An Ode to Shiiine On

“When something’s good, it’s never gone”

In the summer of 2015, after eight long and dispiriting years in the music industry, a childhood dream finally came undone, not with drama, but with the quiet finality of redundancy. I had failed to bring bands to life on music television, failed to be in love, and lost the home that had once felt like a refuge. It was, without question, the lowest point. A season where everything that had seemed certain dissolved into a kind of grey.

*image credit: Big Ed Photography

The Shiiine 1 poster hung in view, its colours fading as if in sympathy, a reminder of something once bright and possible. I would look at it often, not with longing exactly, but with the numb recognition of a man who knows he can no longer reach what he once imagined he might. The idea of rallying friends and heading west felt impossible.

But time, as it always does, crept forward. A year later, the troops were gathered once more. I went to Minehead, body present, soul lagging. Excited, yet still uneasy, the despair still nagging away internally.

Cellar Doors changed everything!

Their brand of Laurel Canyon-meets-psychedelic rock 'n' roll struck instantly. As the crowd grew and grew and edged closer, I felt among my people. I felt at home. People unashamedly enjoy the kind of music most radio outlets had consigned to the dustbin. The weariness I entered with began to lift, a faint current stirring within.

When The Wonder Stuff took to the main stage, something inside me settled. From pop to politics, punk to poetry, they carried the same fierce joy that had first made me fall in love with music. Each song was a reminder of who I had once been, and who, perhaps, I still was. With every return they make, they seem more powerful, more enriching. More more more! Is it really Shiiine without them?

Each Shiiine brings its own quiet resurrection: a cult band, once lost to time, given a stage to unearth its buried treasures. This debut year was Thousand Yard Stare. Their enthralling set on Centre Stage sparked a new obsessive fandom that took me to the 100 Club and Lexington, and led to sharing emails with frontman Stephen Barnes in future years.

In future years, The Orchids would shimmer whilst Bradford played with a defiant pulse in Jumpin’ Jacks, and The Popguns filled the Inn with a melodic majesty. Detractors decree nostalgia; they miss the point. These bands are survivors, striking old friendships for good, for health, for the love of living! Their songs had grown richer in exile and found keen audiences willing to share their love. Furthermore, 99% of Shiiine acts are releasing new material, and so, breathing life back into us, the mortals.

Dance music has always pulsed through Shiiine’s heart. Having Eddy TM close out that year was more than a booking; it was a moment heavy with meaning. A world-class DJ, of course. But for me, it went deeper. His set took me back to my own youth.

As strangers took me under their wing, conversation flowed from Rick Astley to Anna from This Life, and Eddy’s MTV show ‘Up For It’ (specifically the six-pack challenge). Something loosened inside. The faint hopes of my teenage self were not far enough from the reality of the 32-year-old who stood arms aloft on that Sunday night. With every beat dropped, the tension I’d carried for a year began to dissolve. The music, the laughter, the shared recognition, all of it stitched together the fragments of a self I thought I’d lost.

Thank you, Shiiine On, for giving the lost a place to return to.

Happy 10th Birthday Shiiine On

This November marks 10th birthday of the Shiiine On Festival in Minehead.

*banner image credit: A Deeper Groove

Like any long-running festival, Shiiine has built its own traditions over the years. From Sequin Saturday to Where’s Dylan? and Take It Easy Thursday, these rituals have become part of the pilgrimage to the South West.

It may celebrate the icons and cult heroes of the past, but Shiiine On is no nostalgia trip. This is living, breathing music. 99% of the artists here are still creating, still evolving, still burning bright. Shiiine On is their mecca, a place where legacy meets momentum, and the past collides gloriously with the now.

Shiiine has always had an excellent eye for new bands. They gave mainstage debuts to the fleeting brilliance of The Shakes, the baggy promise of Big Image (formerly Ivory Wave), and the nation's current favourites The K’s. Not to mention their enduring support for the mega-sounding Deja Vega!

For me, the festival’s real magic lies in discovering the new acts, especially those playing the Inn on the Green on Friday and Saturday afternoons. As the hangovers lift and the cider is sipped with one eye closed, the young and hopeful take to the pub stage and take their shot at being the next big thing.

Through the cold sweats and comedowns, the snakeite and smell of guff from the toilets, the ritual of flocking to the pub first is the one I cherish the most. As such, here are our 10 favourite (in no order) Inn on the Green slots from the last 10 years (full disclosure, we missed the initial one, and we forever hang our heads in shame):

Cellar Doors (2016)

Image Credit: Brian Cannon

Our first-ever Shiiine set, and what a start! As soon as the San Francisco trip began, I knew I was home. Melodic, psychedelic, and adventurous rock n roll for the ages.

Electric Sheep Inc. (2024)

A breathtaking debut festival performance. The rightful heirs to the thrones, Shaun Ryder and Lou Reed, lit up the intimate venue with their gritty psychedelia and lyrics that could come to define their generation.

The Utopiates (2021)

*Image credit: Shiiine legend Louise Deveraux

At this stage of their career, they were making inroads into the UK scene with their baggy licks and nods to Depeche Mode. Mid-Saturday afternoon, their grooves oozed through the pubs’ ether with an ease that would see them become a staple band of Steve Lamacq’s 6Music show.

Ecko (2022)

Image Credit: A Deeper Groove

A rags-to-riches tale of epic proportions. The Ayrshire outfit opened the pub stage on the Saturday and caused a word-of-mouth stir across the weekend. So much so that, when the Shambolics unfortunately pulled out on Sunday night, Ecko stepped in to play to a 1500 crowd.

Theatre Royal (2017)

Image Courtesy of the band

Not a new band per se, they were, at this point, promoting the release of their fourth album ‘...And Then It Fell Out of My Head’. Nevertheless, their Medway meets Paisley guitars were nothing short of a triumph, cementing their place as the UK’s best-kept indie secret.

Alfa 9 (2019)

Image courtesy of Blow Up Records

Blow Up’ Records signing Alfa 9 delivered a breathtaking array of Laurel Canyon, The Coral, and The Byrds-esque.

The Institutes (2022)

Image credit: Melli Foris

Staying in the Midlands, this time in Coventry, The Institutes gave the festival one its most beautiful performances. Epic guitars and Reid Currie’s delicate vocal melodies were the hand up of the floor we all needed.

Gazelle (2019)

Image Courtesy of the band

Sadly, the Leicester outfit are no more (frontman Ryan Dunn now has a fine solo project underway). Their relentless Rifles-esque anthems were an absolute riot. Proof that great bands still exist but are not backed enough.

Malakites (2023)

Image credit: This Feeling.

A rush of post-punk tension collided with raw rock ‘n’ roll swagger. Beautifully desperate stuff from the Cardiff outfit who are still making waves now.

Mexican Dogs (2024)

Image Credit: Sonic Pr

Last year, both on the pre-party on Thursday, and in the hallowed halls of Inn on the Green, the Liverpool outfit bludgeoned the senses with their monstrous riffs.

Shiiine On Happy People

On a cold and frosty morning, there's not a lot to say. Have I stolen a pint of milk from work for coffee? Have I packed my Thousand Yard Stare t-shirt? Have I been to the gym enough to get through the onslaught of Shiiine On?

I catch myself in the mirror. Greyer and fatter but, never more ready for the annual trip to Minehead. Why the fuck did I have the 6th pint at Gerry Cinnamon last night?!

The first rush of excitement as old friends meet is allayed by hips falling out of place. Much like 4am finished, hugging around a hand brake is a young person’s game. Four hours of shit jokes, farts, and laughing at your mate for pissing in a bottle as you deliberately ignore Fleet services fly by. This alone is worth 200 quid.

Being the musical geek of the gang, inevitably I’ve spent hours making playlists. Agonising over which new Candy Opera track to add or about which new band is the best Oasis re-hash. The Crooks or Columbia? (it’s The Crooks for me). As you take that exciting right turn past every supermarket under the sun and the Big Top becomes a reality, so does that they haven’t listened to anything you have curated. When Liam Tyson shreds later, then they’ll listen!

Admin. Bleurgh. Queuing for check-in for 30 mins, why didn’t we get here at 10am? Maybe next year. In the meantime, I’ll stare at everyone’s trainers and parkers like a fourteen-year-old staring at strap-on sally chasing you down the alley.

Beers in the fridge. Beers in the freezer. A warm beer whilst we wait. Lammo on 6music. I wonder if he’ll repeat the same John Peel joke again. I wonder if I’ll laugh again. One hour until Ivory Wave, keep drinking!

Then it happens. Like it does every year. There are only three, of the four of us in the lounge. The extractor fan is on. The slow waft of service station expulsion meanders into the room. The wretched fog is here, and with five thousand middle-aged folks digesting the one nutrient between them in Burger King all weekend, it’s loitering with intent.

That first walk to the main arena is like the coronation. The laughter at the Inn on the Green grows steadily, the bouncers friendly (that’s not very 90s), and then it begins, Stone Roses is booming. As it surely always is here. Minehead, in November, is grey, bitter and the seagulls have come beyond the North Wall in Game of Thrones but, ‘She Bangs The Drums’ paints night like a Jackson Pollock masterpiece.

Jug after jug come. I should eat, maybe after Rev. Jug, jug, Thatchers, jager bombs, jug repeat! I should eat. Maybe after Cast and Lightning Seeds. Shit, I can’t hear the Seeds properly, maybe I should eat no? Not before Sice, never before Sice! I eat, it’s not legal, Apollo 440, Adamski and Cut La Rock take me to a buffet of love among strangers I forgot existed. I should sleep. One more pint with this couple as they tell me about meeting at Spike Island.

Chalet. Bed. Sleep smiling. Best friends. Best strangers. Best day one ever.  

Shiiine On the Underdog

"The fact of being an underdog changes people in ways that we often fail to appreciate. It opens doors and creates opportunities and enlightens and permits things that might otherwise have seemed unthinkable."

David and Goliath, Malcolm Gladwell, 2013

Shiiine On 3 was a glorious display of David vs Goliath. Every act seemingly should never had made it but did. A fervent reminder that belief can be all, especially when its in the art of our working class.

Headlining Friday night were the indestructible Levellers. Could a group of Marxist folk-cum-punk rockers ever be considered mainstream anymore? Nevertheless, the fire of 'Liberty', rueful melody of 'Fifteen Years' and the togetherness of 'The Road' are a stark reminder that pop music can be full of love, socialism and make a difference.

The examples of the underdog just kept on coming over the weekend. Clint Boon, an organ player from Oldham, now an icon of the industry Dj-ed to adoring fans. The criminally unknown Theatre Royal continued their good run in 2017 in the Inn on the Green pub. Recent single 'Locked Together On The Lines' drew the crowd, but the power of 'French Riviera' will place them in hearts forever.

Amidst the big choruses lay two beautiful. Firstly, celebrating their 30th anniversary, The Orchids played arguably the most angelic indie set known to man. 'Something for the Longing' will ring in the heads of anyone who watched until they next see this remarkable band. The jingle jangle of 'Bemused, Confused and Bedraggle' brought on a freeness that would have had Arthur Lee beaming from his multicoloured cloud and 'Peaches' was, is and always will be a classic.

The second came from a man, without who, this festival simply could not exist, Steve Lamacq. He was this generations John Peel, shining light on anyone who dared record a demo. His set covered his 30 years but more importantly, it gave little indie nights their dignty back. It became about the people in the room singing the 'Size of a Cow' chorus as one, feeling every bit of angst of 'Mis-Shapes' and, as Lammo stopped to tell all, it was about what John Peel fought so hard to give us, 'Teenage Kicks'.

A conclusion is usually appropriate at this time but, Shiiine On 3 can only be summed up by The Orchids' 'A Kind of Eden'. See you all next year!