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Middle age is known to produce extreme reactions. Marriages dissolve. Children become victims. Plastic surgeons become confidantes. And – it seems - punk rock groups are born. That was the way it was for the Gex Pistols, the self-proclaimed ‘middle aged and angry’ rock band from the Pays de Gex, who came together four years ago, as a motley bunch of expats in their 40’s with a wide-range of musical interests. The band also represents one of the  more unusual musical phenonema that only the Lake Geneva Region's highly international mix of communities could produce.

‘History says it was a chance meeting between Jon and I in the Gex market one Saturday,’ says singer and guitarist Peter Sibley. ‘I liked Leonard Cohen and he liked Motorhead so we thought there would be plenty of room to develop a sound somewhere in between. We almost called ourselves Lemmy Cohen, until the Gex Pistols name fell out of the sky. It gave us an immediate local identity and it led us to our first drummer, Etienne, who happily replaced the drum machine we’d named Bob, to make us feel like a band with more than two members.’

Other local talent started to emerge, brushing off instruments that had lain at the back of cupboards while pushchairs had become priorities. Tim Two-fingers Hemsted, Jamie Elrington, Alec McNab, John Sticks Palmer, Axel Spring and Pat Stimpson, the band’s warm-toned female singer, committed to the first rough idea of a band.

The level of musicianship built over the years to a solid dance set of covers that they like to call their own – an eclectic play-list that ranges from the 70’s to the noughties and which has compelled many a middle-aged housewife to drag her confused husband onto the dance floor. ‘You might know this song but you won’t recognise it…’ It’s a self-deprecating line often used by the band to introduce a song that captures in part, its spirit.

Everything sounds a bit harder, a bit faster than the original; but nothing is taken too seriously, themselves included. Their first gig took place in front of Jon’s garage to a bemused audience of less than 30 people and resembled a three-legged race for an instrument. The cheap microphone didn’t work and the bass amp gave up during the first song. As one of the songs that they don’t play says, ‘It could only get better.’

A regular rehearsal night, new instruments and an investment in modern sound technology has produced a schedule of between eight and ten gigs a year: fixed calendar dates like Thoiry’s outdoor Fete du Tournesols and Gex’s Fete de la Musique mixed with annual community events, five star weddings and intimate parties for close friends.

So dedicated is their following that early last  year, a large banner produced by the Mairie de Gex to promote the group in concert was ‘borrowed’ from the side of the road by an unnamed fan for a private party. Only later was it sheepishly returned. In the last month the band has fulfilled an ambition and produced a studio EP - five of their best tracks laid down over a couple of late nights in a Geneva studio. You can even buy it on-line at Piczo or listen to it on Lulu.

They have their own Facebook site too.

The Gex Pistols are alive and kicking. Expect to see them gigging across 2009 in celebration of their fifth year. While their hair may be in recession, look hard and you’ll see proof that even when you’re ‘middle-aged and angry,’ you should never stop dreaming.

For more information and bookings, you can check out The Gex Pistols on www.gexpistols.com