Another flashback from my archive originally written for BBC Guernsey Unsigned (the forerunner to BBC Music Introducing in Guernsey) going back a decade to one of Guernsey’s more minor ‘festival’ style events, Mudstock.

This was a biker party of a sort with a lot of live bands and I am aware of it happening twice in 2006 and 2008.

With a more private party feel than its bigger cousins Chaos (which is still going strong) and The Hogwash (which has since fallen by the wayside), looking back on it now it feels like a real moment in time when Guernsey’s young and heavy music scene was at something of a peak.

Anyway, presented in pretty much its original form, my review of Mudstock 2008…

Ten bands got together to help celebrate the summer at the day of mud, motorbikes and music at Pleinmont.

Coming across as something like the baby brother of the Greenman Chaos Weekend or Full Boar’s Hogwash, Mudstock took place at Pleinmont on Saturday 12 July 2008 and featured ten bands playing alongside ‘mud racing’ and the customary burnouts.

First on stage were a new metal band by the name of Iced Corpse. Having only practiced once, “last Tuesday” they said, and with their tongues firmly in their cheeks their sense of disorganised chaos really sat well with the theme of the day and brought a smile to the faces of those in attendance.

The sense of rapidly escalating pandemonium continued next as The Ejaculations took to the stage with their unique take on punk rock which continued to make many smile despite the band putting in far from their best performance.

The punk rock continued, if in a slightly different vein, with Your Mum.

With the question hanging in my mind of ‘have this band ever played a good gig’ they proceeded to put in one of their worst yet, but none the less seemed to draw a decent crowd and, if nothing else, kept the smiles going.

With the arrival of The Escape Fall to the stage things took a turn for the better as they delivered a fantastically tight performance despite the inclusion of new material and older covers.

Their high energy performance also drew in a reasonable crowd though this band seemed out-of-place thanks to their poppier rock tendencies.

Any thoughts of pop music were hastily dispatched next by the one-off return of Iron Cobra.

With a style of metal filled with groove this band are perfect for a summer event and really provided a fantastic show today that got many headbanging along.

Dead Man’s Hand and A Parody of Actual Events seem to me to have a real ‘lost classic’ status to them and it is a shame to see Iron Cobra go their separate ways.

The Bio-Nightmares seem to get tighter and more cohesive with every show and with their style of horror punk morphing into heavier and more goth-y areas they are something unique on Guernsey’s music scene and well worth a look if you’re a fan of the more theatrical notions of bands like Alice Cooper.

There was more groove based metal on display next in the form of Brutus Stonefist who put in one of their best performances to date as all the band seemed much more relaxed on stage, which bodes well for their upcoming recording sessions.

The crowd seemed to have grown exponentially in anticipation of Stratosfear whose big indie sound, with a hint of classic punk, gained a huge reaction and started the night’s first real pit.

Playing more originals than usual didn’t seem to cause any problems and at the end of the set the crowd still wanted more.

More pop-punk was on offer next in the form of 2 Minutes 2 Late who continued to keep the atmosphere in good spirits with their fun blend of covers and originals, although they were at points slightly overshadowed by the spectacular burnouts taking place outside.

Finally, after a slight delay, the night’s official entertainment closed with Beetlejuice.

Despite a near-permanent stage invasion the band played on and brought a truly chaotic end to the night with their own special take on punk rock, and with an encore of The Ramones’ Blitzkrieg Bop, accompanied on stage by a large number of the crowd, Beetlejuice’s performance seemed to sum up the spirit of Mudstock – a chaotic but fun day where everyone could get involved in one way or another.