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Thank you from FOJP (2006-2016)

Posted: December 30, 2016 at 3:22 am   /   by   /   comments (0)

They say all good things must come to an end.

After 10 years of Friends of Josh Pyke, I’m calling it a day. This wasn’t an easy decision, and truth be told I’ve spent the last month internally debating the decision.

But I came to the realisation that Friends of Josh Pyke has outgrown its initial purpose. The community that has grown from this will continue to exist whether or not I’m posting on social media and updating this website.

The excitement of going to a Josh Pyke show and getting to catch up with, or finally meet people I’ve known through Friends of Josh Pyke will always continue. The friendships I’ve made over the last 10 years are invaluable. It’s incredibly difficult to summarise in writing, but I now have friends across Australia (and the world), all because of a Myspace account created in 2006.

I’m not sure I would be where I am today if it weren’t for Friends of Josh Pyke. In addition to life long friendships, Friends of Josh Pyke gave 15 year old me the confidence and motivation to pursue a career in the music industry. 10 years on, and that’s what I’m living. I work full time in the industry for a music publishing company, and run my own music management & publicity company, Maths & Magic. Spot the Josh Pyke reference there 😉

There’s so much that could be said, but I just want to take this time to sincerely thank you all. If you’re reading this now, you’ve played a part in the last 10 years. Thank you for that.

To Mary, thanks for kicking this all off 10 years ago, and for talking to a 15 year old from the other side of Australia. Thanks to Robert Polmear for designing the FOJP logo, creating the FOJP website, and basically teaching me all I know about running and updating a website. Thanks to Siobhan Skipworth of shesasheep for designing our FOJP business cards, and providing some much needed graphic design skills over the years. Thanks to David J Brooks Sr. of Nicely Done Sites for redeveloping our website last year, providing hosting for free, and for keeping the site active after this final post.

To the fans that have given their time and effort to contributing to this community, thank you. To the FOJP team, the photographers, and the reviewers, thank you so much for volunteering your time.

Thanks to Josh’s extended team (past and present) from management, labels, booking agents, publicists and everyone else involved behind the scenes. Special thanks to Michelle Kam from Wonderlick, who by far has had to put up with the most of my emails.

Thanks to Dave Springer & Josh’s band mates (past and present – Russell, Matt, Juan, Josh, Bryce, Jason) for always making me feel welcome at live shows.

And to Josh, thank you for soundtracking the last 10 years of my life, and for embracing FOJP from the start.  Your continuous support and willingness to get FOJP involved is why it’s existed for this long. It’s also been incredible having you on the side lines, encouraging me in my own music industry endeavours. Thank you for being such a genuine person.

I’ve posted my top 10 moments of FOJP on our Twitter page:

And I’ve made a Facebook video celebrating the 10 years of FOJP (watch with captions on).

That’s a wrap – thanks everyone!

-sabi