Heart’
‘All Bad Parts’
‘23’
“Coming on slightly early so I don’t have to rush”, Damon Gough states, arriving solo on stage to adopt his Mercury Prize-winning moniker of Badly Drawn Boy.
Opening with the alternate finger-picking of ‘This Electric’, a solo acoustic slot is a lot to ask of the audience after the peppiness of Lime Garden. Gough himself initially seems curmudgeonly – even stating “Half an hour set and I’ve got to spend 5 minutes tuning this. That’s a song lost.” Breezing through the vulnerable ‘Disillusion’ assisted by a loop pedal, before the piano-led ode to his kids in ‘Fly On The Wall’, the crowd initially seems disinterested in Gough’s blunt honesty. Perhaps sensing this, Gough opens up – “I lost my mum seven weeks ago” he admits, dedicating the despairing ‘The Shining’ to her memory.
From this point, it becomes clear Gough is working through his pain in the only way he knows how: performing. The barrier between fan and performer drops, and the prior bluntness now lands as radical honesty – even earning audience participation for the vocal hooks of ‘Silent Sigh.’
With the final notes of the funk-toned folk of ‘Once Around The Block’, Gough leaves us with a final note: “If you’re able to, give your mum a big hug for me.” A moment of love amidst pain that feels like a welcome dose of reality in the festival debauchery, and hugely impactful if you’ve lost a parent.
Badly Drawn Boy setlist:
‘This Electric’
‘Disillusion’
‘Fly On The Wall’
‘Walkman Demo 1’
‘The Shining’
‘Silent Sigh’
‘Once Around The Block’
Entering the stage to the spacey atmosphere of ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’, Radio X staples and the youngest Glastonbury headliners, Ash, take to the stage for a welcome burst of three-chord slamming to lift the atmosphere.
Nearly everything about their generous 45-minute slot is crowd-pleasing, besides the obligatory airings of new-album cuts ‘Fun People’ and ‘Ad Astra.’ Despite their early slot, Ash have a sense of familiarity to them as ‘Shining Light’ slows things down but earns singalongs in an “oh I know this” fashion from a respectably game audience.
From this point, the crowd is on board as the slightly sombre power pop of ‘Oh Yeah’ gets hands in the air, while a beefed-up cover of Harry Belafonte’s ‘Jump In The Line’ gets everyone out of their heads and into their bodies.
A breakneck final third, the precociously joyous garage rock of ‘Girl From Mars’ is unrelenting in pace, with only a pause to vamp for singalongs of “I still love you/girl from Mars.” Ending on the full-blooded smash-and-grab of ‘Burn Baby Burn’, Ash’s set is meat-and-potatoes rock done to its absolute best: it may not reinvent the wheel, but it still rolls along and brings the energy back up. As they leave the stage, Pulp’s ‘Disco 2000’ blares – people sing and dance along, perked up by Ash’s sheer energy.
Ash setlist:
(Intro tape) ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’
‘Fun People’
‘Ad Astra’
‘Orpheus’
‘Goldfinger’
‘Shining Light’
‘Oh Yeah’
‘Jump In Line’ (Harry Belafonte cover)
‘Kung Fu’
‘Girl From Mars’
In a slight left-field turn and with much of the crowd sneaking off for a pint, Anna Calvi’s atmospheric doom-rock slams in with the arpeggiated storm of ‘Rider To The Sea.’
Across a 45-minute set, Calvi borrows heavily from blues and the type of gothicism you’d expect as the sun is setting, not while it’s beaming down. While she can hardly be blamed for the weather, the gloomy stomp of ‘Suzanne And I’ hovers between menace and despair before the looping ‘Indies Or Paradise’ marches along with vocals evoking Aldous Harding at the opera.
“Thank you” are the only words Calvi says, a consummate artist locked into the headspace of the industrially abrasive chug of ‘God’s Lonely Man.’ Perhaps the wrong artist for this slot, especially after the accessibility of Ash, Anna Calvi’s set is polarising.
Her artistry is undeniably astounding; it’s an experience rather than something to interact with. However, Calvi’s cinematic compositions are a slight curatorial misstep for today’s crowd, as she closes on a Suicide cover: the droned-synth intensity of ‘Ghost Rider’ —a track terrifying an audience here for The Maccabees, despite her obvious artistry.
Anna Calvi setlist:
‘Rider To The Sea’
‘Suzanne and I’
‘Indies Or Paradise’
‘God’s Lonely Man’
‘Wish’
‘Desire’
‘Don’t Beat The Girl Out Of My Boy’
‘Ghost Rider’ (Suicide cover)
Leopard-print resembling the interior of a New York pimp’s car adorns every inch of the stage setup, as Miles Kane swaggers on, launching straight into the strutting, syncopated blues shuffle of ‘Cry On My Guitar.’
Intent on cramming as many songs into his sub-hour slot, Kane goads a still-settling audience with “let’s have it or what” before the pub-rock of ‘Troubled Son.’ A mainstay of the indie scene, Kane is well-versed in the art of the early festival slot – giving time to his newer releases, but knowing the likes of early cut ‘Rearrange’ are what will keep feet in the arena and away from the bar. Punching in with glam-bounce, ‘Coup De Grace’ earns scattered singalongs while garage-punk ‘Never Taking Me Alive’ boasts mentions of “De Niro in Casino” and “Pacino’s Carlito.”
Taking a break from riling up the audience, “What a f*cking lineup”, Kane beams, “The past and the future” before admitting Badly Drawn Boy had him in “bits.” With the honesty out of the way, the closing trio gives the audience everything they want: a rushing garage rock bruising for ‘Inhaler’, a self-esteem singalong for ‘Don’t Forget Who You Are’ and a mixture of both for closer ‘Come Closer.’
As energy noticeably rises towards the conclusion, Miles Kane does exactly what is expected of him: mod-revival showmanship to rile the audience up.
Miles Kane setlist:
‘Cry On My Guitar’
‘Troubled Son’
‘Without You’
‘Blame It On The Summertime’
‘Rearrange’
‘Coup De Grace’
‘Sunlight In The Shadows’
‘Never Taking Me Alive’
‘Inhaler’
‘Don’t Forget Who You Are’
‘Come Closer’
A tattered banner as part of Editors’ stage set-up evokes the feeling of a gig after the end of the world; fittingly for a band that describes themselves as “Misery Rock.” An elaborate stage set-up of flanks of synths, keyboards and percussion awaits, as the band arrives on stage. With a quick “hey” from frontman Tom Smith to a packed crowd, the unrelenting Interpol-via-Future-Islands drive of ‘Racing Rats’ swells up to a storming chorus of melodrama.
In an ambitious move, the slicing riff of ‘Munich’ meets a metronomic, yet restless hi-hat groove to massive cheers and wide eyes; the baritone chorus of “People are fragile things you should know by now” quickly gets the crowd on board. Airing your most popular track so early is a ballsy move for even the biggest artists, yet Editors’ deployment sets an early pogoing tempo, weaponising that energy for a strong response to the recent single ‘Call It In.’
There is precious little said, with a focus on the atmosphere of their tracks – surprisingly, gaining a laddish response of lyrics sung back and pints sloshing for such a gloomy group. This stadium-sized, yet Joy Division-scale misery in the lyrics is never more apparent than the chants of “Desire” for ‘A Ton Of Love.’ Even the atmospheric synth intro of ‘An End Has A Start’ looms in; Smith’s baritone and the shrill, arpeggiated riff are so eminently infectious that the subject matter seems irrelevant.
Initially appearing aloof, Smith’s energy perks up as their hour slot progresses; moving round the stage, trying to disguise a smile and keep up the post-punk frontman stereotypes. “We’ve got a few more then we’ll leave you with The Maccabees,” he states, before the minimalist piano melody lurks behind the tribal pounding of ‘Smokers Outside The Hospital Door.’
Closing on the anthemic synth loop of ‘Papillon’, Editors’ downtrodden energy sits at the intersection of Depeche Mode and indie rock for something that, despite its depressive nature, is hooky enough for the indie kids and intellectual enough for the Anna Calvi fans. Impressively warming up the crowd for The Maccabees, the energy is ready to burst out of the fences of the beach.
Editors setlist:
‘Racing Rats’
‘Munich’
‘Call It In’
‘Sugar’
‘A Ton Of Love’
‘Karma Climb’
‘Blood’
‘An End Has A Start’
‘The Rush’
‘Smokers Outside The Hospital Door’
‘All The Kings’
‘Papillon’
Arriving on stage to rapturous cheers, Brighton’s adopted sons of The Maccabees seem genuinely overjoyed to be back.
Opening with the pleading harmonies of the tightly wound ‘Love You Better’, a visibly emotional Orlando Weeks states, “Thank you for being a part of this beautiful evening” – seeming to mean one of the most clichéd phrases you could say on stage with full sincerity. However, this is the appeal of The Maccabees – honesty, before launching into the wave-machine honouring ‘Latchmere’ with hyperactive hi-hat and tom-tom fills bringing the beach into an early whirlpool.
“Brighton. We made it to the beach, and we’re The f*cking Maccabees!” A green-suited, Riddler-cosplaying Felix White exclaims after the exhilarating stabs of ‘Lego.’ With genuinely infectious energy and a fast-and-sharp rhythm section, it seems absurd the group ever got lumped in with the ‘indie landfill’ stereotypes. Moving from yelping dreaminess on ‘Feel To Follow’ to the twinkling spaciousness of ‘Kamakura’ with an impatiently driving rhythm as a throughline.
Never truly relenting in energy, the moshpits and pogoing start early and only slow when the band themselves drop the tempo or tell a story. “We’re not actually from Brighton,” Weeks admits, “We’re from South London. We came to Brighton to go to art school, and we wrote most of these old songs here. They’re embedded in these venues.” After huge cheers, a duo from ‘Colour It In’ spring through, with the saccharine smash-and-grab of ‘First Love’ getting the VIPs singing – admittedly, off-key – while ‘Precious Time’ is rapid downstrokes, with the White brothers trading frenetic riffs.
Naturally, with a homecoming show on a reunion tour, the setlist is predominantly fan-service with the occasional underappreciated cut – ‘Can You Give It’ showcases dub influences on bass, before bursting into life with a dry but sharp riff. With the final jolt out the way before the slower section, the slightly amped-up ‘Toothpaste Kisses’ gets an early airing, with soft singalongs of “cradle me/I’ll cradle you” firmly for the lovers and the yearners of the audience. With the ‘popular song’ obligation filled, a duo of the syncopated slasher ‘X Ray’ and the looming downstroke delirium of moshpit-stoking ‘Marks To Prove It’ unleash the crowd to send cups flying and cover themselves in piss and Pravha.
“We were a band for a long time. Then we weren’t. Now we are again. Naturally you end up talking about new music,” Weeks teases, before the slow-burning heartache of ‘Ballad Of So Long.’ Debuted last year but still unreleased, it is a swelling, sombre and bordering-orchestral track with the devastated refrain of “I loved you so much/Once upon a time.” With a speech thanking Radio X and every band on the bill from Felix, ‘Something Like Happiness’ builds slowly with a kick and acoustic guitar interlock while a three-part-harmony on the refrain of “You just know when you know” floats through the air.
With less than two minutes offstage before their encore, the simplistically moody ‘No Kind Words’ loops angrily, echoing Editors, down to the repetition of “If you’ve got no kind words to say.” The mood doesn’t stay frustrated for long, as Felix White thanks every artist on the bill by name—before announcing “We want to thank you for getting The Maccabees back together.”
Bursting with energy, the stop-start of ‘Pelican’ teases an ecstatic crowd, ready for one last jump as guitars and bass interrupt each other. While chaotic, Felix and Orlando sing into one mic for the summarising lyric of the night: “we go back to where we came from.” Returning to their adopted home with a reappraisal, The Maccabees have shaken off the shackles of the indie-landfill label and established themselves as one of the most underappreciated acts of the 2000s.
The Maccabees setlist:
‘Love You Better’
‘Latchmere’
‘Lego’
‘Feel To Follow’
‘Kamakura’
‘Young Lions’
‘Wall Of Arms’
‘First Love’
‘Precious Time’
‘Can You Give It’
‘Spit It Out’
‘Silence’
‘Toothpaste Kisses’
‘X-Ray’
‘Marks To Prove It’
‘Ballad Of So Long’
‘Something Like Happiness’
‘No Kind Words’
‘Pelican’
