So, a recap of 2012... Where to start? As The Shine approaches it's 9th anniversary (God, I can't believe that) it's time for a wee look back at 2012.
2012 for The Shine was a real mix of old & new experiences! In terms of the old, we were delighted to maintain the relationships in playing for the Coach House in Killin, Saucy Mary's (more about them later) and the mighty Finnegan's Wake in Edinburgh. The reality is we have a great time playing in some of the more rural parts of Scotland - Skye, Oban, Mull, Killin etc and then come home to ROCK the capital city! Although our "road trips" are indeed many of the highlights, after 6 years of loyalty - on both sides - it could be argued that Finnegan's Wake is our "home".
For once, this year saw absolutely no personnel changes in the band - other than the odd dep. Very unusual for The Shine! It's quite disconcerting when going to regular long standing gigs and being greeted with "My God, you've got the same bass player as last year!".
So, on the road.... Firstly, it looks like we may have said goodbye to The Lorne in Oban during 2012. It would be nice to return but unfortunately following a cancellation on about 24 hours notice we've not been back up (other than passing through). It's a real shame as the Oban audiences rock - hopefully we've left the door ajar if not fully open!
As always Saucy Mary's in Kyleakin rocks our world! We've had a few funny ones up there in 2012 - invariably rockin' nights but some very different atmospheres. We started the year off with Laura having left and Steve taken over. As Steve got to grips with Saucy's we saw a change towards more a dining pub than the "hoolies" in 2011. This wasn't entirely bad, although the atmosphere was changed... High points were the night of the "Luv Muffs" in May and "The Night Of The Tittage" (as per the blog below). We then ended the year of Saucy's in November to find Steve had left and Johnathan had taken control. No bad thing, the atmosphere was amazing! This kinda leads me to believe that Steve was keeping a lid on the place - whilst Aly and the team are behind the bar, however, Saucy's is just amazing!
Some new ground broken? Yep, how about an acoustic gig in Andy's next door neighbour's garden back in the summer? This was actually great fun and a great opportunity to play about with some completely different material (most of which I hadn't pre-warned the guys about). "In the air tonight" on nylon string classical acoustic comes to mind...
Just like leap years, we also made our return to the Scribbler's Picnic in June 2012 - gladly doing our bit to raise funds for various invaluable cancer charities. Thanks a million to Ted Christopher for having us back - who knows, we might even get another invite in 2016! :-) A scorching wee set was delivered by the mighty Shine monster - blowing the cobwebs off a typically dreich June Sunday. Of note was when, near the end of our set, we got the signal for "one more song". No probs thought I and happily welded about 4 songs together into a rock medley - lasting roughly 20 minutes! Fair's fair, all the other bands were over-running so why the hell shouldn't we while we were on fire!
Dervaig... Mull... The 2012 Rally... Yeah, this needs a section all to itself! We were delighted and honoured to be invited by Nick & Debs at the Bellachroy in Dervaig to play for two nights at the "post Rally" party & hog roast! One slight problem, Iain was out of commission on sprogging duties. Into the breach stepped good friend Bruce Flaws on drums. Wow! What a player! Loud, powerful and absolutely precise - Bruce immediately secured his position as our automatic first choice dep! Not only had he put in his homework but he adapted seamlessly to my usual dropping songs in at random - some tracks NONE of us had done before! This gig (second night) also saw the birth of another new experiment in which John took on six string duties and I stepped back into bass. Overall we had a stunning couple of days - Mull absolutely rocked our socks off! Special mention (if I can remember all the names) goes to Nick, Debs, Kerry, Callum, Fiona, Shona, Alan, Ally and everyone else who was there - you guys wrote the book on how to drink and party! The gigs themselves were hot, tight and rocking - two almost completely different sets each night. The floor was awash with beer, as were our jeans after the inevitable floor slides! Hopefully we'll be back!
Finnegan's - what to say? As always, each night was outstanding and always a pleasure! Well, with one exception... There was the night of Andy's catastrophic gear failure! Complete Marshall meltdown. After a quick changearound, I stuck my guitar through my effects and into the rig - sacrificing my Marshall to Andy. All's well that ended well and we limped through to the end of another successful gig. Other than this one glitch, each night at Finnegan's was tight, rocking and home to the beautiful people.
So there we go, a short precis of 2012. Here's hoping 2013 is even better!!! In the meantime, why not join the "in crowd" and follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/theshineonline.
Catch you on the road and all the best for 2013.
Peace and best of luv!
Neil
