Marc,
Appreciate the concern, I am trying all the above, and having some success, but when I forget and it catches it is uber painful.
We had a rehearsal last night, effectively playing solidly for around 3 hours (I know, I know) and I was conscious to adapt my playing to protect my finger.
It was basically playing up with expressive fingerstyle, pick helped a lot, but some songs just have to be fingerstyle, however as suggested I turned up instead of digging in and that certainly worked.
I will pick up some Voltarol today, thanks for the heads up.
Cheers again guys, nice to know you are out there with such good advice!
Stuart