The End

 

I was sifting through the "Left and to the Back" Facebook mail the other day, and was reminded that somebody once sent me a message with the subject line "Never Quit". They're not going to like this blog entry...

Because unfortunately, I am quitting. I have taken the decision to draw a line under this blog and there will be no further new entries. We'll come on to the reason why in a minute, but before that, let's get the practicalities out of the way, because in the months and years which follow that's going to matter to casual readers most.

The mp3s

I'm going to keep all the mp3s on this blog live until the end of June 2024, after which point my subscription to Box will be cancelled and they will be removed. If there's anything here you want but haven't got around to downloading yet, please do it as soon as possible, as it will evaporate after that point.

Still, this isn't necessarily the end of the world. If any of the music is currently unavailable on YouTube I'll probably upload it on my channel there in the not too distant future - so this isn't as drastic as it probably sounds on first reading. Nothing should be wiped completely from existence. 

After the end of June, the blog will exist in a mothballed state with all the writing, sleeve art and scans of record labels remaining available online but all sound files removed. No further updates to existing entries will be run beyond that point, so all very old entries declaring that "nobody knows who this band are" should obviously be treated with a pinch of salt. Share corrections in the comments for the benefit of other readers by all means, but I won't be acting on any of them. 

But why do this?

Honestly, there are no external forces compelling me to. Nothing awful has happened - I'm still healthy, and I still have a certain amount of time on my hands to spend on this blog if I want to - but the truth is that after nearly 16 years of writing about rare and largely unheard music within the parameters I originally set, I just want to (pun entirely intended) change the record. 

These are truly fantastic times for people who want to fish deep in the muddy backwaters of pop and rock, with Cherry Red putting out amazing box sets with hugely detailed, lovingly researched booklets seemingly every month. Back when I kicked this project off in 2008, the internet and record stores felt bereft of these nuggets, but these days just one of those box sets could put the contents of a year's worth of "Left and to the Back" entries to shame. That's a wonderful situation to be in if you're a consumer of music.

In fact, Spotify and Apple Music have also upped their game so much and there are so many people also active on YouTube doing this sort of thing that it's become extremely hard work to find truly buried material. This particularly applies if (like me) you're operating to a modest budget, and to be honest the blog has become more of a chore than a pleasure in the last year as a result. I recently visited my local independent record shop with a completely clear head, knowing that for the first time in years 100% of my brain could be devoted to looking for new things I wanted to spend time listening to myself, rather than worrying about "content". It was absolute bliss. 

None of this means that I want to stop writing or talking about music. I will do something else soon, and I'm sure I'll be back on here to announce it when I do, but I'd like to spend more time focusing on music not just because it's odd, obscure or buried, but for other reasons. There's a whole other world out there and I intend to throw myself into it. 

In the meantime, thanks for being such a lovely bunch of readers. Hopefully our paths will cross again very soon. Please do continue to follow me on Twitter at @leftandtoback or on Facebook for more news on future plans. 

Oh yes, and the Discogs shop remains open for business and will be for the foreseeable future. The blog might be over, but I'll need to keep having clearouts for a long time to come.