A year ago, when I was writing my review of music in Guernsey in 2017, I commented that it felt like a year when the bands and musicians in and from the island had all, collectively, taken a great step forward I terms of the quality of what was being produced and the professionalism with which it was being done.

Now I come to look at 2018 and it seems like, as the music has continued in a similar upward trajectory, the opportunities for that music to be heard have been the thing that’s expanded and developed, particularly in terms with connecting to the ‘mainstream’ of island life.

So the Vale Earth Fair has, in a way, expanded to two days, Chaos felt more engaged and connected with the wider community and the new Sark Summer Festival appeared (from the outside) to bring some of the great bands from the islands to a new audience.

Added to this Sound In The Market brought live music to the heart of St Peter Port on an otherwise normal Saturday afternoon, instantly exposing it or a wider audience.

All of these fall into the summer festival season which you can read about in more depth in a post blog entry by clicking here, but they aren’t the sole examples.

Live music

Away from the summer, and taking things chronologically, as is fairly usual the year began quietly with the highlight of January being the third Guernsey Gigs Jam Night, before February started the more regular events.

The Vale Earth Fair held their annual Unplugged Night at The Fermain Tavern that saw the debut of The Cor Damme Lars (then as a trio) and what I think may have been the last outing of The Rectory Hill Skillet Lickers and a rare but always appreciated night-time appearance for The Space Pirates Of Rocquaine.

February also saw Tantale launch their third album, Tightrope, with a great show at The Tav with a couple of bands who would seemingly barely be off stage all year in The Recks and Lord Vapour.

Meanwhile in town Guernsey Gigs launched their monthly Unplugged Club events at The Golden Lion. The nights, which combine elements of the folk club and an open mic night have been a highlight of the year for me with their informal nature and mix of great music (and of course the monthly raffle).

The month was then rounded off by a storming night of heavy metal at The Vault from regular visitors Stormbringer and Guernsey boys Granite Wolf.

As well as Sound In the Market and Sound At St James (more of which later), Sound Guernsey continued their mission of giving young bands and Music fans a place to play with a night dedicated to young bands in March. Dubbed The Young Ones it brilliantly supported their general mission while also showing the high level of talent present at the younger end of the scene.

March also saw a new event from the Vale Earth Fair begin at the De La Rue. Inspired by their annual John Peel Tribute Night’s where as many DJs as possible get the chance to play 15 minutes of music, the DIY Disco night’s opened up the decks for anyone for half an hour leading to fantastic genre clashes aplenty but some really varied selections of music from people often more usually seen attending rather than performing at music events.

In April the winners of the Thirst Music School battle of the bands, Dead Steady, made their first public appearance with a show at The Vault alongside the more established (but still unceasingly young) Problematic. Dead Steady certainly stole the show that night and are certainly on the list of new bands to watch as the younger end of the scene continues to grow.

Brunt are a band who, while generally well liked, often struggle to get a reaction from the audience with their slow and heavy instrumental doom sounds, not so when they played Sound in April. As the set went on the young audience and the band turned the whole thing into some kind of strange ritual that was amazing to witness and like nothing I’ve seen at a gig in Guernsey before or since… ‘Hail Satan!’ indeed…

As usual May began the annual season where live music starts to move outside with Liberation Day being the start of that. Also though, it saw The Recks finally release their long-awaited, much-anticipated, debut album The Beast From The Sea with a show at The Fermain Tavern with The Honest Crooks and Lord Vapour that was certainly a memorable event.

June saw festival season roll on in earnest with the first Sound In The Market bringing live music to shoppers on a Saturday afternoon, Arts Sunday once agin featuring an abundance of live music including the BBC Music Introducing Stage and of course the first of the year’s big festivals, the 14th annual Chaos weekend.

The month though also saw a rare return of heavy music to The Golden Lion as Dolmens and Track Not Found pushed the limits of the neighbours noise complaints with a great show in the intimate venue.

The first Sark Summer Festival kicked off July and, while I was unable to attend, it sounded like it was a great weekend and will continue in 2019, before a couple of indoor gigs provided some more highlights.

First was Coastal Fire Department and Lord Vapour at The Vault, while the Vapour trio are familiar faces Coastal Fire Department emerged from a lengthy hiatus this year to greatly impress with their ‘grunge from the Vale’ sound that has quickly seen them become a highlight whenever they step on stage.

The other notable show turned out to be one of the most memorable of the year as past visitors, Japanese punks PUNiK, were joined by another punk rock crew from Tokyo, Morllyheads, in blasting out two of the most powerful sets I remember seeing at The Fermain Tavern in a long time with support from our own Vice, Static Alice and The Honest Crooks.

Further afield July also saw The Recks head to Latitude Festival in the U.K. where they played on the BBC Introducing stage – the first of two appearances they made for the wider national BBC Introducing brand across the year.

Vale Earth Fair events bookended August with their annual stage at the Rocquaine Regatta starting things off and the main festival closing it.

For the second year the festival become a two-day event with the first day being run by Sound Guernsey and featuring a highlight performance from The Recks and two mash-up style sets seeing Lord Vapour & Dolmens create a huge groovy jam and Jawbone and Cosmic Fish bring some punk rock madness to the event.

Unfortunately, despite some great performances from the likes of Track Not Found, The Honest Crooks and visitors Imperial Leisure and Little Thief, I think what most will remember was the weather as after a long hot summer the rain came that day in earnest.

Also in August, along with a series of shows in the U.K. The Recks were back at The Fermain Tavern for another event like show with The Cor Damme Lars, Savage Sons and Brunt.

The summer festival season wrapped up in September with the third Sark Roots Festival that had a real end of season party atmosphere as well as having highlight sets from Lord Vapour, Tantale, The Recks and visitors Andy Quick and Daria Kulesh.

In the UK the festival season also drew to a close and Robert J. Hunter and his band opened the BBC Introducing stage at the first Long Road festival, coinciding with the release of their live album, Say What?

The month rounded off with a night at The Fermain Tavern dubbed, somewhat ironically, Guitar Music Is Dead, that showcased some of the best new guitar music being made in the island spanning generations from newer bands Coastal Fire Dept and Burning At Both Ends along with returning veterans The Risk.

October got going with a night at The Vault that saw The Honest Crooks make a rare appearance in their original three-piece form along with Clameur De Haro that, if nothing else, featured probably the best poster of the year.

What seemed to have many, though not myself, excited as a potential new venue for live music saw the closing party of the Guernsey Photography Festival with a The Recks, Lord Vapour and The Cor Damme Lars squeezed into the corner of the claustrophobic old tax office building.

Another new, in some ways, venue housed a new festival over the last weekend of October as Sound Guernsey took over St James concert hall for a two-day festival.

The event featured three stages and saw several notable performances including a stand out headline set from Robert J. Hunter, and the final appearances by Static Alice and Of Empires.

Thee Jenerators made their first appearance since Christmas Eve 2017 in November with a show at The Vault that also saw a rare appearance by Gay Army.

Havoc Events also returned to the scene with an event taking things back to their roots with five metal bands making for a highlight gig at The Fermain Tavern setting the scene for more to come from the promoters.

Events continued at St James too with visitors The Baghdaddies playing alongside The Recks and The Cor Damme Lars at a midweek event that ended up being an unexpected highlight.

The year rounded off with two EP launch shows of rather different sorts in December.

First was Kiya Ashton playing at The Doghouse with The Cor Damme Lars, Gregory Harrison and Elisha Horsepool and then The Honest Crooks launched their debut record with a show at The Vault.

Albums, EPs and singles

That’s the live side of things wrapped up but 2018 also saw possibly more records released from bands in the islands than I can recall.

Tantale got the ball rolling with their third album, Tightrope, in February as well as a self-titled album from The Robert J. Hunter Band both of which set the bar high.

Of Empires continued their run of singles with double a-side Waist Up In Gold and Gunslingers in April and then what was to become their final release, Suzie, in May.

To mark Record Store Day, Track Not Found released a single, Science (Gone Wrong) following up their debut EP that was released at the end of 2017.

Kings also released a string of singles defining their catchy pop sound and completing what they’ve called ‘Season One’ of their tracks.

After several years in production The Recks released The Beast From The Sea in May, and it was certainly worth the wait, then as the summer went on Savage Sons released their debut EP Howlin’ and Joe Corbin put out a series of singles that became his debut EP Brixton Sky later in the year.

In September Robert J. Hunter released a live album, Say What?, expertly capturing his band’s dirty blues excellently while Citizen-X put out the Giant Steps EP that showed off his iOS music the best I’ve heard it yet.

In October, to mark World Mental Health Day, Out Of The Box, a compilation featuring tracks based around the theme was released, including, amongst others, Fly Casual, The Recks, Flexagon and more.

October also saw the release of Hail Apathy from Burning At Both Ends which became one of the most well received records of the year both locally and further afield judging by the response it got on Spotify.

The year then wound up with a glut of releases in December, so there were new releases from Kiya Ashton (Sweet Decadence), The Honest Crooks (Crook, Line And Sinker), BLAKALASKA (Joyride), Insurrection (Age Of Fear), Mike’s Magic Trip (With My Headphones In), Blacksmith (Chapter One), Lord Vapour (Semuta), Jim Delbridge (The Navigator) and Hollie Lucia (Scales-Weights) closing the year in a way that, if nothing else, hammered home the point of how much music is being made in the islands right now.

As we head into 2019 the music scene in Guernsey looks, arguably, healthier than it ever has and I’m well aware that there are some glaring omissions from this review that continue to show how varied and vibrant things are over here and, while there’s a sense that we are heading into a transitional time with regards to long-established events and venues ‘competing’ (for wont if a better word) with newer ones, with the quality of music being produced things are looking better than ever.

‘Awards’

As I’ve done these off the last few years, some ‘awards’ that were harder than ever to decide this year, so there are multiples in most of my rather arbitrary categories:

Band of the Year – The Honest Crooks/The Recks
Event of the Year – Sound In The Market/Japanese Invasion Night
Newcomers of the Year – The Cor Damme Lars/Kiya Ashton
Set of the Year – Brunt at Sound in April/Mechanical Lobster at Chaos/Track Not Found at Vale Earth Fair
Record of the Year – The Recks – The Beast From The Sea/Robert J. Hunter – Say What? (live)/Lord Vapour – Semuta
Video – Kings – Margo (directed by Jack De La Mare)
Visiting Act of the Year – Morllyheads/Daria Kulesh/Baghdaddies

Playlist

I’ve also put together a playlist of some of the best tracks available from the bands mentioned above on Spotify: