King Haakon Bar, Skye - Sheep Have Webbed Feet!!!

Captain's Log - Stardate 06.11.2010 - The Shine venture further north than ever before to seek new lifeforms of partying... And by God did we find them!!!

Even the journey north was amazing with great opportunities for band photo shoots and Stevie & I firing off more shots than the average Japanese tourist!! Stevie did, however, get caught taking a shot at a cute German girl's butt as he forgot to switch the flash off!

This was our first gig at the King Haakon Bar at Kyleakin on Skye but, as it turns out, the first of many. We arrived at about 6pm and were made very welcome by Kate the barmaid who told us Robert would be down in about half an hour. That was cool, time for a pint!! This was also the first gig we'd all be away overnight together and we were going to enjoy it!

Robert appeared about 6.30 and gave us the lie of the land - set up about 8.30, play from 9.45 to 1am. Absolutely fine we thought, we've got tons of material so no problems. Time to tuck into our burgers, fish & chips and fajitas!

When we kicked off, the bar had about 20 diehard locals who'd been there for a few hours already... then the place went mental....!! It started to fill up as the night went on and just kept filling up! We had the girls from (a different) Kate's 18th birthday party, we even had loads of folks still in Halloween dress a week after Halloween! Believe me, when the party starts in Skye it just gets better and better as time goes on!

There was tons of walkabouts (or more accurately "runabouts") as Andy, Stevie and I all went through the appreciative crowd. So much so, Andy lost the cover for his radio unit in the melee.

Eventually at 1.05am we decided to call it quits as there were more girls on stage than there were band members, the local Police were hovering and Robert had the house lights on. Quick stripdown of the gear and it was time for a quick drinkypoo with the King Haakon crew. At 3am we decided to call it a night and crawl off to bed.

Next morning we were up at about 8.30 and thinking "how the hell do we go downstairs when there's no sign of life?". Well, Iain and I discovered the answer to this - we set the intruder alarm off!

Leisurely load up of the van, a chat with Robert and 4 more gigs, and we were off on the road again at about 10.30 for a slightly bleary and hungover drive down the road.

And now the punchline - On the way up Stevie was asking us why he sunk in a bog in Wales but sheep could trot over the bogs. His theory is that sheep have got webbed feet...!!! Laugh, we needed dry underwear!

Until next time you lovely, mental West Highland people!