WHEN WORDS FAIL....

Dear Friends

I really cant find the proper words to thank ctel and every single one of you who have been kind enough to be there in my hours, days and now weeks of need.  But I will try......

Until last July, death was something that hadn't greatly affected me.  Yes, I'd lost some elderly relatives and there was one former work colleague whose passing had been sad particularly mainly for the circumstances his wife and disabled child found themselves in.  And yes, there have been a few folk in the music industry whose deaths have left me feeling low.  But not until my brother's passing away in a car accident last year and more recently the death of my best mate of the last 30 years, have I really known the pain and sadness it brings.

All of a sudden, certain things don't have any importance or meaning, while other things take on a significance all of their own and become the be all and end all.  The blog fell into the former......helping my mate's family falls into the latter.

In fact, the blog has sort of been drifting along aimlessly most of 2011 since I got the news back in January that my mate's leukaemia was incurable.  I've kept it going out of a sense of duty rather than anything else. Music itself didn't feel important. I've hardly been in a shop this year and I've stopped going out to gigs for fear I might enjoy myself.....my regular get-togethers with Comrade Colin have ground completely to a halt (although he and many others - I won't name you but you know who you are - have been fantastic in sending texts and emails that I've picked up on the mobile phone this past wee while).

When I typed the piece that said I was taking a break, I really wasn't sure if I'd come back.  I always thought I'd wake up one morning brimming with ideas again and ready to share some ill-informed and badly-typed thoughts with anyone interested enough to pop by, but it just wasn't happening. Today is actually one of the few occasions that I've switched on the PC this past three weeks.  There were hundreds of pieces of junk mail to get rid off and a few interesting pieces to read through.

Then I turned to look at TVV. 

I knew that pieces had been going up on a daily basis, but what they were I wasn't entirely sure.  I've just spent the last hour reading them very very slowly and taking all the words and music in.  They have made me smile and they have made me cry in equal measures.

But most importantly, they have inspired me.

I've said before that I'm amazed at just how many friendships have been created through the wonders of technology involving people from all corners of the planet who in all likelihood are destined never to meet. But what has happened here at TVV this past few weeks has taken it all to a whole new level.

It's incredible to sit here and realise that so many people out there care so much about what I do, and by extension care so much about me.  It really is incredibly humbling.....

Ctel in particular has done an incredible job.  Not only has he got so many of you to rally round the cause but he's taken charge of the postings at the same time as keeping his own Acid Ted blog going and I'm sure continued to cram in his job and his family life.  One day I will meet this incredible man in the flesh....I'm hoping it might not be too distant as I hope to be in his neck of the woods (London) over the summer.  It will be like meeting a hero and legend in the flesh!!

So many of you have responded to the requests for guest posts that there is a heap as yet unpublished but which will be used through into next week.  In the meantime I will ease myself back into the saddle with an occasional posting which means that some days you might find more than one thing to enjoy at TVV. 

It really is good to be back.

Aye Yours

JC
(aka The Vinyl Villain)

PS

When words fail....music speaks.  Always. 

mp3 : The Field Mice - If You Need Someone

Thanks again folks.