The Shine - A Band In Reverse?

Now, a wise man once said "The great thing with The Shine is it's almost like a dream band in reverse! Most musicians start with the vision of conquering the world, then move into the testosterone fuelled rock band phase and, eventually as old duffers, end up in Clubland".

The Shine (well, a couple of us) have actually paid our dues in Clubland and now as we progress through our 40's are working ...back the way to the rock side. This has always been the ethos of The Shine. While we've got the professionalism and discipline of clubs and functions, we've also more importantly got the spunk and venom of a high energy rock band!

So, as we enter the Marshall Blackstar phase look forward to new material, new energy and new visuals. Think we'll draw the line at conquering the world but we'll certainly be riding the wave of a testosterone fuelled show!

Mull Madness

Here's one particularly for our friends on Mull....

We're compiling a list of things we could do on the Monday, during the day following our Sunday night gig this October. Some of the options are :-

1) go otter spotting (John's idea as he didn't find any last year)
2) take a trip to Iona.
3) see if we could make it to Staffa & take some photos at Fingal's Cave.
4) read / drink tea / eat Jaffa Cakes in the room (John's favourite)
5) record some new material on my new portastudio.
6) build a wee campfire on the beach and roast the drummer's nuts
7) get pished at the Hog Roast

Any other suggestions? Feel free to post on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/theshineonline

Neil

New Lease Of Life

Hey good people!

Strange, we're now into our tenth year together and very recently I get the feeling we've turned a corner into recementing both our sound and the bonds within the band.

Things were feeling a wee bit fractious recently, not to the extent of any threat to the band, but following a really good chat last time up in Skye we're now even more focussed and driven into the next decade! Scary that huh???
Right, new addition! After about 9 years touring round Scotland with my trusty Marshall VS100R amp, I've finally succumbed and traded her for this beauty above! A Blackstar ID60TVP (www.blackstaramps.co.uk) - 60 watts of earth shattering and trouser shifting power. The great thing is that sometimes I was getting frustrated by the Marshall in that I'd have liked my clean sound to be more like a creamy Vox AC30 and, whilst my overdrive was classic Marshall roar, there were times I'd have loved a pure American Mesa Boogie sound.

This amp does ALL of this and more!

In terms of material, we're now being really productive too! Andy & I have written a new batch of originals (to be studio recorded later in the year) and we're agreeing on loads of new classics to include - some piss easy crowd pleasers, some a bit more challenging.

So, things are pretty awesome in "Camp Shine" just now. Come and join us, jump in, the water's lovely!!

Cheers,

Neil