Finnegan's Wake 13th December 2008

The last gig of 2008 and the last gig for our longest serving bass player, Mike, who is off to pastures old in the new year, mixing it with the current Mrs Pidge and assorted other ex Marines in a new venture- we wish him well, so well in fact that he may well be seen in selected venues with The Shine following his official demise! Watch this space!

Ah, the gig. Well, the pre-Christmas visitors to Edinburgh had nabbed all of the parking slots around Victoria Street, despite Neil and Iain having arrived at their usual time when a decent spot can usually be guaranteed. Neil found a dubious space at the top of the road while after unloading, Iain, Andy and subsequently Mike got parked in Belgium, Bolivia and Outer-Mongolia respectively. Iain also had a serious case of "man flu" and was sweating his ass off, as well as wondering if his throat would last the gig out.

The load in and set up complete, we did the now usual from the bottom up sound check, only to be hassled by a very drunk female (I think, genetic testing would be required to truly confirm this diagnosis) who was very "out there" and keen to invite herself onto the stage. More of her later.....

We kicked off with "Come up and see me" and from the off the crowd were warm and appreciative, if seemingly intimidated by the dance floor. In an absolute first, Danny the manager came across and asked us to turn up! Apparently, Neil's vocals could not be heard and some people think this is a disadvantage. Vocal levels sorted, we went on to deliver a pretty rounded first set with good crowd reaction and a large collection of Santa's on the dance floor from about the 5th number. Half way through, our biggest fan, in every sense of the phrase, returned with more attempts to join the band and following a heated exchange with a doorman who bravely got in her way, she was "helped to leave" the area. She apparently continued to protest vehemently and indeed physically long after we lost sight of her for the final time. I hope she enjoyed the hospitality afforded her by Lothian and Borders until Monday am and her date with the short man in the long black robes....

The pants monitor mix was fixed by ensuring the bass was plugged into the bass channel on the desk as it should have been and not into the vocal channel which pumped major bass volume through the monitors to the detriment of everything else. Iain's ears were so blocked anyway that he didn't notice.....

The first set over, the Santa's departed in search of lands anew and we kicked off into our now legendary, in our minds at least, indie orientated second set. Fear of our friend the munter gone, we had a great crowd of people on the dance floor giving it big licks throughout the second set, taking photos and generally having a great time- it's why we like Finnegan's so much. The set ended with the ubiquitous "Heroes" and we left the stage to catch the flights to get the cars to the echo of "One More Song, One More Song". I love that bit.

A long and sweaty breakdown and load up and that was that for 2008. Still, with the diary already filling nicely for next year, we'll see you in 2009? Hope so!

Greetings of the season and I hope that Santa endows you with a significant portion of the contents of his sack!

All the best

The Shine