The Enemy’s lead singer Tom Clarke prepares to attack the Track. (0563457)
CERTAIN bands on the main stage at Guernsey Live could make for an explosive weekend of top-class entertainment.
The Editors, Reverend and the Makers and Young Knives are all currently doing the UK circuit and gathering plaudits as they go, but none more so than Sunday headliner, The Enemy.
The band is fast becoming one of the most talked-about UK groups.
Formed in Coventry in 2006, The Enemy are no strangers to the Channel Islands, having played at Jersey Live last year.
Their debut album, We’ll Live and Die in These Towns, released last year, went straight to number one in the UK albums chart.
On the back of their first appearance at the Godiva festival, they were the first signing in 20 years on the legendary and recently resurrected Stiff Records label. Drummer Liam Watts and bass player Andrew Hopkins hail from Coventry and singer-guitarist Tom Clarke is from nearby Solihull. All three studied music at Warwickshire College in Royal Leamington Spa.
Last year saw the band’s popularity soar and they first gained acclaim when mentioned in NME as the act most likely to ‘break your windows’. They have also supported The Fratellis, Kasabian, Ash and Manic Street Preachers on their UK tours.
Impressively, they supported The Rolling Stones on the last date of their European tour at the O2 Arena in London.
In October, The Enemy were named best new act at the Q Awards and just months before won the NME award for Best New Band.
Last month saw them starting production on their second album and playing six nights in a row at the London Astoria.
They courted controversy in September when Alex Zane, presenter of the XFM Breakfast show, declared that their music would not be played on his show again after he and the band argued over a TV interview.
But XFM did not back the decision – it continued to play The Enemy’s records.
Whether this is all part of the hyperbolic spin that has been part of the Indie-rockers meteoric rise or just rock ’n’ roll shenanigans, we’ll have to wait and see.
Some have said the line-up at Guernsey Live isn’t mainstream enough.
Maybe it doesn’t meet everyone’s taste.
But surely an event of this kind needs as much support as Guernsey can give it if we have any hope of attracting the ‘bigger’ names.
I’ve already bought my tickets. What’s your excuse?
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3 Article Comments
Ive just returned from Guernsey Live having flown in with my son from Southampton, All I can say is what a great weekend.Biffy Clyro and The Enemy were our highlights.The Young Knives were on the plane back and all I got from my son was “Shes attracted to” in my ears for a whole hour afterwards.I hope Art Brut have got enough socks,and the crazy Irish dancer on saturday has recovered!
Next year it would be great to see bigger crowds.Oh and one last thing thanks to Island bowl for being so accomodating to all the campers,nice one
Happy memories Mark and Liam.
I’d like to know if this article was printed in the Press??
More should’ve been done to wake the Guernsey public from their state of oblivion.
This is the kind of thing that should’ve been said on the radio, or TV, not put on a website that only a minority would look at.
It seems that the Guernsey media are only interested in promoting events when they have been paid to do so, which is poor, very poor.
90% of the content of This is Guernsey is taken from the Guernsey Press and the Globe.
This article was published in The Week supplement of the Press on 19 April.