Altsounds - Jersey Live Festival

With a full English breakfast inside me soaking up the damage from yesterday it's back up to the festival for day two. Marvel are on the main stage drilling their shouty opening songs into the hangovers of all those present before taking a decidedly Doves like meander for the rest of the set. Young as hell - good luck to 'em.

The dance tent is still empty at this time of day and there's me still buzzing as all fuck but a little bar flirtation helps. Did you know that Jersey still have one pound notes? Neither did I until I tried buying a beer with one. Hilarity ensued. On to The Black Stats who sounded like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club back when they were good (for five seconds - remember?) but ruin this somewhat with a heavy lean towards The Subways, who are an already pointless band. Still, they look cool as death doing their thing and there is a kind of Josh Homme idolatry going on style wise, which is always a winner.

Fight Like Apes take over the main stage next and are as fun and noisily Irish as ever. If you've not heard them yet they are a kind of Dananananaykroyd with more synths. The bass player swings his weapon like he owns the place, which is great, but his ginger afro? Yeah, we're having that too. He has an enjoyable little ruck with the singer May Kay that looks like it could lead to some satisfyingly playful sex later but really it's just an expression of how much fun they have up there on stage and it rubs off on the crowd.

Back at the dance tent FBI are playing on the massive Dizzee vibe still swimming about from yesterday to great effect with 'Bonkers' and aren't afraid to drop straight into 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'. Shoot me now if I'm wrong but that song will never get old or fail to get a bunch of people out for a good time spilling their beer upwards as they try and hit the roof of the tent with their heads.

If you were sitting around with your friends wondering how to take the charts by storm and someone said, "Why don't we do a kind of Editors meets Coldplay thing?" then you are probably in The Boxer Rebellion. It's bang on if you like that sort of thing. Pleasant in black. Worth a listen actually.

With the indie pulses pumping those new bastions of weirdo-pop The Temper Trap take to the stage. Are they going to be our new heroes or just Clap Your Hands And Say Yeah fronted by Antony and the Johnsons? Who knows, but they are tight as a certain analogy involving nuns and parts of their anatomy so that will do for now.

Once again the dance tent calls me into its dripping, warm embrace. Warm hardly covers it though with DJ Yoda smashing it so hard you can taste the accumulated sweat of the masses on your tongue. Mmmm. Huge builds followed by the kind of drops that leave the crowd in exhausted euphoria - it's all very sexual and that's without mentioning the scratchology on display, which is frankly perverted.

Twenty or so hours from now the real highlight of Jack Penate's trip to Jersey will occur when he sits at a table behind me for lunch but for now he will have to settle for the main stage and a troop of adoring Jackalites. I'll hold my hands up and freely admit that when Jack first came out his music made me want to kill things but looking at him now all dressed in black with a new fringe and scowl he's starting to grow on me. It would appear that the spastic dancing and just-happy-to-be-here attitude have been cast off and he wants the Life. Much better. Solid performance.

There is no hiding the fact that the gate is down quite considerably from yesterday but the festival goers make up for it in spirit with many choosing to dress up in all manner of impractical guises. Fancy dress has never been my particular boat floater but it's always nice to see and gives the event more of an Event feel.

Headlining the main stage today are the much maligned but still hugely successful Kooks. A tenner to anyone who can explain to me how Luke Pritchard became a sex symbol. But that's beside the point, I caught a couple of their songs and of course they played them very well. It's The Kooks though, they aren't really going to do much more than play a nice safe set, wave at the screaming girlies and collect the cheque so I who knows where the fun is at, end up finishing the festival with 2 Many DJs. These two gents are the exception to the rule about Belgians and if you've never seen them live before then what the hell? Sort yourself out and get going. You won't see anyone else out there who can mash tunes together like them. Set selections are immaculate and if you don't think you can follow Slayer with Dolly Parton then like I say, you need to get yourself to a 2 Many DJs gig.

And that was Jersey Live. A great festival enjoyed by many with good bands, great atmosphere and tons of friendly people. With just a thirty five minute flight time from Gatwick and a good chance of nice weather it's the festival abroad at home. Stamp of Approval.

Here's a clip from the dance tent I got so attached to.