End Credits?

So is this the end? Possibly. I am going to take a six month break from Folly Of Youth. And then see if I miss it so much I rush back to its cosy embrace. Or if I stay lost in the wilderness.

So not knowing which way this will go, let’s get ready to say our goodbyes after 672 posts. Just in case.

So was that what the last six years have been about? The tally of posts? The 400+ videos from gigs? Or the 36 hours of monthly mixtapes featuring bands playing Manchester? Or about somehow – still not sure how – becoming a Hype Machine listed blog or being a finalist for the Manchester Blog Awards in 2010? Was that what it was about really?

Hell no. It’s been about... seeing Clinic play in Beatles wigs; taking a Larsen B Antarctic coastal shelf cake to Tan Hill Inn for British Sea Power; going to the last ever Broken Family Band gig with a cake for them too; shaking Cate Le Bon’s hand; returning home with the pineapple from a Brakes gig; a Will Sheff re-tweet; buying the only copy of the Brown Brogues Duck Bills cassette; not seeing The Besnard Lakes in a dark and smoke filled upstairs room of a pub; hearing Withered Hand’s “Good News” for the first time; playing Trwbador, Emperor Zero and Free Swim on Cloud Sounds; seeing the first Manchester gig by Eagleowl; being part of a post-gig bar-room set from Jens Lekman for about 25 people; marvelling (twice) at a seven foot giant panda play bass guitar; and many, many more moments like this.

So a heart-felt thanks to all the artists, record labels, promoters, gig venues and festivals who have created those moments. It's been a blast. I'll still be buying your music and your tickets. Just not writing about it.

And let’s finish as I started by misquoting Hefner (I know, the wasted days).

If you liked this blog, start one of your own.

Be kind to small businesses.

Buy more Sweet Baboo, Withered Hand, Gintis, Mowbird, Benjamin Shaw, H. Hawkline, Cate Le Bon, Dan Hayward’s New Hawks, The Indelicates, Free Swim, The Doomed Bird Of Providence, Windmill, The Douglas Firs and Dad Rocks records . To name but a few.

And I particularly need you all to get behind the much-anticpated debut albums from Brown Brogues (January) and Trwbador (March). Because I won’t be here to remind you.
TTFN.