THE SUNDAY CORRESPONDENTS

A few unexpected things have been happening in the lives of a number of the Sunday Correspondents which have had an impact on their abilities to type away and provide pieces for the blog. For instance, a couple of weeks back we should have been enjoying the latest musings from The Sense Collective, but a wee unexpected turn of events at his place of employment has meant he has had to concentrate his energies on things that are far more important than crocheting a few clichés to entertain and inform readers of this small part of the internet.

Cullen Skink was then hoping to talk about turning 40 years of age and looking back at some his favourite songs from each of the decades, but between organising a get-together at his house and planning for a family holiday that involves driving from Glasgow to France with two very excited kids in the back seats, he also ran out of time.

And then, just a couple of days ago, I learned from John Greer of an illness in his family which is going to see him likely to be running back and forth from his home in East Lothian to the Kingdom of Fife on a regular basis. Never mind the fact that John might have less time than usual to help out here every now and again, he might well not have the inclination.

So I thought I'd step into the slot this weekend, strictly as a one-off, but rather than ramble on in some sort of subconscious and incoherent fashion, I want to use this slot to give a big thank you to everyone who has been part of The Sunday Correspondents series over the past 5 months.

The idea of The Sunday Correspondents all came from the success of the series in May/June 2009 when almost 40 different readers offered their services to provide a guest posting while I was away on holiday. Rather than select just 14 volunteers to cover the period of the holiday, I ended up using every piece that was sent in, and there’s no doubt that it proved to be one of the best and most enjoyable features I’ve ever run. It was clear that guest postings added a new dimension and dynamic to the blog.

So, I approached a number of folk who have been friends for years along with someone whose June 2009 guest posting led to clamours for him to start up his own blog, and asked if they fancied doing something for me every six weeks or so. It all kicked off on 10 January when John Greer took on the task of setting the standards, and in providing a hugely entertaining overview on the life and work of Trevor Horn, and by posting an mp3 by Dollar, he also demonstrated that no singer or band was going to be out of bounds. The public reaction was hugely favourable going by the comments left behind.

Since then, we’ve had all sorts of great stuff from the guys I've mentioned above as well as Dick van Dyke, Jacques the Kipper, The Ghost of Troubled Joe and our newest volunteer, Red and Ginger. Oh and who can forget that Valentine’s Day 2010 saw the genius who manages the Punk Rock Hotel share his amazing tale of finding the master tape of a long-lost Bourgie Bourgie promo video and give a world-exclusive showing within the pages of TVV.

The quality of the writing has been consistently excellent. The fact that so many different people are prepared to take the time to share their thoughts, views and memories and link these to songs from so many different eras and genres has certainly taken The Vinyl Villain to a new dimension. I genuinely do not know from one week to the next what is going to emerge from the keyboards of the various contributors, nor do I know what particular songs they are going to want to showcase. Everyone brings something completely different to the party and that’s where the strength of the series lies.

And I do just want to say a big thank you to all the contributors. Everyone of them have an awful lot of other things going on in their lives at the best of times juggling demands placed on them by family, work and social activities, and they could do without me harassing them into doing something that is time-consuming and probably a bit of a pain in the rear-end to do. And it really only hit me in recent weeks when The Sense Collective and Cullen Skink got all apologetic and were concerned about letting me down when they've got a million and one other things way more important to be getting on with.

As I said before, thank you Sunday Correspondents. Consider this you getting mentioned in dispatches. The medals for tours of duty are on order……

Incidentally, if anyone else fancies joining in, all you have to do is drop me a line. The pay is non-existent, but there is some degree of self-satisfaction from seeing your efforts on-screen.

mp3 : Pavement - Type Slowly

Happy Listening