Rant No 1 - May

So, the first "column". I appealed and appealed to everyone to write something, but noone would come forward. Generally peoples argument was that they didnt know what to write. This lead me to think that this part of the site would be completely defunct. But screw it. Some people may read this part of the site, some people may not. Someone might actually want to put some view down where everyone else can read it. So im going to start.

In reality, I would love to do a print fanzine, one that people could take home after a show and read on the train journey back. I miss those days. It would be me and ali on the way back from some gig in the arse end of nowhere.. Ali would have bought a bunch of fanzines and we would both read them in silence.
But print fanzines are few and far between these days and websites are easier to make.

I started out London Calling as simply a messageboard. I was working in the payroll department of a hospital doing an extremely boring admin job. Yo London was being closed down, as from what I gathered from the closing down post, the original idea of what it was meant to represent was lost, and people just would go to the messageboard. I set up a free messageboard and alot of the regular posters simply transferred over.. it was a pretty effortless transition, and before long, I was unemployed (again) and found myself wanting to expand the site. After months of trying to find a PHP coder, I gave up and decided to use all the free resources I could and set up something myself. So here it is.

And here is the first thing I am going to rant about.

Im 28 years old. Albeit an extremely immature 28 year old, I am still older than a lot of people that are into hardcore these days (I say a lot, not all). Many people that I was friends with when I first got into hardcore bar a few no longer like hardcore and have moved on in life, due to having other commitments or simply not feeling hardcore anymore. Fair play to them, I say, and good luck with whatever you have going on in your life. The one thing that I cannot stand is when people, when talking about moving on, somewhat pity me for still being here, still doing my thing. Hardcore is still my life. All of my friends, minus about a handful, I met through hardcore. I still get as excited when I discover a band that makes me feel something, as I did when I was 16 years old. The night before a Sick Of It All show, I cant sleep, and when i`m at the show, and the lights go down and the intro kicks in, my heart beats that little bit faster and im grinning from ear to ear.

When Sheep was onstage at the last ever awoken show, he talked of memories being made, and some of my favourite memories in my life have come from hardcore. From my first "real" hardcore show (Biohazard shows, in my opinion, dont count), to this day, I can sit with friends and reminisce about things that have happening in the past and laugh, people that I had met through hardcore, friends that I wouldnt have met any other way.

So please, don't pity me. Im fine where I am and don't plan on going anywhere. I am not saying that I will be into hardcore forever, because that would be an unrealistic statement. But hardcore still makes me happy.

And on a final note, im going to mention something that one of my older and wiser friends said to me a couple of months ago:
"People that have been into hardcore for a long time will go away, do what they want with their life, but will, eventually, return. They will realise that they don't actually fit in anywhere else."