Adventures in rural Perthshire...

Friday night (24.6.11) and we were off again to one of our favourite wee gigs - the Coach House in Killin. Can't believe that's about 5 years we've been playing there now!

Anyway, this one was a bit extra special as due to our resident God Of Thunder heading off to sunnier climes in "la belle France", we were joined at the back by the incredible Chic McFee of Soul Inferno. Stunning drummer who gave us a solid foundation even without any form of practice or run through with us. As usual, the welcome from David, Jan, Kerry, Rob & Kim was heart warming. These people are not just venue owners to us now, they're genuinely friends. Quiet night due to the ongoing recession & lack of money but it's always a pleasure playing for the Robinsons. Must work out how to do them a wee favour.

So, 9pm we launched into our now regular half acoustic / half electric sets. I could feel that this would be a tricky one as it was evident my what I thought was hay fever was actually yet another cold. Paper hankies at the ready we donned the acoustics. The sound was incredible! Mind you, this was the first time in Killin with the new more powerful amp. More volume? No, turned down and delivered pure quality. Strangely, as agreed with Andy, my vocals were outstanding. I was deliberately holding back big time as my sinuses were exploding and my throat was on fire. The upside? I concentrated on singing rather than yelling and it worked! The playing was just amazing from all of us - Andy & I just in the zone trading riffs and lead lines, Chic and Stevie providing a solid base with tons of space and light & shade. It just felt lovely...

After a short break it was time to strap on the solid bodies and fire up the Marshalls. How were the slightly older audience going to take to the usual Fratellis etc? The answer was they were really appreciative! Although now running on full octane we continued to keep a lid slightly on and performed beautifully. For once even my solos were pretty sweet...

Afrais the highlight for me was when Andy's batteries ran out in his new radio unit. Taking 5 minutes to nip out & change them, I decided to launch into leading a version of "Whiter Shade Of Pale". We should really do stuff like this more often! It was a pleasure to perform a track that I could actually give heart & soul to - not that I don't with everything, it's just it's often hell for leather. Even my lead lines on "Whiter Shade" were beautiful, note perfect and heartfelt.

So, until the next time... Killin, we love you!

Peace & best of luv,

Neil

The Shine in PICTURES!!!

Right, remember what I said about the picture gallery about 2 posts down in this blog? You know the bit about our beloved Fotopic disappearing into the ether? Well, we're back in business!

Thanks to some great Facebook friends, well one in particular (thanks Scott). I've been spending a LOT of time working on our Google Picasa albums - which already existed but weren't really used. The great thing is that we should be a lot safer with a Google based gallery than other "come and go" ones. So I guess the official The Shine site now owes a lot to not only my creation but also Google and Reverbnation!

Personally I like the slideshow of pics now on the site and if you click on any of the pictures it'll take you directly to our Picasa album!! Result... Alternatively, you can sit and watch all the pretty pictures from our travels - you won't get to see the clever maps of all the locations in the slideshow though.

So, worthwhile use of a wet afternoon in Dunblane when we were expecting to be somewhere just north of Fort William "en route" to the fabulous King Haakon in Skye. Spotify playing some classic prog in one window and web editors in others!

Peace and best of love,

Neil