So farewell then, Sproutnet

Back in 2009 when I was idly working my way through Spotify remembering why it was I’d liked Prefab Sprout in the first place, the first thing I did was to look for the official web site. I didn’t find it, quite, but right at the top of the search results was prefabsprout.net or Sproutnet. And it was a more than adequate substitute for an official site, stuffed full of information, interviews, a bit of audio, and everything I needed to whet my Appetite, so to speak. The other site that was around at the period was “Tin Can Pot”, a truly superb collection of audio and comment, and between the two it was a hefty dose of fire and paraffin to my collectomania.

Fairly quickly I gravitated to the forum which was where most of the action was. A great place to hang out, sometimes friendly, sometimes bitterly divided and angry, always passionate. Seen at its best and maybe worst during the Crimson/Red leak, and much quieter now. But keeping the flame of a pretty much dormant band alive very effectively through long periods of nothing much happening at all.

Jamie – site owner – was a fairly rare presence but ran the show with quiet good humour and total equanimity. As time went on and he left University and eventually came to run a publishing house, it was a great pleasure to seeing him move onwards and upwards. But as with all people who grow, they grow away from where they started, and usually leave it behind, and so it proved. Site updates became infrequent, then annual, then more than annual. And today, Jamie decided to officially mothball the site.

A great shame, but all things pass eventually. Hopefully the site will remain as is – still a very useful resource if you hunt around for the interviews and cuttings – and the forum too: this could do with some activity, it’s linked to from the menus here so no excuse for not visiting. So nothing else remains except to wish Jamie all the very best for his future ventures, and thank him for creating a definitive fan site that became the focus for so many fans to find each other.