Maccabees singer talks ahead of On The Beach in Brighton

There is a hill behind the student halls at Moulsecoomb that Orlando Weeks might never forget.

Not because of any great romantic significance, but because he and his fellow students used to spend their evenings there, imbibing cheap lager, hurtling downhill on makeshift toboggans.

"It was called boggonage," he says, laughing at the memory.

"You'd collect pallets and old things on wheels during the week — anything you could find — and then build these makeshift toboggans and just go as fast as you could down the hill.

"It was pure danger. But it was some of the most fun I think I've ever had."

The Maccabees will headline On The Beach on July 25. Orlando, centre right (Image: Phil Sharp)

The future frontman of one of British indie's most beloved bands had just arrived to study illustration at the University of Brighton in the mid-2000s.

The rest of The Maccabees followed him down from London, one by one, apparently requiring very little persuasion.

"No one has to sell Brighton that hard, do they?" Orlando said. "It's pretty great."

Part of the appeal was Brighton's bursting music scene.

"There was just so many bands, so many artists," Orlando recalls.

"A lot of variation — some much heavier rock stuff, the Kooks were just coming up, and then there was us, Blood Red Shoes... loads of bands, lots of venues, lots of gigs you could just jump on."

An early shot of some baby-faced Maccabees (Image: Wikimedia)

Getting noticed in that crowd was another matter. Orlando credits an unlikely source with giving the band their first real boost.

"The Argus wrote one of the first — maybe the first — glowing reviews of a Maccabees gig," he said. "And that was a big deal for us.

"I think everyone would admit we were covering up quite a lot of naivety by just playing really loud and really fast back then.

"But people seemed to enjoy the energy of it."

An Argus review from September 30, 2005 called the Maccabees "an exciting live spectacle", comparing Orlando - "stiffly spasming to the drum and bass sounds and staring at something in the distance" - to a mixture of Ians Curtis and Dury.

The venues came in stages, each one a rung on the ladder. The Freebutt — the tiny, now-defunct dogleg bar on Providence Place — was the first holy grail.

"Getting a support gig there was huge," said Orlando.

The Maccabees spent their formative years living and playing in Brighton (Image: Phil Sharp)

Then came support slots for The Strokes at the Brighton Centre and Arctic Monkeys at the Komedia.

Then their own headline nights. Then, in 2006, Concorde 2. Which, it has to be said, did not go entirely smoothly.

"We got that a bit wrong," he concedes.

The crowd — faithful, boisterous and apparently unconcerned by the concept of health and safety — were swinging from fixtures and launching themselves at the stage.

Orlando sided, perhaps unwisely, with the fans over the venue's security.

Things escalated.

For a period, the band were asked not to return.

"They did eventually agree that I hadn't started a riot," he notes cheekily.

Orlando was the first Maccabee to move down to Brighton (Image: Mike Burnell)

He has, for the record, since been allowed back in.

He says that one of his greatest ever nights was seeing Franz Ferdinand play there with the Fiery Furnaces. Afterwards, everyone spilled out for a bonfire on the beach.

"It was one of the best gigs I've ever seen," he said.

Keeping the band going while finishing a degree was, by his own admission, a challenge. By his third year at Brighton, he was touring constantly and falling behind.

But he was able to graduate after his tutor offered an unexpected lifeline.

"He said: 'You're aware that all the work you've been doing for The Maccabees — you can include that.'"

Another early Maccabees shot, this time from 2006 (Image: Greg Neate)

Suddenly, the band's artwork, flyers and T-shirts became a legitimate portfolio.

"A lot of it not very good," he laughs, "a lot of bobbin stuff. But it was stuff."

Maccabees guitarist Felix White — who was studying sociology at the University of Sussex — had the added disadvantage of being unable to submit music as coursework.

"Harder to include his terrific guitar work in his final submission," Orlando quips.

Given their Brighton backstory, Orlando considers the On The Beach show to be a homecoming gig.

"We've sort of collected the full Brighton set," he said. "And now we're here — this is the sandy jewel in the crown."

Orlando says the Brighton beach show is something of a homecoming (Image: Phil Sharp)

He is also thrilled about the wider line-up.

He's particularly looking forward to seeing Anna Calvi for the first time ("I'll be side of stage for that"), and has a kind word for local openers Lime Garden — "a little bit of LCD Soundsystem, a little bit of Snail Mail. Just really good."

And what can fans expect from the headliners themselves?

"My hunch is that it'll just be great," he said.

"We're aware of what it means to us as a band. And I think fans who live in Brighton — a lot of them will have come to a lot of those early shows - they'll feel invested in the way we feel invested."

He pauses, then grins.

"If you start with 30 people at a sweaty gig in 2006, how many incremental word-of-mouths does it take to fill a beach 20 years later?

"Guess we'll find out."

The Maccabees playing at Resident in the North Laine in 2015 (Image: Mike Burnell)

The Maccabees headline On The Beach Brighton on Saturday July 25, 2026, with doors opening at 1 pm and a curfew of 10:30 pm.

They are joined on the bill by Editors, Miles Kane, Anna Calvi, Ash, Badly Drawn Boy and local openers Lime Garden.

The event is held on Brighton Beach, Madeira Drive, BN2 1EN, and is open to those aged 16 and over (under-18s must be accompanied by an adult).

Tickets and full details are available at onthebeachbrighton.com.