Absent Friends & Missing Persons

[johncorrigan]

Awraerybest to you, Ferney. I'll fair miss you around the place. Yours aye, JCx

[Quarky]

Very sorry to hear that you are leaving ferney.

I have always greatly appreciated your responses to my posts, and giving us a greater insight into the items under discussion.

All the best!

[Richard Tarleton]

Just to say - I'm also taking my leave, to concentrate on other projects. I'm grateful to forumites past and present for all I've learnt, and for many musical discoveries. It's been a pleasure and a privilege to serve with Cap'n Ferney and my fellow hosts. I wish Ferney the very best in his future projects, my fellow hosts every success in in running the forum, and forumites old and new continued enjoyment for years to come.

[BBMmk2]

Ferney, very sad news indeed. I do hope you’ll be popping in and giving us your illuminating posts!

[Pianoman]

Good luck mate - get that Magnum Opus written now you’ve no excuse!

[Bryn]

Last month marked the 10th Anniversary of my joining the BBC Messageboards. I joined at a time after my partner had spent a year undergoing treatment for Cancer, which was pronounced "sorted" - the relief had an unusual effect on me ... I found that I couldn't read novels for a long time (Eco and then Proust got me back in the habit), and sharing ideas with people on the Messageboards was a great form of therapy.

Tomorrow I hit 60 - or it hits me - a mere Spring Chicken, I know (well, perhaps "Autumn" would be more accurate, but that ruins a joke about "well-sprung" that I was going to make) but an age when a reassessment of one's priorities seems appropriate. As some of you know, my partner died six years ago - and the Forum has been an invaluable source of life for me in that time: you all helped me keep in contact with myself (even - who knows, perhaps especially - those of you who have raised my ire and passionate fury with ideas and opinions directly contradictory to my own). It has been a pleasure and a very real privilege being a Host for the past five years, and to have had the chance to steer the Forum over the past three-and-a-bit years.

But such a prvilege brings with it responsibilities which make great demands on one's time - those phishing posts advertising "Hot Sex" sites don't delete themselves. And, at this age, I need to devote more time - a lot more time - to the activities that are most important to me. I do not wish to face the end of my life (which I don't intend to occur for many decades yet!) having failed to at least attempt the compositions and writing projects that have been tickling the back of my mind for some years now. My partner was always delighted to see me working on my creative projects, and I feel I owe it to her memory as well as to myself, to devote all my spare time on this work.

And so, this is my last post as a member of the Forum. I hand the keys of the Executive Washroom over to my good friend Eine Alpensinfonie, knowing that the future of this wonderful Forum, which has been so important to me this past decade, is in the very best of hands, and I leave knowing that it can only go on to further heights of social, cultural, and educational benefit to its members, to all of whom I wish all the very best of health, wealth, and happiness, and to whom I send my very deepest gratitude for the help you've given me over the years - none more so than when most of you didn't know you were doing this.

Bestio!

Hmm. Do you really need to 'cut and run'? Relinquish your leadership role, by all means, but do retain your membership and continue to contribute the occasional post. As to your 60th, isn't that the new 30th? I know I have come to regard 70 as the new 40. Good to have worked with you on Cardew's The Great Learning in the summer of 2015. All the best . . .

[Edgy 2]

Goodness me !

Feels like the end of the world

Best wishes Richard.

[Edgy 2]

Also thanks guys for your good wishes to myself

[richardfinegold]

I'm not being completely honest if I say... I'm close to tears.....

How can I sum up your influence on me? On my listening to, my loving of, my curiosity and my writing (or attempting to write) about music here? On how your very quality of thought and articulation forced me to think better, write better, listen better? There were tough moments between us weren't there? But they always made me look at myself, try to understand myself better - I knew you as one of the handful of people who had the gift of inwardness, the constant learning about oneself, the world, the wonderful artistic and other creations within it. We had a profound mutual respect - more than respect - that never died.

Live long and prosper! Renew yourself, recreate yourself, again!
I'll never forget you, and all the good you have done for so many of us - but perhaps most of all for Music itself; as a living breathing contemporary art form.

Seconded. Besides being a fountain of knowledge the sheer generosity of your personality has been one of the main joys of this forum. Good luck on your creative endeavors.

[richardfinegold]

Will the last one to leave the Forum please turn out the lights?

[richardfinegold]

Just to say - I'm also taking my leave, to concentrate on other projects. I'm grateful to forumites past and present for all I've learnt, and for many musical discoveries. It's been a pleasure and a privilege to serve with Cap'n Ferney and my fellow hosts. I wish Ferney the very best in his future projects, my fellow hosts every success in in running the forum, and forumites old and new continued enjoyment for years to come.

Richard
I have especially appreciated your posts about Guitar Music and your book recommendations. Good wishes

[Barbirollians]

Hmm. Do you really need to 'cut and run'? Relinquish your leadership role, by all means, but do retain your membership and continue to contribute the occasional post. As to your 60th, isn't that the new 30th? I know I have come to regard 70 as the new 40. Good to have worked with you on Cardew's The Great Learning in the summer of 2015. All the best . . .

Seconded

[Petrushka]

Ferney & Richard: Agree with Bryn. By all means relinquish your Hostly roles but do continue to post when you can.

Whatever you decide, best wishes t you both.

[gurnemanz]

Ferney & Richard: Agree with Bryn. By all means relinquish your Hostly roles but do continue to post when you can.

Whatever you decide, best wishes t you both.

I second that.

[Pianorak]

Ferney & Richard: Agree with Bryn. By all means relinquish your Hostly roles but do continue to post when you can.

Whatever you decide, best wishes t you both.

Thirded.