The much-touted FT Relaunch has turned into more of a rolling project – what you’ll see there is the skeleton of the site, and we’ll be adding new articles, features, and design elements as 2002 gets going. For starters, four new articles – MJ Hibbett talking about the perils of scene-hunting; Robin C back at his keyboard to rave about Britgum; a first full-length FT article from The Pinefox, going deep into an Irving Berlin classic; and something by me talking about pop in public, and especially Dexys Midnight Runners’ evergreen “Come On Eileen”.
What’s coming up? Well, there are a few other bits of news. Mike has been struggling with a house move and an illness, and so the Focus Group is delayed – but it’ll be well worth it when it does arrive, hopefully sometime in the next few weeks. I Hate Music has hit a recent run of form and Tanya promises a tour through a “Rainbow Of Rubbish” in the next couple of weeks. Maura Johnston is taking over Moments In Love this month. Am I Cool Or Not is finally going to come back as soon as I get the template to its long-suffering new editor Nicole. NYLPM will keep rolling on, and most importantly I’m going to try to get at least one new article up every Sunday. We’ve got a solid backlog of pieces, and several more promised – but we need you! If you have an idea for an article, or want to write for FT, or have a piece you can’t get published anywhere else, then please drop us a line.
As we get used to the new schedule we’ll try and introduce a few new features we’ve had ideas for – more pictures, a couple of new regular columns, that sort of thing. There’s good news for NYLPM too – Pop-Eye is back this week, taking its weekly look at the UK Top 40, and Duel will be returning later in the year, both as part of the NYLPM page.
The final new development is that we’re linking up with I Love Music and I Love Everything again. There were good reasons for severing the link but there are also good reasons for keeping it – not least cos FT needs an affiliated discussion site. The sites are separately run, and the editor of FT is not directly responsible for content on the forums, but we are linked to them and there’s no point us trying to evade that, no matter what crack-brained nonsense shows up there (or here!).
So – a new year and a new(ish) Freaky Trigger – hope you enjoy it!