Electric Sheep Inc. - Inn on the Green, Shiiine On '24

Rhyl outfit Electric Sheep Inc. made their Shiiine On debut two weekends ago on the Inn on the Green stage and we were there to check it out.

To outsiders, Shiiine On has the unfair tag of a nostalgia festival. There’s some, granted. Step inside Minehead for that weekend, and you’ll see the established perfecting their craft on new albums, but, furthermore, you’ll find nuggets of fledgeling gold like Ecko, Deja Vega (no longer fledgeling) by any means, and Holy Youth Movement being given grand stages to emerge from the shadows.

With nine years of unearthing the UK’s finest new bands behind them, Electric Sheep Inc. in the Inn on the Green came with a buzz.

They did not disappoint!

The intoxicating Velvet Underground drama of ‘Liberation’ unfurled with breathtaking power, while ‘Cough Syrup’ and ‘Moosha Moosh’ swayed from the Mondays to PiL debauched and undeniable.

On former singles ‘Queen’s Nose’ and ‘Taste of It’, the band went from engaging to weekend stealing. As frontman Christian Pimley wrenched “your sheep, annnnnd your cattle, iii’mmmmm not dying for you” from his soul, he found a space between ‘Bummed’ era Ryder and PiL era Lydon to reign supreme as the next great frontman. So many proclaim their colossal stature; Pimley exuded it as he glided effortlessly, making a tiny pub stage look like a vast arena. Coupled with Cameron Kelly and Josh Jones’ spiralling guitars, rock ‘n roll announced its greatness once again.

Set closer, ‘Taste of It’ doubled down on this with its warping majesty. Pimley’s snarling vocal cut through the Mondays-esque grooves with a euphoric intensity. MORE

A festival so synonymous with Happy Mondays was arguably treated to the finest thirty minutes of post-‘Pills, Thrills, and Bellyaches’ ever seen—great lyrics, effortless swagger, and a venom that could kill from a hundred paces.

Ecko: Centre Stage, Shiiine On '24

Ayrshire’s Ecko have become cult heroes at the Shiiine On Weekender since their 2022 debut. Their rags-to-riches debut was a tough act to follow last year, but they still impressed. If the band remained at this level this year, it could only be considered a success. Could they go further still?

Pressure? What pressure?

Shoulders were loose, guitars were slung low, and this was a band with confidence oozing through their souls. On ‘Danny MacKenzie,’ frontman Jamie Warden moved with an ease not seen before. He stepped on the intensity when the power came on top and then eased off into a gentler, aloof mode, visibly allowing an aurora to build around him. Like all great frontmen, he wheeled away from the limelight when it was Matthew Welsh’s (lead guitarist) moment to shine.

A practice they doubled down on during ‘Play Pretend’ when Welsh became the lead singer for the first time. With Warden in such great form, heads turned rapidly. The most exciting band of the decade just added another intoxicating dimension to the band. Welsh's vocal snarled with bullish defiance, his incredulous Keith Richards-esque solo and Liam O’Connor’s career-best bassline crunching its way to glory set this band out so far ahead of the rest.

After the behemoth performance of the latest single ‘Let Go’, the band cut loose on ‘Think Three Times’. The perfect ying and yang of these two felt like a set closing pair for a long time. The violence of ‘Let Go’ tempered by the glee of ‘Think Three Times’ to send thousands home joyously became an inescapable image.

Ecko, three years into their Shiiine careers, played with the skill of a mainstage headliner. Pumping the room full of adrenaline on ‘Miss Hurricane’, and dipping it on ‘Sour’ to show their genius, Ecko propelled souls into the darkness and lifted them out via a haze of psychedelic immortality.

The main stage awaits!