After 5 years, I finally decided to attend Shiiine On, a festival that celebrates the BEST music of all, the sounds of the 90’s, a decade that helped to carve my sonic path through the multitude of others such as hair-metal and other such genres that I was dabbling in by the late 80’s. The lineup included acts such as The Wonder Stuff, Jim Bob, The Inspiral Carpets, Sleeper, The Enemy, Fun Loving’ Criminals, Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, Jesus Jones and more, acts that I may have seen before, some back in the 90’s so this weekend was going to be a chance to re-establish myself with their sound and energy. 

Before I begin my journey , I will add that I caught up briefly with Miles Hunt after The Wonder Stuff’s set on the main stage and thanked him for making me see the light, as it was him and his band and other West Midlands outfits such as Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, Pop Will Eat Itself and The Sandkings that made me see the light!

So, back to my journey.

It started out at 3pm on Friday, I would have come up the night before but as there were no bands performing, I decided to get a days work done ahead of departing the South West for a short trip up the M5 to Minehead. I was somewhat surprised as my trustee Google Maps made me turn off at junction 27 (Tiverton) rather than further on at Taunton. It then directed me through what I can only describe as a forest, it was akin to a stage in Colin McRae’s Rally game that I enjoyed in the late 90’s!

After 20 torturous miles with local white van delivery companies up my arse, I finally got to Minehead and followed the signs to Billy Butlin’s place to check in.

Badged up and raring to go, I entered the main building which was HUGE….I’m guessing that it could easily hold 10000 people. It was near full as Jesus Jones launched into their final number ‘Info Freako’ which sounded tight, with the audience singing along in good voice, well, in voice!

It appeared that the event was sponsored by ADIDAS as just about every male in there was donning a pair of Gazelles, I went against the grain and opted for my trustee New Balance (just to upset the apple cart). Between songs, the toilets took a pounding, with everyone recycling the pitchers of beer that had passed through their systems whilst the sounds of their formative teenage years were pumped into their ears, it was amusing to see a queue for the gents for a change whilst the ladies wandered into theirs without any issues! 

I setup and managed to shoot Jim Bob’s set which was immense and included new solo material as well as nods back to the days of olde with a couple of Carter USM classics. He launched into ‘Geno’ by Dexy’s and the place went mad, awesome stuff.

‘Angelstrike’ was incredible, the sound rode the arena well and reached every nook and cranny. He ended with ‘Bloodsport For ALl’ which again, created a great reaction from the crowd that had come to see him. After his set, I caught up with Chris T-T and reminded him of theme we had drunken piggyback races across Port Erin bay on the Isle of Man when he and Jim-Bob came across to perform a couple of shows there. Whilst he didn’t admit to remember ing the frivolities, he did recall both of the shows that they performed. I offered him a ‘Baby Guinness’ which we were drinking back in 2007, he politely declined (wise man!)

Next up was Black Grape, and friends were taking bets on which version of Shaun Ryder would be in the building tonight, the old version, wasted, bumbling and incoherent or the later version, together, on form and getting involved, thankfully, it was the latter version and it didn’t take long for the on stage banter to begin between him and Kermit, the other singer, not the frog from The Muppet Show!

The sound was phenomenal, the punch of the bass was powerful, causing you to take a breath in the photo pit as it felt like it was pounding you in the chest. Highlights form the set for me included the ever popular and timeless ‘Kelly’s Heroes’ and of course, ‘Reverend Black Grape’ which saw a mass sing-a-long. I got to meet Shaun briefly as he came off stage, he gave me a sweaty hug, which was nice!

The Wonder Stuff are a band that mean a lot to me and seeing them headline on a Friday night in Minehead was a rare treat. Miles took to the stage, accompanied by a jazz backing track, bought the band out to meet the room and kick off their set which spanned their entire career including a few from ‘The Eight Legged Groove Machine’ (Red Berry Joy Town, Unbearable) before they hit on ‘Hup’ (Golden Green, Don’t Let me Down). 

For me, it was akin to a greatest hits set, like the ones you see the greats like Fleetwood Mac and The Eagles do to rake in a few more quid to keep the IRS happy. It was great to see Erica on top form, doing what she does best, commanding her place on stage and taking the spotlight from Miles, which is hard to do but tonight, it was clear that she was the real star (sorry Miles). The speed and power from ‘Unbearable’ took me kicking and screaming back to the late 80’s when I first saw them play in a sweaty pub in Plymouth and I’ll even go as far as to say that they have lost none of the passion that was there from day one. Malc Treece played the part of the guitar hero well, you can tell that he and Miles share a real chemistry and looking back, they have been together for a long time and no doubt have a special bond that have cemented the core of the band in recent days. They traditionally end their sets with ‘Ten Trenches Deep’ and tonight was no exception, the crowd lit up as the final notes rang around the arena, mass applause ensued and a lot of smiling faces shuffled out into the night in search of distractions that would prevent them from returning to their temporary homes for much needed sleep and nutrition…..but its SHIIINE ON, who ends that?

We popped into ‘Reds’ to catch some of the Miki Berenyl Trio’s set, very shoegaze, very soundscapey and very ‘lush’, excuse the pun before heading outside to chat to The Wonder Stuff’s Miles Hunt (see second paragraph for context), I soon caught on that their tour manager, a fine gent by the name of Chris Holding was pimping Miles out for photos and chat in exchange for cigarettes and pints of Guinness which were readily forthcoming. 

After we ‘got the shot’ we popped back to ‘Centre Stage’ which, in the height of the Summer would have been offering a D-List celebrity from X-Factor who may have made the final rounds but didn’t amount to much but instead, we were treated to ‘The Clone Roses’. Now, whilst I don’t usually ‘do’ tribute acts, I will make an exception here as they were fantastic, literally note perfect on every song, they had the room walking about like ‘King Monkey’ Ian Brown in no time at all and singing along to classics such as ‘Elephant Stone’ and ‘Ten Storey Love Song’ which found the audience in fine voice, leading the charge.

We returned to our caravan just after 1am and decided to have an early(ish) night, this was blown out of the water when a couple of our party joined us and we ended up staying up and telling stories of yesteryear until 4am. After 5 hours of mediocre sleep, we surfaced, made breakfast and stumbled outside for day two….

After a brisk walk to the main stage in search of WI-FI (internet connection, not the band!), I headed up to ‘Reds’ to catch ‘Just Radiohead’, another tribute act to entertain the masses ahead of the main stage kicking off later in the afternoon. They were IMMENSE, every track they played from ‘Pablo Honey’ through to the later releases was note perfect, ‘Just’, ‘Fake Plastic Trees’ and ‘Creep’ had me looking up to make sure that they hadn’t been replaced by Thom and his gang. The room sang along and slowly got back in the mood as the bars opened for more cool liquid refreshment. 

I wanted to catch Steve Lamacq in Studio 36 where he was doing his ‘Going Deaf for a Living’ talk and it appeared they were running slightly over as Miki Berenyl was still in conversation, as it drew to a close, the interviewer thanked ‘Emma’ for her time (referring to Emma Anderson from Lush) which drew gasps from the crowd and after attempting to dig himself out of the cavernous hole, he then mis-prounced Miki’s surname as ‘Biryani’ instead of Berenyl, another round of gasps were heard as they drew the chat to a close.

A book signing took place in the room as Steve Lamacq took to the stage and kicked of his talk. He spoke about his early days as a music journey on the NME and being taken on by Radio 1 and finally moving to BBC Radio 6 Music which he remains a regular on the station with his evening show. Amusing anecdotes followed about interviewing Liam and Noel in the studio which turned into a 20 minute swear fest which attracted circa 90 responses from disgruntled members of the public who were busy ferrying their kids to and from cubs and swimming practise as the Gallagher brothers attacked each other on air around 7pm! 

I headed back to the main arena to catch the dying minutes of Deja Vega, a band that I am not familiar with but enjoyed the rather noise fuelled final track which captivated the audience.

Mark Chadwick (Levellers) was playing on the Centre Stage so off I trotted, camera in hand to capture him in action. His set consisted of some fab Levs classics including ‘Liberty’, ‘One Way’ and he ended with ‘Beautiful Day’ which saw a great reaction from the room who were singing along in earnest.

It was back to the main arena for me as Bentley Rhythm Ace were about to take to the stage. Their set was bass heavy and full of groove, just what the casualties from Friday night needed to get them back in the swing of things! A flag of an ‘Acid’ smiley came out and James passed it into the crowd as they continued to play whilst the band executed their moves on stage. I finally got to meet Fuzz Townsend who I was familiar with from years back when he used to drum for PWEI, we had a quick chat about a mutual friend from Devon and I mentioned how I was watching him play but unsure how he managed to maintain an almost break-beat, jungle style rhythm, I guess some people are just born with it!

I finally managed a 20 minute sit down between acts and I rewarded myself with a hot chocolate from COSTA which tasted GREAT and didn’t cost me a kidney!

Terrorvision were up next and they tore the place up in a big way. I saw these guys play at Beautiful Days Festival a couple of years back but forgot how much energy they pushed out into the room, all members jumping about, even the keyboard player was doing split jumps from behind his console, amazing stuff!

I was really looking forward to Ned’s Atomic Dustbin and they didn’t disappoint. From the off, we were treated to a roller coaster ride through their illustrious back catalogue which saw tracks from their debut ‘God Fodder’ and later albums as the room moshed and rucked to hits such as ‘Kill Your Television’, ‘Grey Cell Green’ and ‘Happy’, which I think remains one me faves to this day…. After a killer rendition of ‘Selfish’, the band took a bow and left the stage, leaving the fans exhausted and fulfilled!

I have never seen The Inspiral Carpets before and wasn’t aware that Tom Hingley had departed the band back in 2011 and was replaced by Stephen Holt as lead vocalist, embarrassing I know but I’ll admit that I was never a massive fan of their music from back in the day, unlike the crowd who were singing along to just about every word that rang around the arena. They played a monster set consisting of 18 tracks including hits such as ‘This is How it Feels’, ‘Dragging Me Down’ which saw many large white balloons dispatched into the audience and what turned into a medley consisting of ‘Commercial Rain, ’96 Tears’ and ‘Saturn 5’ ended the set with an impressive confetti shower which filled the arena as the set drew to a close. 

About this time, my 51 year old body was nagging me to sit down, rest up, relax, have some food so I wandered back to the caravan and loaded up on noodles and a tuna based snack which smelled (and tasted like) cat food, causing much annoyance to my party going comrades!

After this, I felt semi-energised and I drifted back towards ‘Reds’ and ‘Centre Stage’ for the final acts of the night which included the always superb ‘Sleeper’, fronted by the lovely Louise Wener who appeared on stage looking splendid in ‘double sequins’ to run the room through a killer set consisting of all their classics including ‘Statuesque’, ‘Inbetweener’ and ‘What Do I Do Now’ which all helped to make me ‘think’ I was 20 years old again!

During ‘Sleeper’ I realised that the floor was shaking but it was nothing to do with the music coming from the stage. I wandered next door to see that The Orb had started playing and it was the bass from them that was causing the rumblings in the building next door! I took some photos and hung about in the pit for 20 minutes whilst they mixed up various sounds in their ‘Orb’ like ways. I did recognise ‘One of These Days’ by Pink Floyd mixed with a heavy techno beat which, on paper, shouldn’t have worked, but it did, and the room were bouncing along nicely to it. I heard a cockerel and realised that it was time for ‘Little Fluffy Clouds’ which was delightful and pleased me no end!

I headed back to see The Supernaturals’ who are a band that I fell in love with in the 90’s and to hear them performing tracks such as ‘I Wasn’t Built To Get Up at This Time’ and ‘Smile’ was a proper treat for this writer who had waited the best part of 30 years to catch them in action!

After being on my feet for 13 hours, I decided it was time to call it a night, I trudged back to the  caravan where I found the rest of my party who had turned in a bit earlier, talked rubbish for an hour until sleep finally took me!

After a good 6 hours sleep and a half decent breakfast (we had avocados as well as sausages and bacon so it was a third healthy) I was looking forward to CUD but my hopes were soon dashed as I found out that they had cancelled. Instead of wasting time, I set about editing the photos from Saturday night and managed to get them on the socials in time for the bands kicking off on Sunday.

We popped into Studio 36 to catch the Flowered Up ‘I Am Weekender’ which was followed by a Q&A, we watched a short documentary on the making of the film and I patiently waited for the Q&A but another film came on, Maybe it was ‘I Am Weekender’ and as the nice security man wasn’t sure about the length of it, I decided to shoot off and catch The Rifles instead so I probably missed the Q&A! 

The Rifles have been a band on my ‘to watch list’ for a long time, I think ever since I got news that their singer Joel Stoker had released a record back in the height of lockdown with all proceeds going to the NHS. The room was full and I stayed for a couple of tracks which went down really well with the audience that had come early to watch them. They looked great, sounded sharp and kicked out some belting numbers which certainly helped to blow away any remaining cobwebs from Saturday night’s exploits….

I saw that Alex Lipinski was opening the main arena so headed over to catch him in action. The name was familiar but where did I know him from? After much debate with a friend, we looked on my site and saw that he had supported The lemon heads when they had played in Bristol a couple of years back. Their set was immense, it was s hame that the room was only half full but even so, they played like it was Wembley and went down a storm with anyone lucky enough to catch their set. I briefly caught up with Alex after the show and mentioned The Lemonheads gig, he was busy packing up as had another show in Bridgewater this evening so I bid him farewell and  left him to his packing.

John power from CAST and THE LA’s was up next and it was a packed house for his solo acoustic show which was full of CAST and the creme de la creme of ‘The La’s’ hits. For me, the highlights were ‘Walk Away’ and ‘Guiding Star’ which sounded fantastic despite it only being him on stage. 

The Farm were next up on the main stage and they meant business, bringing a groove heavy set to Minehead, they dazzled on stage as they took the room back to the 90’s with their trademark classic ‘Groovy Train’. Things were moving along at a rate of knots as they launched into a cover of TheClash’s ‘Bank Robber, the room soon filled and by the time they played their closer ‘All Together Now’ which saw the room in awe, arms open and held aloft, loving the track that made the band a household name back in the 90’s.

Fun Lovin’ Criminals were revving themselves up backstage and I had to do a double take as I thought Huey looked a lot younger than the last time I saw them, appears that he has now left the band and he has been replaced by a new, younger looking chap who plays guitar and shares vocal duties with Brian ‘Fast’ Lesner. Despite Huey NOT being on stage with them, I enjoyed their set, it sounded tight and exciting and after they threw out the classics ‘Scooby snacks’, ‘King of New York’ and ‘The Fun Loving’ Criminal’, the room was on board and loving everything they performed.

After reading that The View had been scrapping on stage at a live gig, I was interested to see if they could refrain from a repeat performance at Shiiine On and my wish came true. Their set spanned their career from 2007 (Hats off to the Buskers) to 2023 (Exorcism of Youth) and everything in-between. For this writer, it was the earlier numbers that put smile on his face and saw him singing along to ‘Face for the Radio’, ‘Same Jeans’ and ’Superstar Tradesman’ which he remembers from the ‘early days’. I managed a high five from Kyle after the show as he fled from the stage to the backstage area where there was a car waiting to take him back to his caravan where no doubt he would be tucking into a lovely beige dinner consisting of crispy pancakes, potato waffles and beans (probably…)

The Enemy are a band that I fell in love with when their initial singles and debut album dropped in 2006/2007 and having never seen them before (I know, unsure how I hadn’t managed to see the during the past 16 years), it was finally my time to catch them on stage, doing what they do best. Their set was intense, full of energetic, sing-a-long choruses as the band took you from 2007 to their most recently released material in 2015. Again, for me, it was the earlier material that made my ears prick up, ‘Had Enough’ sounded as vibrant and relevant as it did 16 years ago and when Tom Clarke strapped on his acoustic and launched into ‘We’ll Live and Die in These Towns’, I thought the room was going to erupt. It may be an acoustic led track but the power they put out was enough for the room to engage and shift into a higher gear. I heard many people talking about their ‘band of the weekend’ and The Enemy featured in many of the top three results, as they did in my own, along with Bentley Rhythm Ace and The Wonder Stuff.

This my friends, is where my SHIIINE 24’ journey came to an end. I had to be at work for 9am on Monday and had I not turned in when I did, I wouldn’t have been able to get up at 6am, shower and hit the road to get to Bath for a day’s work. I missed The Primitives, Stereo MC’s, A Certain Ratio and others that were playing into the wee small hours of Monday but as they played, I snoozed and tried to free my mind of the excitement of the weekend before the hum drum of the 9-5 routine took me for another week.

Being my first time at SHIIINE ON, I will say that I had a fabulous time, the security guards were great, very accommodating and happy to chat between acts, the team that pulled it all together including the stage crew did a great job in keeping it all running on time and making sure that everyone had a great time. Being a punter, you never really see and appreciate what goes into putting on an event of this scale and being able to shoot photos from the stage and backstage area, I can tell you that a LOT of hard work goes into it.

I’ll definitely be looking to attend the 2024 event, I’m unsure of the lineup so far but one thing I do know is that The Levellers will be playing, if you’re a fan of theirs, I suggest you get your booking made early to avoid disappointment!

Words and Pictures by Steve Muscutt