So the Readers Recommend music column in the paper version of Friday's Guardian has gone. In its five years it has produced a book (The Guardian Book of Playlists: The Best of the Guardian's Readers Recommend), spawned a thriving independent offshoot blog (thespillblog.co.uk), created new words now demanding entry to the dictionary (the concept of dondling), cemented new friendships across not just the UK but entire continents, and even led to the creation of a new micro-label (Spillharmonic Records). Despite the cessation of the printed column, the community brought together by Readers Recommend is still alive and kicking online.
What made Readers Recommend so special? It is that rarest of things: a place where music fans of wildly varied tastes actually get along famously, with no evidence of musical snobbery or sneering trolls. Anyone who has downloaded any of the RR Playlists over the years knows they are just as likely to contain Minogue as Mingus. RR is about sharing your love of music, not showing off how much you think you know.
Early on, an RR poster suggested it was like a conversation round a very large pub table. We genuinely love each others' company, and the fact that any of us can disappear for a while and drop back in to find the conversation still running. It's not exclusive or cliquey – pull up a chair and join in: the more, the merrier.
I asked some of the other regular bloggers (RRegulars, if you like) what Readers Recommend meant to them, and barbryn's response was one that bears reproducing:
"Sorry, forgot to say why I like Readers Recommend. Well, quite frankly, I don't. It keeps me up far too late on a Thursday night [when the new RR topic launches at midnight each week], my family groan when I start to tell them about this week's topic, I sense an atmosphere of long-suffering restraint when I casually mention that I got a song playlisted this week, and I deeply resent not being as articulate as some of the other participants. To be honest, if it wasn't for the sometimes startling musical choices, the warmth and sense of humour of the members, the rather quirky and bizarre results some weeks, the chat that goes on after the deadline, the recipes, the blast you get when somebody donds your nom, the fact that I can now type a phrase as peculiar as "donds your nom" [translation: seconding a song recommendation] and the general friendliness of the site, I doubt that I'd even bother."
And it doesn't stop there: we are just as likely to spend time recommending gigs, films, books and recipes as we are songs on a week's topic.
There is one source of mild resentment among the RR community, though. That's the tendency of the journalists who have curated the column to overlook certain songs that have been repeatedly nominated when they draw up the RR playlist. So, to mark the last goodbye of RR in print, I'll leave you with a 10-song playlist of favourites that have never made a final playlist. If you like what you see, come and join in. If you think the list is missing something, come and join in and put us right – see you online, from 00:01 on Friday morning.
Songs that were ignored: the Playlist
Tam Lin Fairport Convention
Let There Be Rock AC/DC
Alone Again, Naturally Gilbert O'Sullivan
E2-E4 Manuel Goettsching
Looking for Lewis and Clark The Long Ryders
Ernie (The Fastest Milkman in the West) Benny Hill
Black and White Todd Rundgren
New Face in Hell The Fall
No Return Brakes
Wonderful Everclear
Richard Clayton posts on the Readers Recommend threads as Darcey's Dad. Readers Recommend continues online at guardian.co.uk/music/series/ readersrecommend
