Ten Years Gone…

Real Gone is ten years old today!

When Real Gone launched back in November 2009, there was no real thought to its longevity. There wasn’t even any real thought as to whether it’d gain an audience much past a few friends. It was always going to be a useful outlet for a love of music, no matter how big or small the audience. Mostly, it going to be a hobby; a distraction.

It originally had one purpose: to highlight great albums that’d somehow been overlooked. Maybe things you might find cheaply online, maybe not, but if Real Gone could spread the word, its work was done. It was that simple.

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EDITORIAL COMMENT: “Everybody’s dead, Dave…”

It is normally customary at this time of year for Real Gone to put together a brief round-up of the year’s high points, detailing our top ten releases of the previous twelve months and drawing attention to a few more great recordings that didn’t quite make the cut.

This year – 2016 – has been somewhat different. Somewhat challenging, to say the least. That’s not to say there hasn’t been good music, since there has been various gems to be discovered throughout the previous twelve months (and we shall be sharing our thoughts on such things with you in due course), but most of the positive feelings surrounding the year have been clouded by the spectre of death.

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EDITORIAL COMMENT: Do You Remember? – Nostalgia and current state of Hüsker Dü…

For years, Hüsker Dü fans have desperately wanted a reunion. Much like fellow Minneapolis punks The Replacements, the Hüskers became hugely influential, and all too often to musicians who never actually got to see them live. Obviously, for many Replacements fans, that dream eventually came true, but even at a time when Paul Westerberg and Tommy Stinson were on the road bringing maximum nostalgia, each of the Hüsker Dü members dismissed any chance of a reunion.

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FIVE YEARS: What a surprise… (An anniversary editorial)

5This weekend, Real Gone reaches a special milestone – five years of internet presence.  As that famous musical philosopher Mr. David Bowie once sang: “Five years…what a surprise.”  It’s been a really hard road to get so far, but it’s certainly been rewarding – over the recent years, we’ve met a bunch of really great people and heard some amazing music, a huge amount of which might have passed under our radar if we weren’t constantly reviewing stuff.  Who knows…maybe some of those albums would have passed under your radar too?

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