A charity shop, a toy museum and a bus were among the unusual venues which played host to a string of secret gigs.

The last VIPs to appear on the Theatre Royal Brighton balcony were the Queen and Prince Philip, but punk-pop band The Noisettes drew an equally enthusiastic crowd when they played on Saturday afternoon.

It was just one of nine short gigs organised by phone company T Mobile as part of The Great Escape festival, which saw hundreds of bands play at venues across Brighton.

Text messages alerted fans to the gigs, which included a set at the Toy Museum in Trafalgar Street by Brighton band Peggy Sue and the Pirates and the Young Soul Rebels at Traid vintage charity shop.

Following complaints from festival- goers last year about long queues, this year text messages alerted people to the busiest venues.

Mark Pearson, 26, who travelled down from Peterborough for the festival, said: "You really had to be in your venue of choice by 8pm if you wanted to catch some of the bigger acts playing later on."

Friend Doug Watterson added: "We chose who we really wanted to see, got to the venue a couple of bands early and then didn't move around too much."

American folk artist Willy Mason delighted fans when he put on an impromptu gig to those waiting in the queue to see him.

However, 19-year-old Sal Cooper from Hawthylands, Hailsham, missed out after waiting almost an hour to see The Rakes at the Concorde 2 on Friday.

She said: "The queue was absolutely massive and it didn't seem to be moving at all. We could hear them and if we stood at a certain angle we could even see them through the doors. It was torture."

Audience members who left the Udderbelly to use the toilets were not allowed back to the venue.

Instead they had to join the back of the queue again.

Sam Thomson, who turned up to watch headliners British Sea Power, said: "It was disgraceful.

People either had to cross their legs or find a dark corner to go in, which I think quite a lot of people were forced to do."

A spokeswoman for the Udderbelly said the decision was taken in order to create a flow of people coming through the venue.

She said: "The more people who came out, the more people could come in. We did manage to clear the queue by the time British Sea Power came on."