Hello, this is an invitation to you to join a new mailing list. This one is about -guess what? - indie pop! The idea behind this list is to have a reasonably small, tightly focussed list, to talk about the sort of music that we want to talk about. Exactly what that means will be explained later. But it'll be good. Honestly. We hope.

List content and rules

Content

This isn't easy to explain. The idea is that we will take as our core subject a group of labels: Postcard, Sarah, early Creation, Slumberland, plus the C86 compilation. Now, this is a bit nebulous, we know, but we hope that you get the idea. We want to talk about the sort of music that is brought to mind when you hear that list. The list has its contradictions, we know. We'd be far happier for someone to talk about Hurrah!, say, than Stump, even though Stump were on C86 and Hurrah! weren't on any of the above (yeah yeah, compilation on Rev-Ola, let's not get pedantic so early in the game). At the same time, the definition of when early Creation becomes mid-period Creation is very much up for grabs. We certainly don't want to talk about Oasis, but at the same time we don't much want to talk about Five Go Down To The Sea or Les Jarjaz. Of course, if you want to talk about those bands, and can do it interestingly, then that's cool too. We'd tend to discourage people from saying too much about bands (like say Belle and Sebastian) who already have a dedicated mailing list. The idea behind this list does rely rather a lot upon people behaving reasonably, and not pushing it.

How is this list different to the existing indie-pop list(s)?

The subject matter is more focussed, for a start. If you stray off-topic too far or too often, you're likely to get a grumbling mail asking you to cease and desist, on pain of some dirty looks. That doesn't mean that if we were to touch on the subject of funk or reggae (through, say, Big Flame or Essential Logic) we couldn't talk about it...but we're not keen on lengthy obscurist conversations about Keith Hudson dub-plates from 1975. These days, the indie-pop list seems to cover the broad sweep of alternative pop/rock music. This is for sound reasons, but we want something a little more defined.

The other really big difference is that, for now, the list will be invitation only, and limited to a maximum of a hundred members. This is not for reasons of snobbery and elitism, it is for financial reasons. None of us can afford to provide a server which will handle the sort of volumes of traffic that the indie-pop list generates, or that the B&S list generates. This is a way of ensuring that the traffic doesn't get too high. If the list is a success, we'll try to expand it and make it open access. We'd like to do that right now, but we can't.

So just music then? Or anything else?

No-one will be complaining if vignettes of life and stuff come the way of the list every so often. It makes things fun. But we definitely do not want sales or auctions, and we'd discourage adverts which don't tell us what the sender feels about the product being advertised. Certainly no ads for non-musical things, mind.

List conduct

We'll take a very dim view of personal insults, unpleasantness and needle of any kind on the list. We're all reasonable people, we can deal with each other reasonably. Even if I tell you that your favourite ever song is a steaming pile of camel shite, that is no reason to have # a go at me. It isn't. Have a go at what I say, by all means, but not at me. Anyone not complying with this rule will be admonished swiftly. Consistent abuse will lead to suspension or expulsion. We'd like to put offenders in detention, but we haven't worked out how just yet. We might give you lines if you've just been a bit bad. No one-line replies, ever. Unless the reply is very, very funny. But I agree' or 'bless' as a response will be worthy of a good old-fashioned stare from some of us.

Who is this 'we' you keep on about? Whose list is this?

The ideas for this list have been discussed by a bunch of us for a couple of months. We are: Pete Hahndorf, Mick McMick and Tim Hopkins, some others were involved so far but those three are the core team, although Tim doesn't have internet access at the moment. None of us have the time to take responsibility for moderating or monitoring the list, so we've decided to share it. Any serious abuses will be discussed within this group and action decided upon jointly.

What else do I have to remember?

Only that this is supposed to be a space for pleasant people with a common interest. Be as entertaining as you can.

Pete, Mick and Tim