I must first confess that ever since the holiday in Dorset I rhapsodised about in the previous issue, I have found it virtually impossible to rekindle my enthusiasm for surfing. Nothing to do with blue skies and rolling hills, however enjoyable they were. It’s all down to the problems I’ve been having at work. Problems not of my own making, you understand. Problems with hardware and software galore. Problems the people my company pays vast amounts of money for software support to can’t sort out.
And my justification for yet again starting off my column completely off topic is that when one of these software support characters - we’ll call him Steve, to avoid embarrassment, but hang on a second, that’s his name, OK then we’ll call him Geoff - was in the office on a 20-minute job that took two hours and still didn’t work, he phoned the helpline. It still doesn’t work, but it hit me that - after years of ignoring all those little technical support messages - if it’s ok for a professional to do use them, it’s ok for me.
So a day or two later I was having difficulties trying to get some software working to download pictures from the Press Association. I took a leaf out of Steve’s - sorry, Geoff’s - book and phoned the helpline. And goodness me if I wasn’t up and running before you could say: “It’s about time Sid Kipper had a Web site.” There’s no stopping me now.
There have been a few interesting threads on the folk newsgroups, not least the one about the apparent demise of the Young Tradition Awards in November. As usual, the messages had a tendency to veer off on tangents so the discussion took in the tradition versus the revival, sitting back and watching against getting involved, and the role of Jim Lloyd’s wife Francis Line - ex-programme controller for BBC Radio 2 - in giving folk enthusiasts at least one evening a week when they could listen to the radio. Not all the comments were complimentary - accusations of “blandness” were I suppose to be expected - but the list of winners was quite extraordinary.
Despite the continuing infestation of the newsgroups by nonsensical offers to make you rich - and the never-ending line of twits who think it’s all right to ask questions like “Whatever happened to Leo Sayer” - there are many quirky little discoveries to be made - such as the meaning of 'A Soalin’'. I may have known some 30 years ago when I used to rush out and buy the latest Peter, Paul and Mary album without a hint of embarrassment, but if I did, I had certainly forgotten by now that it was effectively the same as wassailing. If I wasn’t so busy I’d be tempted to go and dig my old albums out of the loft.
Max Rankin emailed me recently with some thoughts on the Web as a tool for the folk community. He wrote: “The last thing I want is for people to find my site on a search engine then get fed up waiting for it to load - I think that people looking for a band or a musician for a function want quick information, not entertainment. The average music site falls right into that trap by having a whacking great photo load up immediately after the title, which in itself is sometimes a large slow graphic.”
While I agree totally with the avoidance of large graphic files - you can always put them on a separate page where people with fast machines can go and download to their heart’s content - I see no reason why you can’t make it searching for that information entertaining. Max, as many of you probably know, runs a music agency in Dorking, so I guess he has to take things a bit more seriously than those of us stupid enough to be doing all this for love. But he managed to redeem himself: “Overall, I suspect the Web will become just another commercial advertising medium, but will also be useful for special interest groups who spread their page addresses to each other by another medium, such as a newsgroup. Making the world aware of small businesses on the Web will become more and more expensive as the big companies find ways to elbow us out of the medium by saturating it, and I suspect that in 5 years time the Web will just be commercial television down your phone line. At the moment it’s still quite fun...”
Absolutely. Martin Nail has revamped his folk music resources site so there is even more information but - as he uses a minimum of images - it is still one of the quickest sites to explore. It really is a “must have” for your favourites list.
On the commercial side, the Stoneyport Agency has a grand roster of artists - including Web supremo Dick Gaughan, the Wrigleys and the Poozies - so if you’re at a loose end you are bound to find something of interest if you take a little surf around the site.
Ben & Joe Broughton, in between gigs on their own, with Keith Hancock or the Albion Band, have found time to write up their life story and forthcoming gigs lists on their Web site.
Sussex-based Ray Chandler - a much smaller operation - has an excellent promotional site where you can download samples of this multi-instrumentalist’s work.
Tom Frost, Simon Swarbrick (nephew of...), Roger Toomey and John Burton have been working on an album of Celtic and original music called Iron on Stone, from which you can download samples at their site.
One of the more exciting things to have happened to me over the Internet recently was receiving an email from Joe Stead asking for advice on setting up and publicising his site. What you might call a humbling experience - especially knowing the support and encouragement Joe has given to up-and-coming performers such as the Wilsons. Yes, there was a time when they were up-and-coming. His site is well worth a look, particularly if you are after the lyrics to his songs.
Anyway, I really must get down to installing the new version of HoTMetaL Pro and get back to work on my Web site - the Ram Pages need updating. If I finish before Friday, I might even have time to go along and enjoy the music!