There's Water In That Thar Diesel Para Handy!

OK, here we go with another blog from Shineyland - partly because our Stevie rightly pointed out I hadn't done one for a while....

Talking of which, let's start with Stevie.... During our now routine "get pissed until you fall down" routine post-gig in Skye at the weekend (28.5.11), Stevie mentioned his time with the band. That got me thinking as I guess we still consider him "the new boy". This is quite scary but Stevie is coming close to being the longest serving masters of the bottom end - that honour will be bestowed in August when we hit the road again after the inevitable return from holidays by the half of the band whos employers are generous enough for them to afford holidays! What's more, with the stack of gigs in 2010 and 2011, Stevie is possibly also the most prolific player we've had the pleasure of working with (I'd need to check the stats for that)! Most importantly, he's an absolutely vital part of the band and has been for some time now! An exceptional player with an exceptional sound - which does vary I have to say with every Frankenstein bass he makes and hits the road with!!

Right, to Skye..... Always a pleasant adventure and as I said to the guys on the way up "No two nights are really the same". How right was I this time???!!!

On the way up we discovered that Iain our multi talented drummer, vocalist and tour bus driver absolutely LOVES cyclists! Just as well as there must have been about 15,000 of them on the 190 mile journey! With every group, Iain broke out into a big grin and gave them a cheery wave as he passed them - especially the ones who were cycling three abreast on the twisty mountain roads. "Cheeky wee minxes" I'm sure he said in these scenarios... I might be wrong in this description of his responses though as I did nod off a few times!

Anyway, got up to the amazing King Haakon about 7pm to the sound of a generator (although we did wonder if the Vital Spark was moored alongside). Never mind, we thought, we've played a fair handful of generator fed festival gigs. First problem was, the generator didn't feed the kitchen - therefore the kitchen couldn't feed the band! Thanks to Robert's advice, we headed back along the road to "Taste Of India" restaurant. After ordering within 5 minutes we had to wait for a further hour with no food. At this point Andy erupted in one of his very rare furies - laser beams shot from his eyeballs and wiped out the inefficient waiter. Off we piled into the van again and over to the chippy in Kyle Of Lochalsh.... Which closed at 9pm and could only offer us one bag of chips and half a sausage to share! Fuck that, we thought!

Back to the King Haakon, Stevie saved the day again by whipping out his George Formby grill, a pound of bacon, 8 rolls and promptly fed his bandmates while we hurredly set up all the gear.

Come 10.15pm (not bad, only 15 minutes late), we hit the stage! We were absolutely on fire! A totally tight, high energy set... Well, high energy until the generator spluttered and killed the power... The night continued on like this in which we watched for the tell tale signs of power drops - wondering if the sophisticated electronics of our gear would survive. There were even a couple of times some absolute tit had gone outside and deliberately killed the generator. Hopefully Robert will have returned the favour with the culprit!

So, weird night... Great night, great gig as usual, great venue but we could have done with mains electricity, food, the camp guys in skintight t-shirts being replaced by Annia, Lucy, Amber & all.... OH, AND MORE CYCLISTS ON THE WAY UP & DOWN! :-)

Can't remember much about the post-gig band blether until 4am this time but it's always a guaranteed laugh!

Oh, and on the way back down we happened upon an unfortunate motorist who had decided to see if his car would work as well upside down on a steep mountain pass... There was a helpful chap who appeared to be directing traffic whilst huddled under a horrible golf umbrella and equally horrible beard - so we left him to it, gave a cheery wave and carried on our merry way!

Wonder what our next trip up will bring in a couple of weeks....? A plague of locusts?

Take care,

Neil