Music

Upon my arrival at the Victoria Avenue playing fields for the second day of Guernsey Live, on 4 May 2008, I was pleased to see a decent number of people were already there, despite the rain which, though light, was already falling on the island.

Mark Le Gallez of Thee Jenerators

None the less Thee Jenerators blasted onto stage in fine form at quarter to one and had the attention of almost everyone on site.

As ever Mark Le Gallez was a ball of energy, but today he had a much larger area to play with and was soon sliding, rolling and jumping about the stage as he and his band stormed through a set featuring a mix of old classics such as 'Burn Down The House' and 'French Disco' to brand new material like 'Sold My Soul To Rock 'n' Roll' and 'Oi You!'

The rest of the band also seemed to gain from the advanced set up as both Garrick Jones' and Henry Castledine's saxophones had their own mic which made them come through much clearer than I, at least, am used to. This really beefed up the band's sound which had a few of us dancing and singing along.

Sadly the band pushed their time a bit too much and were hastily ushered off stage before being able to finish 'Crazy Little Love Machine' but this was still a triumph for the band and a great way to open the day's music.

Dial F For Frankenstein

Second up were Oxford based indie rockers Dial F For Frankenstein. Being the youngest band on today's bill did not seem to bother them as their take on indie drew a decent and appreciative crowd some of whom were calling for an encore long after the band had left the stage.

Guernsey's own dark disco pioneers Gay Army were next to step onto what will, in a few weeks, become 'The Other Stage' at Glastonbury and they were blazing a trail with their synth infused style from the off.

Major Dirt and Funkmeister Klank of Gay Army

Gay Army's sound is always a complex one and that often causes issues in hearing the various elements that make it up. Today, however, it all came through perfectly clear and this seemed to spur the band on to possibly the best performance I have ever seen them give.

This rubbed off on the still growing crowd who were lapping up the bands already popular sounds.

The Author

Guernsey Live next welcomed a band from that other island to the south, Jersey, in the form of The Author, though today’s show was put in severe jeopardy thanks to the bands instruments being damaged on their trip over and their front man breaking a rib yesterday!

However the band came on in full force and were soon well into the swing of things with their synth and keyboard supplemented indie going down very well with the crowd which already seemed to be bigger than yesterdays at this time.

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