When John Peel died back in 2004 it came as a sudden shock to music lovers around the UK as he had been a pioneer for new music, broadcasting on BBC Radio 1 since 1967 and known for championing pretty much every style you can think of.

So, as a way to pay tribute to him, the Vale Earth Fair organised a DJ night opening the decks to anyone who wanted to play something a bit different.

Now, 15 years later, the annual event has become a fixture of Guernsey’s music calendar and for the 2019 edition 18 DJs stepped behind the decks for their 15 minutes.

As ever the music was an eclectic mix spanning everything from old school funk, to hardcore punk to hip hop and bass and, with this, it was a great way to hear something a bit different to what you might normally listen to and certainly different to what you’d expect in a pub in town on a Friday night.

While every set was equally as valid, as that’s the point of the event, of course a few stood out for various reasons.

It was Stretchy’s Damaged Disco that really was the first to get people on the dance floor with a set of sounds designed to baffle, delight and entertain in equal measure (the reactions to a ‘remix’ of Foo Fighters track was particularly amusing), meanwhile Saucy Stepdad played a set of songs unknown to me but that were fantastically absorbing and transporting.

Miss Minx brought a set of edgy but poppy female fronted rock while Jon Langlois provided a mix of old school punk with doomy, gothy tinges thrown into the mix and DJ Vauvert Underground was typically varied and enjoyable.

The night then rounded off, either by accident or design, with one of the Lo-Fidelity Sparkle Bitches providing a selection of popular floor fillers but with their own slightly alternative spin in the context of the night ending with Prodigy’s Breathe and Beastie Boys’ (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party!), leaving those on the dance floor wanting more as curfew hit.

Once again then the Vale Earth Fair provided a more than fitting tribute to the great DJ while also making for a great night out with something for everyone across four and a half hours.

And for those who might be interested this is what I played:

• IDLES – I’m Scum (from Joy As An Act Of Resistance)
• Fontaines D.C. – Liberty Belle (from Dogrel)
• The Wildhearts – Diagnosis (from Diagnosis EP)
• Tiger Army – Death Card (from Retrofuture)