Now I'm not normally one for marking the passing of time, but today marks the fourth anniversary of this blog coming into existence. Which, in music blog years, is about four. And what a different place the world - or at least the United Kingdom - was when we first started.
The Prime Minister was an unctuous, slippery sod with the gift of the gab and a huge personal fortune; the country was embroiled in an unwinnable war in a faraway land; England had an unsuccessful football team full of lethargic, charmless multi-millionaires; Manchester United had just regained the Premier League title from Chelsea; large sections of the public were so easily pleased that they happily survived on a diet of reality TV and vacuous celebrity tittle-tattle; and Simon Cowell bestrode the music and entertainment industries like some kind of successful and revered yet conspicuously untalented colossus. So yes, barely recognisable from the world we live in today.
I don't think it's hyperbolic in any way to suggest that the impact Too Much Apple Pie had on the wider world was as earth-shattering as it was immediate. Within three weeks of our very first post, Tony Blair had resigned as Prime Minister, obviously only too aware that the world had moved on, the winds of change were blowing and that he'd all too clearly lived his life like a candle in the wind...
It has to be said he made a wise choice, mind you. How on earth Blair could realistically have been expected to survive as PM in the face of a silly music blog written by two people and read by about three, would be hard to envisage for even his staunchest of supporters.
Now I'm not saying his resignation was all down to us - indeed, a cynic might argue that he'd announced his intention to step down months before this blog had even appeared. But doesn't that strike you as a little bit too convenient? No, it was quite obvious that Blair was running scared and our arrival just confirmed that his position was now completely untenable. In your fizzog, Blair!
If I can be serious for a moment (doubtful, but I'll give it a go), I'd like to sincerely thank everyone who's found and stuck with us over the course of the past 1461 days - intermittent posts, umm, mittent bad jokes and all. Whether you signed the guestbook or simply dropped by to nab the mp3s, the fact that you bothered at all was duly noted and gave our already monstrous egos a further boost. Gawd knows if we'll manage another four years but it's been fun while it's lasted. Cheers!
Daryll-Ann - Surely Justice* mp3
*The song that got the Too Much Apple Pie ball rolling, on June 11th 2007.
5 comments:
And why when we are talking about the UK, do you start talking about the English team, Kippers?
Happy fourth birthday btw
Tsk tsk .. upsetting the caledonian collective with yer anglo-centric slaggings off. Are there no Scottish goalies to have wee pop at? 'Come on Andy Murray' by the way. A true Brit.
My life has become a richer brighter place since the dawn of the 'Pie' on that day way back in the noughties. I only chanced upon the blog myself after typing 'nude woman pies herself'.
I'd like to thank you for the joy, the laughter, the fantasy footie, the quizzes, the unique Swedishness (outside Malmo), pets, pigeons, 3 of a kind, kinky love, ridiculous facial hair, the Pope being grabbed by the vestments, showbiz, Garfunkel & Oates, Sweptaways, Big Sound Authority and pick n mix pop perfection.
It is improbable that one could ever have too much apple pie.
Well there's always the Scottish World Cup song from 1982 I s'pose, with John Gordon Gordon John Sinclair (as I like to call him) & BA Robertson, but I quite like that.
But yes, thanks a million, Dicky. Much more praise than we deserve but it's very much appreciated! A lot of the time when I'm about to crack wise I like to stop and say to myself "What would Dicky think?" before going on and writing it anyway. But cheers - you're an inspiration!
Really enjoying the Bewes book BTW. The bit where he & a pal climb Big Ben with a pal & hang a pair of knickers on the weather vane at the top for a prank, before being nabbed by the rozzers as suspected terrorists left me open-mouthed. Currently on the Likely Lads section circa 1965. Great stuff!
Many many happy returns. Here's to post number 723!
(that gideon coe story isn't very intereseting. I think I was at school with him - he's the right age and looks kind of right - but it might have been a gideon cloe. If it was him, he broke the only toy gun I ever owned. That, essentially, was the story).
Cheers, Adam! It was of course the original Pretending Life Is Like A Song that inspired me to start this blog in the first place. (In which case you've got a lot to answer for!)
I think that must have been the Gideon Coe, you know. For one thing it's a rare name, and for another Cloe's not actually a surname - or at least not one I've ever come across. Whatever, I shall always think of Gid Coe as a toy gun breaker from now on!
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