Another new era!

So here we go again... Another year in the life of The Shine (6th one to be honest) and another bass player! We really must be Spinal Tap!

Quite seriously, Andy and I had an extremely sensible chat with Dave back in January. Whilst Dave was committed to the band, and us to him, he also had other priorities with his function band and other projects. Whilst Andy, Iain and I have the support of our "day jobs", Dave relied on music as a valuable source of income. The outcome was that we all agreed to be adult, remain friends, stay in touch when we needed each other but to cut each other loose to do what was best for each concerned.

Enter Stevie Patrick... Stevie was one of many bass players we, without sounding pretentious, auditioned. In addition to having checked out our setlist on here and learned a huge percentage of it, immediately brought a newfound fire to our sound. Stevie's playing is like an amalgamation of the best of who's gone before - the rockiness of Mark, the punchiness of Stu and the talent of Mike and Dave. One other difference - fuck, he can talk!!! It's also great to have another Glaswegian in the band.

After starting the year at another new venue for us, Fishers in Pitlochry, with Stu doing a brilliant job on bass, it was into the studio for a frantic runthrough with Stevie. Within 2 sessions he was gig ready! Just as well as, come 13th Feb, we all piled into Iain's famous Boogie Bus Mk.2 and headed up to the Lorne in Oban.

A fantastic time was had by all in Oban - this really is a cracking wee venue. Mid February in Oban? We thought this might be a quiet one - how wrong can one band be?? The place was, as usual, jammed to the rafters and rocking. The one thing I think we can safely say now we're into our second year with Declan and the Lorne is that this is always a fantastic gig with a fantastic audience. Yes the skirts are shorter in July but the reception would always defrost an eskimo's jockstrap. The one downside was that we discovered the "traffic light" noise limiter DOES work - twice! Something to bear in mind for the rest of 2010. We blame Stevie as this never happened with Dave. Anyway, Stevie... This was where he was either going to prove his mettle or we were going to kill each other. Bloody hell can this boy play! We thought he was good in the studio - stick him in front of a live audience and he's on fire!!!

The other great thing is Stevie's arrival has injected a new fire into the band. With no other commitments, Andy and I are now back to firing on all six to get The Shine back in as many venues as we can manage. We're now optimistic that a return to the fabulous Finnegan's Wake will take place in 2010 thanks to a great communication with Danny, still pursuing O'Neill's in Albion Street, Glasgow, secured a gig at The Tavern Bar, Eyemouth with more to follow in 2011, off to Skye in November with more to follow in 2011, more Pitlochry gigs and, last but not least, looking forward to a return to our "home from home" The Coach House Hotel, Killin.

On top of all this, 2010 will see Andy being made an honest man and frankly couldn't happen to a nicer couple - Andy and Gwen are truly a couple of the nicest, most decent people you could hope to meet! Also, our intention is to return to the recording studio later in the year to record some new tracks - some tried and tested live material and some brand new original material. This should be fantastic with the new sound and new line up.

Until then, hopefully catch you on the road somewhere.

Peace.

Neil