IMPORTANT: The future of Forgotten Scouse House...
My friends, it's been a journey! I started FSH in early 2017, and as many of you will know, the whole reason I did it was because I got the bug for the music again after digging out my vinyl collection from my mum and dad's loft, where they'd been stored for over a decade since I moved out. I needed a place to put all the tunes I was ripping from vinyl to digital, so I created a Youtube channel and started uploading 5 minute videos of all my favourite scouse tracks.
That was all it was meant to be. Not for subscribers, or likes, or anything like that. It was just a place to put the tunes so I could listen to them whenever I wanted. Little did I know that just 3 years later, the trajectory of the channel, and my life, was going to change forever....
When we went into lockdown in 2020, I was working a day job as well as learning the wedding DJ trade, and I found myself, like every other DJ on the planet, out of work with no events for a very long period of time. So I decided to start doing a DJ livestream.
Now, you might think you know how this story goes, but it's not quite as simple as that. The first livestreams I did weren't actually on the channel, they were on Twitch. And they weren't anything to do with scouse or bounce tunes, it was actually a Saturday night stream (which then became a Sunday afternoon) where I was playing funk, soul, disco, reggae, and whatever I fancied really. I called it Isolate FM, and I had visions of building something to fill the time while I was out of work, and shared the link with family and friends etc hoping to grow a little following.
I did this for a few weeks, and I really enjoyed the process of learning how to stream, figuring out OBS, getting to grips with video capture cards, working on graphic design and all that stuff. It was fun. I like to learn things! But after a few weeks, I lost interest and stopped doing them.
Then an idea was came. Not from me, but by channel-inspiration and all round good egg, Abbie M. She messaged me one day and basically was like "you need to do a stream on the channel".
At first I was reluctant. But I already had all the gear and some experience, so I thought, why not?
At that point the channel was up to around 1,500 subscribers, so we had a decent jump off point to go from. Considering all DJs from the likes of David Guetta and Armin Van Buuren, all the way down to local heroes of ours like Rob Cain, Chris Henry etc were streaming their sets at the weekends, there was a lot of competition, and I made it my mission to stand out, by producing something that looked and sounded better than what I was seeing on a weekly basis from most others, and with a key focus on interaction.
The first stream (in my eyes) was a disaster. After an entire week spent planning, designing, testing and troubleshooting, I hit play on the stream button, only to see that when the camera went live, it was lagging and dropping frames everywhere. It hadn't happened in testing, then I went live on the internet and boom. Problems.
But, I was determined to get through it. A handful of people watched. I can't remember who exactly was in the chat that night, but I distinctly remember our very own Kershy was there from day one. (If you were there, let me know in the comments below!)
Anyway, I played all the biggest tunes I could put together. I think I did about 90 minutes and then signed off for the night. The few people who did watch said nice things about it and asked if there would be another one. How could I say no lol. So the next week, we did it again. And again. And again...
And before you knew it, we were 10 episodes in. Then 20... and so it went.
I made a promise to myself in those early days, and it was this: I would do this for one year without quitting. 12 months, a stream every Friday. Week in, week out, without fail... and see where it led.
And the rest, as you all know, is history. Anniversary streams, the Halloween special, shows on Christmas eve, Boxing Night, New Years Eve every year. The Hypasonic tribute show the day after he passed away in 2021. 3½ years and 170 episodes and Forgotten Scouse House did what we all set out to achieve....
We made Friday nights great again!
But then, as often happens in life, things change. In the summer of 2023, me and Mrs FSH had the rubbish news that our landlords had decided to sell the house, and gave us two months notice to move out.
As most of you will know, our old house had the perfect setup for a little studio and was one of the main reasons why I could essentially get away with hosting a mini-rave for two hours every Friday night! But when the time came to find somewhere new, our options were limited and we ended up moving somewhere smaller, without the space for a permanent studio, and with limited options for high-speed internet.
So the streams had to come to an end.
There was a huge demand for bringing them back. I don't just say that for the sake of saying it, it was genuinely true. Between comments on Youtube, DMs on Instagram and Facebook, the discord server, and even people who actually have my number, there was basically not a day that went by were someone wasn't messaging me telling me how important the streams were to them and how they wished I would do them again.
So I hatched a plan, and in December of that same year, Forgotten Scouse House returned on a Friday night.
I had to make the decision to drop down to doing them once a month. My increased workload with the growing wedding DJ business, as well as the lack of permanent setup at home meant that this was all I could commit to. But alas, it was never the same. From day one there were problems with the stability of the stream, and in April of 2024, after a really bad night where we disconnected for nearly 10 minutes and caused most of the people watching to go and not come back, I made the tough decision to finally bring that chapter of the channel's story to an end.
Which leads me on to the point of this post. A lot of you will already know that outside of the channel, I have been busy working on not just my DJ business, but another Youtube channel called The POV DJ. Over the last 18 months since we did the last stream from the new house, I haven't really had much to put out on FSH. I really enjoyed catching up with everyone last year at New Year when we premiered the 5½ hour Ultimate Scouse House Party Mix, but other than that, it's been quiet at FSH HQ.
The channel kept growing, and as you know, we recently made it to 10,000 subscribers, which is an absolutely unreal milestone considering this is just "old music from 20 years ago that nobody likes" (a joke, obviously, but I'm not daft - I know some people do genuinely have that opinion of this music!)
But the truth is, I think I'm done.
I poured my heart and soul into this channel, and I am eternally grateful to all of you who have supported and championed, and stuck with me through the highs and the lows along this incredible journey over the last nine years.
I still love the music. That will never change. I really enjoyed putting the 10k Subscriber Request mix together, but I think I've taken the channel as far as I can.
I have no regrets. I still get people messaging me telling me how important the channel is to them, and how the music and re-living those memories pulled them out of some dark times. For that, I am very very proud.
And I've said this before, but I'll say it again: I feel the same way. You all helped me, as much as I helped you.
We did it together.
I will catch you down the road sometime (maybe in the smoking area at the next rave you go to), but for now, I have one last thing to say.
Forgotten Scouse House
IMPORTANT: The future of Forgotten Scouse House...
My friends, it's been a journey! I started FSH in early 2017, and as many of you will know, the whole reason I did it was because I got the bug for the music again after digging out my vinyl collection from my mum and dad's loft, where they'd been stored for over a decade since I moved out. I needed a place to put all the tunes I was ripping from vinyl to digital, so I created a Youtube channel and started uploading 5 minute videos of all my favourite scouse tracks.
That was all it was meant to be. Not for subscribers, or likes, or anything like that. It was just a place to put the tunes so I could listen to them whenever I wanted. Little did I know that just 3 years later, the trajectory of the channel, and my life, was going to change forever....
When we went into lockdown in 2020, I was working a day job as well as learning the wedding DJ trade, and I found myself, like every other DJ on the planet, out of work with no events for a very long period of time. So I decided to start doing a DJ livestream.
Now, you might think you know how this story goes, but it's not quite as simple as that. The first livestreams I did weren't actually on the channel, they were on Twitch. And they weren't anything to do with scouse or bounce tunes, it was actually a Saturday night stream (which then became a Sunday afternoon) where I was playing funk, soul, disco, reggae, and whatever I fancied really. I called it Isolate FM, and I had visions of building something to fill the time while I was out of work, and shared the link with family and friends etc hoping to grow a little following.
I did this for a few weeks, and I really enjoyed the process of learning how to stream, figuring out OBS, getting to grips with video capture cards, working on graphic design and all that stuff. It was fun. I like to learn things! But after a few weeks, I lost interest and stopped doing them.
Then an idea was came. Not from me, but by channel-inspiration and all round good egg, Abbie M. She messaged me one day and basically was like "you need to do a stream on the channel".
At first I was reluctant. But I already had all the gear and some experience, so I thought, why not?
At that point the channel was up to around 1,500 subscribers, so we had a decent jump off point to go from. Considering all DJs from the likes of David Guetta and Armin Van Buuren, all the way down to local heroes of ours like Rob Cain, Chris Henry etc were streaming their sets at the weekends, there was a lot of competition, and I made it my mission to stand out, by producing something that looked and sounded better than what I was seeing on a weekly basis from most others, and with a key focus on interaction.
The first stream (in my eyes) was a disaster. After an entire week spent planning, designing, testing and troubleshooting, I hit play on the stream button, only to see that when the camera went live, it was lagging and dropping frames everywhere. It hadn't happened in testing, then I went live on the internet and boom. Problems.
But, I was determined to get through it. A handful of people watched. I can't remember who exactly was in the chat that night, but I distinctly remember our very own Kershy was there from day one. (If you were there, let me know in the comments below!)
Anyway, I played all the biggest tunes I could put together. I think I did about 90 minutes and then signed off for the night. The few people who did watch said nice things about it and asked if there would be another one. How could I say no lol. So the next week, we did it again. And again. And again...
And before you knew it, we were 10 episodes in. Then 20... and so it went.
I made a promise to myself in those early days, and it was this: I would do this for one year without quitting. 12 months, a stream every Friday. Week in, week out, without fail... and see where it led.
And the rest, as you all know, is history. Anniversary streams, the Halloween special, shows on Christmas eve, Boxing Night, New Years Eve every year. The Hypasonic tribute show the day after he passed away in 2021. 3½ years and 170 episodes and Forgotten Scouse House did what we all set out to achieve....
We made Friday nights great again!
But then, as often happens in life, things change. In the summer of 2023, me and Mrs FSH had the rubbish news that our landlords had decided to sell the house, and gave us two months notice to move out.
As most of you will know, our old house had the perfect setup for a little studio and was one of the main reasons why I could essentially get away with hosting a mini-rave for two hours every Friday night! But when the time came to find somewhere new, our options were limited and we ended up moving somewhere smaller, without the space for a permanent studio, and with limited options for high-speed internet.
So the streams had to come to an end.
There was a huge demand for bringing them back. I don't just say that for the sake of saying it, it was genuinely true. Between comments on Youtube, DMs on Instagram and Facebook, the discord server, and even people who actually have my number, there was basically not a day that went by were someone wasn't messaging me telling me how important the streams were to them and how they wished I would do them again.
So I hatched a plan, and in December of that same year, Forgotten Scouse House returned on a Friday night.
I had to make the decision to drop down to doing them once a month. My increased workload with the growing wedding DJ business, as well as the lack of permanent setup at home meant that this was all I could commit to. But alas, it was never the same. From day one there were problems with the stability of the stream, and in April of 2024, after a really bad night where we disconnected for nearly 10 minutes and caused most of the people watching to go and not come back, I made the tough decision to finally bring that chapter of the channel's story to an end.
Which leads me on to the point of this post. A lot of you will already know that outside of the channel, I have been busy working on not just my DJ business, but another Youtube channel called The POV DJ. Over the last 18 months since we did the last stream from the new house, I haven't really had much to put out on FSH. I really enjoyed catching up with everyone last year at New Year when we premiered the 5½ hour Ultimate Scouse House Party Mix, but other than that, it's been quiet at FSH HQ.
The channel kept growing, and as you know, we recently made it to 10,000 subscribers, which is an absolutely unreal milestone considering this is just "old music from 20 years ago that nobody likes" (a joke, obviously, but I'm not daft - I know some people do genuinely have that opinion of this music!)
But the truth is, I think I'm done.
I poured my heart and soul into this channel, and I am eternally grateful to all of you who have supported and championed, and stuck with me through the highs and the lows along this incredible journey over the last nine years.
I still love the music. That will never change. I really enjoyed putting the 10k Subscriber Request mix together, but I think I've taken the channel as far as I can.
I have no regrets. I still get people messaging me telling me how important the channel is to them, and how the music and re-living those memories pulled them out of some dark times. For that, I am very very proud.
And I've said this before, but I'll say it again: I feel the same way. You all helped me, as much as I helped you.
We did it together.
I will catch you down the road sometime (maybe in the smoking area at the next rave you go to), but for now, I have one last thing to say.
Just like that....
We.
Are.
OUT.
Forgotten Scouse House signing off. Peace x
1 month ago | [YT] | 48