“You should start writing a blog,” my brother Sam mentioned to me while we were sitting at a festival one afternoon in the Summer of 2013 discussing the various bands we’d each seen recently.
I told him the thought had vaguely crossed my mind but it was something I could give more thought to the following Spring once my lengthy stint as a local councillor was coming to an end. My evenings would then be freed up, giving me time to start seeing more gigs and, crucially, sharing my thoughts online about what I’d just seen.
I’d always written a lot about politics and current affairs and I’d never exactly shied away from blatant self-publicity, ever since I got the local paper to run a front-page feature about me doing a stand-up gig in the local pub when I was 16. But I’d never really written about my lifelong love of music before.
That all changed in early March 2014 and Darren’s Music Blog went live.
Although I’d seen tons of bands during my teen years and early 20s, by the time I got into my mid-20s I seemed to have constant overdrafts and less money available to spend on concert tickets. In my 30s and 40s, with my chosen career by now pretty well-established, I found that although I had the money for gigs I no longer really had the time. Once I approached my late 40s, however, I was finally in the lucky position of having both the time and the money. It’s fair to say I went for it…
Looking back at my first month of combining gig-going with blogging, it was quite a busy one. I reviewed concerts by Uriah Heep on 4th March, the Young ‘uns on 5th March, Fairport Convention on 9th March, Judy Dyble on 16th March, Graham Bonnett on 19th March, The Elizabethan Session on 22nd March, Status Quo on 28th March and Peter Knight’s Gigspanner on 29th March. Phew!
That first month pretty much summed up my approach. I didn’t want to get too hung up on genre. I didn’t want to do a classic rock blog or a folk blog or any other sort of genre-specific blog (although there are some great ones out there). Rather I wanted to write about all of the artists that happened to interest me, whether heavy metal, glam rock or folk. If others enjoyed reading that, then great, but the starting point was about any music that happen to please me.
Over time, I started added album reviews as well as gig reviews, along with interviews, book reviews, music history and discussion of iconic songs.
Ten years later, 700+ posts, 400,000+ views, many, many incredible gigs and some wonderful chats with artists as diverse as Andy Scott from the Sweet, Mark Farner from Grand Funk Railroad and Simon Nicol from Fairport Convention, my blog gets more and more people stopping by to read it with each year that passes.
Thank you!
Darren Johnson
[Header image: Uriah Heep at Koko – my first gig review. Photo credit: Elise Benjamin]
Congratulations!
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Thank you Peter!
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Congratulations! And some excellent books along the way!
Having written a music blog since @ 2006, I appreciate the time and committment it takes. And for you to reach so many people / hits is a wonderful achievement. 😀👏
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Thank you Cee Tee!
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Congrats, Darren, 10 years is a nice milestone!
I’ve been at it for more than 7.5 years. When I started out in June 2016, I really wasn’t sure whether I’d stick with it. I’m glad I did. Time flies!
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Thanks Christian. I look forward to your blog celebrating the ten year milestone. It will be here before you know it!
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😀
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Many congratulations on the milestone!
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Thank you so much. I had no idea how long I would keep it going when I started it but it seems to have found its niche,
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