Thursday, January 12, 2006

A SMALL SMATTERING OF SELF-REGARDING NONSENSE


We were so much older then, we're younger than that now. If you have a glass, mug or some other sort of drinking vessel to hand, you might to like to raise a surprised toast to the fifth anniversary of No Rock & Roll Fun today; coincedently on the same day that, in about twenty minutes, the turnstile will click on our semi-arbitrary counter to record the 1,000,000th visit.

It's not a bad run for a thing I only really started because my old iMac used to be on a very low coffee table in the corner of my bedroom, and sitting underneath it to create HTML pages for the bothsidesnow site in Dreamweaver used to take longer than my legs could take without going to sleep. I think the first few posts suggest that there never was a masterplan, and it's kind of shaped itself - luckily, there seems to be enough people interested in what we do here to make it worth the time I spend on it.

The first proper post also established our habit of being wrong - we'd misheard Steven Malmkus sing "Jennifer dates a man in a sixties cover band" as "Pixies cover band", which would have been a much better line; we've gone on to be wrong many times since - we've probably never been more than wrong than when we noisly suggested the casting of Billie Piper as Dr Who's assistant was probably a worse idea than Bonnie Langford had ever been.

But here we still are - I've changed jobs twice (yes, I do have a day job, despite what some people assume) and moved office seven times; moved house three time and are on the cusp of a fourth, including one move of 350 miles; got married (I suspect this fact surprises some readers more than the having a job part); had one minor visit to casualty; said goodbye to three cats; redesigned five times (more or less) and filed posts from Liverpool, Milton Keynes, Hull, Berlin, Fort Worth, Colorado, Tunbridge Wells, Newcastle and Brighton. We've seen the mooted "Radio One and a Half" be born as 6Music, Top of the Pops shunted off to the weekend, Oasis scrap an entire album in disgrace, Jack White turn to the darkside, the Melody Maker and Select cease publication, Mariah's career crumble and then reform, Avril Lavigne pledge to never sell herself on her body, John Peel die and Apple become one of the key players in the music industry. Countless posts have been eaten by Blogger quirks, and a few others I wish had been. I think I'm just starting to get the hang of this blog business now. Another five years, and it might just be coming together.


25 comments:

mike said...

congratulations - you just hit 1 million! And i was there to get a screen shot - despite attempted rigging I wasn't able to be the millionth viewer! Someone from Bayside NY has the honour

Anonymous said...

Only been reading your stuff for 6 months or so, and must say I like it. Just wonder how you have the time to collect stories, type them up and hold down a job.Do you have a social life? Anyway, Congratulations on your 1 millionth viewer.

mike said...

hmm - i just realised why it's "xrrf" in the address. I'm an idiot - I always thought it was just a bit random.

LJ said...

..and dropping a nice blog on us all is what you've been doing- the mistakes that you've made, well, that's what makes this screen i'm looking at human.
i'm sure you do have social skills, but i would prefer that you ditch them and write full-time. lordy.
and why is it xrrf? it looks too familiar to be random, but i can't put my finger on it.
P.S. you are my favourite blogger in the world, i shall now give you a hug :) and your wife :)

Cox said...

Sir, I salute you from across the pond. Native Minnesotan(the land of Prince and The Replacements), I find solace in your musings whilst I should be working.

So continue to rock, you magnificent bastard!

Anonymous said...

Congrats, Simon - long may you post!

Eleanor G

Simon said...

Very well done for everything, Simon. Five more years! Five more years!

ian said...

i feel the need to join in with the congratulations.

I would explain the xrrf, but then i'd be proved wrong and it would be frightfully embarrassing.

Anonymous said...

All the best for the next five years, Simon!

Anonymous said...

Congratulations NRRF - you're one of my standard daily sites to visit and waste valuable work time... much kudos for the work you put into it and frankly I like the cut of your jib - will buy you a pint anytime, cheers!

Anonymous said...

Congrats from me too...undoubtedly my favourite blog, I've come to totally rely on you to keep me updated with what's going on back home in (mainly) Blighty.

Keep up the excellent work - it's much appreciated!

Anonymous said...

Happy birthday for yesterday xrrf.

12th of January babies are the best (I'm older by 30 years though)

Ade said...

Many congrats on a fine blog and a laudable achievement. And I think we also owe thanks to the many "artistes" whose asinine, vacuous and self-regarding gibberish has supplied much of the raw material...nah, fuck 'em, bunch of tossers.

Anonymous said...

Hooray for self-regarding nonsense! Hooray for you! I read you everyday... and I get paid for it. Many thanks.

Anonymous said...

Well done Simon on reaching the fifth birthday of xrrf. And, if anything, unlike most artists, you're getting better.

You've seen off Travis, Starsailor, and countless idiot popstrels* while reveling in music daily.

Well done

Anthony

*Without wishing to sound like a broken record (looped mp3?) you've not seen off Robbie Williams because he's the 21st Scott Walker (oh and the male Billie Piper)

Matt said...

Hurrah! Congrats on the five years, and may you continue to reign for as long as the world needs to be frighteningly well informed about the idiot record companies and their idiot pop stars even when we wouldn't want to listen to their songs under any circumstances! Hurrah!

Simon Hayes Budgen said...

Thank you, everyone, for your kind words and for the support...

the "xrrf" was probably me trying to be too clever for my own good - I wanted a fairly short bit as "dot blogspot dot com" was already quite a long URL, and so it was going to be NRRF - but then I thought that using an "X" to stand for the "No" bit was a good idea. You know, you make these decisions on the spur of the moment while you've got one eye on Music Choice's Alt Rock station, and five years down the line, you still wonder if it was the right thing to do...

Simon Hayes Budgen said...

And, Anthony... I'm still waiting to see some evidence to back up the claims.

elbuho said...

Great stuff, Simon! I have a couple of questions, if that's ok:

1) Have the 3AM 'girls' sent you their congrats?

2) Have Private Eye offered you a column yet?

3) How does it feel to be essential reading for the entire UK music industry and music press?

4) When/where's the party?

Anonymous said...

The internet may be severing our taste for personal warm human contacts, it may be an opportunity to spread terrorism and pornography, it may be offering means for unfriendly states to snoop into the inner recesses of our lives, it may foster passivity, ignorance and hate, but it's worth it just to have no rock 'n' roll fun. Five more years? Hell, you should be on a stipend and forced never to die.

Anonymous said...

This blog has been essential reading for years! Thanks so much Simon for all the laughs and keeping myself and all the others posted.

Congrats on getting married. It is a surprise but a pleasant one. She's a lucky lady!

Looking forwards to many more years of your excellent and entertaining writing.

Kevin xo

Anonymous said...

CONGRATS!! I love this blog so much!

Anonymous said...

nice work.. only found this quite recently.. but have now found it to be a daily obsession.. and the only blog to keep my fickle interest.. congratulations on 1,000,000

Anonymous said...

big congrats - this is one of the best music websites there are and the only blog i read...

Paul said...

Congrats .. and here's to the next 10000000!

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