Stewart Lee is one of the UK’s best comedians, a point that will no doubt be reinforced when he embarks on a huge UK tour at the end of 2024 and into 2025 with his new show Stewart Lee Vs The Man-Wulf. He is also a diehard music fan – there’s even an extensive catalogue of album reviews he’s written on his website – and he has been known to meld the worlds of music and comedy. Next month, for example, he will road-test some new material at London’s The Lexington before handing the stage over to a music artist of his choosing to headline.
At the end of August, he’ll take the move into gig promoter one step further when he hosts and curates a stage at Brighton’s Psych Fest. Recently, he spoke to about how he approached choosing the bill and ran through some of the artists he has booked. “I’m doing the one on the Friday at the Komedia in Brighton, which is a great privilege,” he said.
“I tried to think about who would fit the bill of the festival and also people I liked. I tried to choose some things that were vaguely from that area, too.” He has hand-picked artists including Secluded Bronte, Eliza Skelton, Alison Cotton, the Physics House Band and the Bevis Frond.
Of the latter, Lee said: “If you know about psych music at all you must know them. They’ve been recording for 40 years, having bought a Portastudio with compensation money from Camden Council after Nick Saloman rode his motorbike through a pothole. He started pressing up his own albums in.
