do a whois on the ireallylovemusic.co.uk domain and you’ll be as shocked as i am to find out that the site has now been up and running for over 10 years.
now, as you may have noticed i don’t really go for the big budget promo groove, so there have been no celebratory parties, no self congratulatory placement ads from record labels (i am not happy about this aspect, truth be told), no gig sponsorships, nothing.
but had you been following my twitter feed in the last 24 hours you will have spotted a twit-slurge via which i revealed 20 so-called highlights of the last 10 years.
purely for my own sanity (and decaying grey cells) i am going to post the top 20 here.
please bear in mind these were rattled off via twitter, so the order is of no importance (apart from the big finale of course) :
pt1 : 5 years being on the stateside (emi soul reissue label) promo mailing list. so much excellence
pt2 : handful of ‘thank you’ credits on albums you can buy in shops.
pt3 : interviewing clor for the gorillaz special edition of clash magazine back in the day.
pt3 : asking impertinent q’s – foetus/dj food/freelance hellraiser/steinski/dolby/bad/aoc/@440 & grand mal/akira the don/regular fries/joy zipper/annie/soulsavers/boy least likely to/t. raumschmiere etc etc
pt4 : interviewing jim fry re earl brutus/the pre new. too many laughs-n-beers.
pt5 : glasto ’05 : the pain and joy. finding myself sh*faced and back stage with various others.
pt6 : glasto ’05 back stage : in presence of trev-n-simon, but too drunk to say anything.
pt7 : dinner wth steinski/dj food -hedf*ck of the highest order. motorcade 7" changed everything
pt8 : watching the majors spunk the last of their pocket money on crappy landfill indie bands ..
pt9 : getting a beautiful rejection email when asking jacknife lee for an interview
pt10 : dancing my ass off amongst a handful of others while freelance hellraiser let loose
pt11 : the url. after 10 years i still cant believe i got the url.
pt12 : politely declining offers of banner adverts and requests to join community networks.
pt13 : having the design of the site being discussed by a pr firm (ideology vs practicalities)
pt14 : having my name embedded within the archives of the quietus (me – the quietus !?! haha)
pt15 : from lineone hosting > self hosting > web hosted blogger (crap) > self hosted blog.
pt16 : the concept of a modem friendly website in 2010. once a raison d’etre, now a choice.
pt17 : bumping into a band in chicago : "oh, yeah, we know your website"
pt18 : going to garden party : "oh yeah, i know your website"
pt19 : finding several hundred people around the world who are interested in age of chance.
pt20 : and last, but not least : the music i have been given access too (product/virtual/live).
[* and yes, i am aware of there being duplicates of pt3. i was on a roll.]
so, where does that leave the state of the site in 2010 ?
well, to be honest, i have no idea.
certainly in recent times the site has not had the pull on my life it once did, probably due to the fact i’m currently struggling with time/life/family demands to really absorb anything new.
after all, i very much doubt there is a demand for me to post tracks from my stateside collection (sadly not original 60s stateside material, but the glorious glut of reissues that emi released back before guy hands closed the operation down) ?
still, as some of you know, i have a tendency to swing from one genre to another within a matter of hours (a blessing and curse when in possession of such a deep and wide archive) so i’m pretty certain that once this cloud has lifted, things will get back on track.
in the meantime, maybe i should start drafting up a top 20 of low-lights for the last 10 years.
more detail : here