Hi Ladies and Gentlemen,
Happy New Year to one and all!
Well, 2012 was a tough year indeed, tough with the loss of my old Mum, the loss of a good guitarist friend that introduced Rhonda and I to one another and tough with how work in the new job has been.
Many things have combined to make keeping this site up to date harder and harder to do. My new day job has not helped ... It's just added extra stresses.
I've received so much review material, admittedly some that I requested specifically, but loads that just comes my way in the hope from some new or struggling artist, that my 'little old site' my give it review consideration.
I truly have appreciated the attention that I have received, heck even Classic Rock magazine took parts of my interview last year with Toto's David Paich to post on their website. That was fantastic!
Also, interviewing and talking to various artists provided introductions to other artists - like Dave Paich. - agreeing to do exclusive interviews with 'Chambers of Rock.'
I do hope that over the past three years of running this site single-handed, with occasional support from some friends reviewing some gigs for me and others helping to type up some of the interviews - A very painstaking task I can tell you! - I have managed to make some of you happy through this site.
Sadly, it's becoming more of a task as with working an extremely demanding day job, where lunch breaks often don't happen - That was when I most often managed previously to type up many album reviews ... - and a very young family and a great wife where it's becoming clear I'm not giving enough attention to either of, that I have come to the point where the site must at least be put on hold ...
To those artists / PR / management people that I already have outstanding items in for review, I still plan to wrap those or as many of those up as I can here but for now, I will not be accepting or asking for any more new materials for review, which I must say deeply saddens me personally. :(
There was also an interview that I did early last year that I never managed to find the time to type up and should've done. That will also be added to my list of things to close out.
Yes, this does also mean the end of any rock news updates too.
One thing has always baffled me too, how many real return and how many new visitors my site actually gets, as some days it's as low as 150 a day, others as high as 700.
To date over three years, the figures say that the site has seen over 175,000 views ...
Not bad for a non publicised site I guess, just run for the love of the music, no income, no donations, ocassional tickets for shows to review, of course, most of the music I review has come in gratis, but with the knowledge that a review in return is expected.
With any communication from site readers, that really makes me question the site's validity too. I have asked for readers opinions on stuff in the past and had no responses. Also, competitions where no one has responded ... What, no one wants any free stuff?
Hard to validate the site's value from all of those points.
'I love rock 'n' roll,' as Joan Jett once said I truly do, but this part of it for me personally has become so difficult to maintain so sadly for the time being I am putting 'Chambers of Rock' to rest ...
Once again, thanks for friends, artists, PR folks and those of you that did come and check out 'Chambers of Rock,' it has been fun for the most part, so I will miss it.
If and when I do resurrect the site, I will post it on my personal Facebook.
My special thanks to Dave White at http://classicrock.about.com/ who without his belief in my writing, this never would've happened.
To Jeb Wright for allowing me to contribute live reviews to http://www.classicrockrevisited.com/ for six months and to my old mate Andrew McNiece for much moral support and who allowed me to contribute on rare occasions to www.melodicrock.com in very limited capacity.
All these guys inspired what I did get done here at 'Chambers of Rock.'
I wish you all a truly wonderful 2013, take care out there, it's a wicked world, but always remember one thing ..., keep on rockin!!!
All the very best,
Alun Williams - Owner / Editor
Chambers of Rock