> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.ilesanglo-normandes.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # VEF 50: The bigger band from the smaller isle: The Recks - URL: https://www.ilesanglo-normandes.com/for-saturday-vef-50-the-biggest-band-from-the-smaller-isle-the-recks/ - Published: 2026-08-29T08:00:56.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-09T13:28:19.000Z - Description: Returning to the Earth Fair for the first time in six years, Sark's most-famous wearers of flares play a festival which began in a sea of flares 50 summers ago. - Author: îles - Tags: Sér, Alderney, Bretagne One of the standing jokes regarding The Recks return as local headliner of the Castle Stage, is that there's a couple of warm-up bands after, namely The Orb and The Dynamics. Anticipation is running that high for the five-piece band from Sark's return to the Castle Stage for the first time since 2020\. There couldn't be a more fitting local headliner for a festival born in '76\. “People go; ‘it’s the Recks playing, I better get my flares out!’" laughed the band's enigmatic frontman Richey Powers. The last time The Recks brought their flares and their "multi-genre psychedelic, alt-indie madness" to the Vale Castle, the Earth Fair itself went down in history, reported in [NME](https://www.nme.com/news/music/covid-free-guernsey-holds-one-of-europes-only-music-festivals-this-summer-2742552?ref=ilesanglo-normandes.com), [Dazed Digital](https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/50331/1/a-music-festival-vale-earth-fair-held-on-the-covid-free-island-of-guernsey?ref=ilesanglo-normandes.com), [DJ Mag](https://djmag.com/news/music-festival-takes-place-covid-19-free-island-guernsey?ref=ilesanglo-normandes.com), and [BBC Breakfast](https://www.facebook.com/GuernseyMuseums/posts/guernseys-own-the-vale-earth-fair-makes-national-news-%EF%B8%8Fvale-castle-is-one-of-our/3668564423211244/), as Europe's only festival to go ahead in that surreal COVID summer. "It was the biggest gig post-pandemic in Europe, I was on [Radio 1](https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1EwaBFrAh8/), 4 and 5," he said. “We were headlining by virtue of the fact you couldn’t bring any bands in,” added singer, guitarist, and banjo player Greg Harrison. “The amount of local bands that got to play that year, all of us together in the castle." --- That summer, with two tours and four single releases planned, The Recks were "about to be famous," chuckled Harrison. Instead they lost a lot of money. COVID, then the onslaught of serious health issues facing Richey Powers, resulted in a five-year hiatus. In 2025, Powers' health had recovered enough to sing again and The Recks were back - to a sold-out gig last September at [St James](https://stjames.gg/?ref=ilesanglo-normandes.com), Guernsey's cultural centre - where Harrison works as deputy director. In May this year, on Liberation day, the islands' national holiday, The Recks played to a St Peter Port crowd singing the words to every song. "It's pretty mad, people know our songs so well, they’ve got their own little callbacks,"marvelled Harrison. “Chewing on a stick!" interjected Powers, the opener of their track 'Spanish Relations.' > "It's pretty mad, people know our songs so well, they’ve got their own little callbacks" --- ### The story of how The Recks formed is one of Sark folklore. Richey Powers was invited to play at the Sark Festival of the Sea in 2009 as part of his then four-piece rock band, Paisley. “We meant to be there for three days. We ended up staying for three years." > “We meant to be there for three days. We ended up staying for three years." Moving over from Weymouth to an island surrounded by the feistiest of seas was an unusual move for a gigging musician with bookings in the UK. Determined to make a concert in London, "it was blowing such a gale at the harbour, the boats were cancelled, so our mate took us across on a little 10-foot boat. It was really rough. The guy at the venue said: ‘we get bands cancelling because the bass player’s got a cold, and there you are, risking your life to get here!’” It was moving to Sark, an island of 600 people, that brought The Recks together. “It was all a happy accident” says Powers. Former band member, Nicholas, then known as Wez, had been holidaying on Sark since he was a child and moved over to raise his own child. Attila Nagy, the band's then bass player from Hungary, had spotted an ad for a tractor driver online. Ash Jarman, the band's trumpet player, a friend from Weymouth, “called and asked 'can I come and stay?'” I said 'how long for?' and he said, 'forever." That was 17 years ago and Jarman is now the island's Deputy Seneschal - a judge for the only court on Sark. "So he's stuck to his word," laughed Powers. Richey Powers was walking past Nicholas' house one day, when he suggested getting a folk duo together. When they sent a few of their songs to BBC Introducing, next they knew, they had an invitation to play at Jersey's inaugural Folklore Festival in 2012\. With two months to write enough songs to make a set, the duo invited Ash and Atilla and drummer Barney in to form a full band. When they played Folklore, recalled Powers, Van Morrison was the headline act, and the line-up included icons like Ray Davis, Wanda Jackson and Sixto Rodriguez: “We didn’t see that coming!" In Guernsey, the first time they played the Fermain tavern, about 40 people turned up. "Then when we played a month or so later, it was absolutely rammed," said Powers. The Recks hit the UK festival circuit. "We were this folk duo and then we were suddenly playing Isle of Wight and Boardmasters festivals." Across in France; the band played at Mardi Zicos, the open-air summer concerts intra-muros in St Malo. On Sark, islanders let the band rehearse in places like the harbour café when closed for winter and build makeshift studios in various houses to record their only album Beast from the Sea. On-island members of The Recks also gigged with The Big Sheep, the Sark band with songs inspired by the island. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/2026/08/512291047_24374782885448106_8259348271928868178_n.jpg) Mardi Zicos, St Malo, 2012 credit Eric Richet *The Recks current members are Richey Powers (guitar and vocals), Ash Jarman (trumpet and vocals), Gregory Harrison (guitar and vocals), Joe Le Long (bass) and Moxie Rockett (drums).* ### "VEF is built on love and they stick to their principals, I really like that." The Recks first played the Earth Fair in 2012\. “I think we played four years in a row after that!” said Powers. For Harrison, a Breton-Guern who joined the band in 2016, a year after competing in French reality show The Voice, running the Earth Fair's busking stage was his introduction to Guernsey's music scene. And to festival anarchy. "I like things structured and that’s just not the way Earth Fair works, so once you’ve embraced that, it’s easier. Everyone has their place, they do their thing, and it works out, they put on a great festival. There are people I don’t see all year that I see at the castle, and then people who come over from the UK and France. There's a whole community around it, it’s like getting together with old mates." > "There are so many elements to it I love. That they give so much money to charity, that it’s all vegetarian food. And it’s in a castle!" The Recks most recent gig is another Vale Earth Fair event - to "lots of familiar and not so familiar faces from all islands" on the festival's yearly field trip to St James Bar in June. Since the 1990s, the Earth Fair has supported bands and connections between the sister islands with Jersey bands travelling to play every year. "When we first started playing, we played all the islands. At the time VEF would get Jersey bands over but other than that Jersey bands wouldn’t play in Guernsey and Guernsey bands wouldn’t play in Jersey, it’s less like that now," recalled Powers. "There are so many elements to it I love," he added. "That they give so much money to charity, that it’s all vegetarian food there, I always have my veggie chilli when I’m there for lunch and again for dinner." "It’s built on love and they stick to their principals, I really like that. There’s no-one coming in saying ‘we’re gonna change this or do that.’ Errol’s still a big presence today, isn’t he? It’s fun, never any trouble. And it’s in a castle! The views from that castle!" Among memorable Earth Fairs is 2018, the wettest in the fair's history. “We basically wrapped the stage in tarpaulin and got everyone onto the stage," reminisced Harrison. "We played all day on the actual stage - you had Lord Vapour and all the fans in his face - the mixing desk on stage, someone on the roof nailing the tarp down to keep the water out. It was stressful at first but that's one of my favourites." ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/2026/08/509360626_24330561793203549_6186250415348271082_n.jpg) The Recks backstage at VEF: "As a band you're looked after so well. We had so much fun backstage in that tunnel." ## A festival of islands: The Recks at Alderney Week ### "It was so good they actually invented a new category!" "Alderney is a great gig as a Sarkee band, Alderney Week especially - after five minutes in the island you know people, everyone’s really up for having a good crack," said Harrison. For one Alderney Week parade, The Recks inadvertently ended up creating a whole new category. "Someone turned up with a gold Hyundai, she’d got her husband to strap a deckchair on top, musical notes in gold glitter all over it and The Recks along the side. So you’ve got Richey sat on the car, with a helmet on him for safety." ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/2026/08/515491991_24475400532053007_7985464432632419595_n.jpg) 'Recks: The Musical:' winning best last-minute entry at Alderney Week "We gate-crashed the cavalcade," chuckled Powers. "I was on the roof, the rest of them were all in the car, we were singing 'Porcupine,' the hidden track off our album. The theme was musicals, everyone else had been working on their floats all year, so we said: It’s 'The Recks; the musical.' It was so good they actually invented a new category, the best last-minute entry! It’s the only award we’ve ever won, so we do milk it a little bit. We’ll have it on stage when we play Earth Fair." Post-Earth Fair, The Recks - whose members each play solo as well - Jarman recently in Dinan, France with [Tane](https://www.facebook.com/musictane/?locale=fr%5FFR) \- are due to discuss what's next for the band. Today they live across four different locations, with two flying in for band practice, one hopping on the ferry from Sark. Earth fairers can expect the band's full sound in the castle. "Right now the sound is heaviest it’s ever been, it’s a different vibe," said Harrison - though always with the "the minor sixth chord," which The Recks use in their jazzier numbers. Like any festival-goer, they're also looking forward to seeing the other acts. "There are other bands I’ve not seen in years," said Powers. "I’ll be right up front!" ---