DiS is 8! A stumble down memory lane...

by Sean Adams [Edit this content] ▾ 64 comments 00:15 October 1st, 2008

Happy Birthday to us! And now for an indulgent dose of nostalgia...

In October 2000, following a summer of emails, festivals and frustration with the state of music media, DiS was born. A rag-tag mob of music fans eagerly embraced the interweb and took it upon themselves to share their love and enthusiasm for music.

Back then, blogs barely existed and there were few websites, music or otherwise, to draw structural or ethical inspiration from but we knew we had to do it and anything online was much better than trying to cram things into an over-long digital fanzine or Popbitch-like email mag (which is what DiS' founder Sean Adams had done for a few years previous).

There was no grand 'start-up' plan - and probably isn't much of one to this day - but there was a definite air that we could offer something that we'd want to read and hoped that there would be more people like us out there looking for music recommendations.

Eight years on we're still here, with nearly half a million visitors a month and an influence we would never have dreamed of. But we really wouldn't be here today without the hard and passionate work of several wonderful people: Web whiz Matt Wilson and his cohorts Dave Nattriss and (Matt) Rudy, plus their new replacement Tom Waddington. Previous editors Mike Diver, Colin Roberts and Gareth Dobson, ably assisted by the likes of Peter White, Kate Price, Raz, James Moore, Samuel Strang, Alex Denney, Kev Kharas, Rob Webb, Adie Nunn, Rachelle Ansell, Simon Menhinick, Natalie Judge, Debbie Gwyther and too many more that it would take me days to list... you all know who you are, thank you one and all.

And now, without further ado, before we unleash our new site, here's a quick look back to our roots .

DiS 1.0

This first version of the site had an animated gif, with bubbles which moved. It was logical and presented a lot of content at once, praps too much. Strangely it seems to have aged quite well and made for a strong foundation.

DiS 1.5

We got a bit sick of not being able to feature content so this slight revamp allowed us to draw your attention to things. We also made room for advertisements to try to bring some money in to cover server costs but ended up giving away most of the space to charities and promoting content internally as no-one wanted to take out adverts on the internet. The design for this was done in half an evening with pizza and beer as payment to Matty Hall, better known now as the guy from White Heat.

DiS 2.0

The first evolutionary step away from the initial design. The main focus was on pushing things we collectively liked to the fore as so much of the music we loved was lost._

DiS 3.0

Pretty much the first 'designed' version of DiS which wasn't just a quick shift of content. Simon Menhinick did a fantastic job of modernizing the look and feel of the site. Given time and a fairly ridiculous pirate-themed party, people came to love the anchors and seagulls. __

DiS 4.0

And lastly our current one, which after two years you should be well aware of. Take one last look and kiss it goodbye as we have a brand new site launching tomorrow.

To view more pages have a gander at Archive.org.

DiScuss: which one was your favourite? How long do you think it'll take to get used to a new site?

Spotifriday: DiS does Hallowe'en - 50 Song Spotify Playlist 30 Oct 11:48
Icelandic national radio selects 100 best homegrown LPs, but is it Björk? 22 Jun 15:06
In Photos Special: DiS Photographers' best images of 2008/2009 30 Apr 12:45
Glastonbury 2007: Sean's Blog - Day 1 06 Mar 12:58
Snowed in? DiS presents its playlist for a day of the white stuff 02 Feb 09:05
Green Day and Björk do, Weezer don't: studio update 14 Oct 15:17
DiS is 8! A stumble down memory lane... 01 Oct 00:15
Watch: Björk & Antony 'Dull Flame Of Desire' 18 Sep 17:23

Björk

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Watch: Road Trippin' with the Ice Cream Man Part IV, ft. Broken Social Scene, Delta Spirit, Matt &am 16 Oct 16:48
Drowned in Thursday: Child? Forever? Eno? 20 Aug 10:30
Broken Social Scene hit the studio, become the subject of book 18 May 16:54
DiS is 8! A stumble down memory lane... 01 Oct 00:15
Friday Fun: What's Your Music IQ? 30 May 17:08
Explosions' ATP: the DiS review 22 May 15:20
Explosions In The Sky's guide to ATP 13 May 15:36
Social Scene, Annuals, Malkmus and more confirmed for free-entry Siren fest 09 May 11:57

Broken Social Scene

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DiScussion: What are your top 8 albums of '08? 02 Dec 13:41
The Stills love... 24 Nov 12:40
DiSection: The Stills 'Oceans Will Rise' track-by-track 17 Oct 13:09
DiS is 8! A stumble down memory lane... 01 Oct 00:15
The Stills hit UK with new album & tour 11 Sep 10:51
Watch: The Stills 'Being Here' 20 Aug 17:47
First Reactions: The Stills' new album, Oceans Will Rise 03 Jun 15:48
Can it, Canning: Broken Social Scenester announces new album 06 May 12:59

The Stills

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Patrick Wolf, The Deer Tracks at Nouveau Casino, París, Fri 09 Oct 19 Oct 10:17
Lily Allen vs. Radiohead vs. Patrick Wolf vs. The Man 15 Sep 15:44
Neptune Music Prize - Your Last Chance to Vote! 07 Sep 10:38
Reading 2009: Day Two roundup 30 Aug 20:08
In Photos: Reading Festival 2009 - Day 2 30 Aug 10:40
In Photos: Pukkelpop 2009 - Day Two 23 Aug 21:36
Spotifriday - Listen to the 12 Neptune Music Prize Nominees 31 Jul 11:54
DiS' alternative Music Prize: The Neptune nominees announced 30 Jul 17:22

Patrick Wolf

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Reading 2009: Day Two roundup 30 Aug 20:08
Reading 2009: Day Two roundup 30 Aug 20:08
DiS' 20 Must-See Acts at Reading & Leeds 2009 26 Aug 13:17
This Week's Singles: 03/08/2009 04 Aug 08:59
Metric, Malajube, F'd Up or Chad VanGaalen FTW! Polaris Prize nominees announced 09 Jul 15:18
Spotifriday: ID:09 Special - 20 Must-Have Independent Albums of the Year (SO FAR!) 03 Jul 11:54
Glastonbury from afar (a sofa) - A DiS Guide to Online & TV Coverage 26 Jun 15:38
In Photos: Metric @ Manchester Academy 3 17 May 17:41

Metric

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From the archive

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TWO YEARS

THE NEW HAS BEEN AROUND TWO YEARS

fuck, where did the time go?

3.0 has the best design, the current one is functional but duuuuuuuullllllll

Amodestmousearrives | 1 Oct '08, 00:22 | X | Reply

DiS 3.0 is the best.

FACT.

kissinginkansas | 1 Oct '08, 00:25 | X | Reply

DiS 3.0

FTW!!!! It was so pretty. So now it comes to the most important question for any 8 year old. Swings or roundabouts?

topdownbottomup | 1 Oct '08, 00:25 | X | Reply

How indie is this place?

The early ones are home demos and early eps; shoddy but endearing.
The 3.0 is the major label debut; great!
The 4.0 is the mining of the early material for a few more hits; still good enough.
The 5.0 perhaps the difficult 3rd album?? Hope not!
*tenuous link mode off*

soodoughnim | 1 Oct '08, 00:30 | X | Reply

Ph my god, that!

This designs has never been up for two years!

skybluesam @Amodestmousearrives | 1 Oct '08, 00:37 | X | Reply

That should clearly say 'oh'

not 'ph'.

skybluesam @skybluesam | 1 Oct '08, 00:37 | X | Reply

Sean, SERIOUSLY...

I know any change in layout might be met with a little trpidation from users, but the test site is horrible.

kissinginkansas | 1 Oct '08, 01:04 | X | Reply

I became enlightened to DiS after a friend gave me a badge at Exeter Cavern Club -

back then it looked like 1.5 or 2.0. Ah, time...

JSkins @soodoughnim | 1 Oct '08, 01:08 | X | Reply

Can we have

a special mike diver tribute? Not that im against any of the content now, but i think he deserves a mention for shaping and helping alot of people with good music, occasionally bad music and alot of board discussion. He was a good guy :)

Zampano | 1 Oct '08, 01:18 | X | Reply

I could swear there was a design layout

between 2.0 and 3.0. Hmm.

CSS/Flash banners takes too long to download...but I'll not complain cos Apple has to be a great account for ya's. Just don't fuck with audio adverts and we're cool.

oceanRain | 1 Oct '08, 01:31 | X | Reply

:-D

Nice idea to look back on the old designs of the site. I almost feel like I've grown up with it since I first starting reading it at 2.0. The change to 3.0 was pretty exciting. Thank fuck HTM-hell was nipped in the bud sharpish. That was like a load of mischievous kids gleefully trashing their newly refurbished school.

Browno | 1 Oct '08, 01:40 | X | Reply

i want

the 'demos' section back!

alxmoore @Browno | 1 Oct '08, 02:40 | X | Reply

Its my birthday too!

Except I'm abit older :(

morehooks | 1 Oct '08, 06:20 | X | Reply

I got

into DIS through 2.0, quickly followed by 3.0. Then I bought the back catalogue 1.0 and 1.5.

But 4.0 is a total sell out... *ahem*

MisterPaulo @soodoughnim | 1 Oct '08, 08:00 | X | Reply

3.0 was so nice

fuck_this_band | 1 Oct '08, 08:00 | X | Reply

i started out with 1.5

always felt a strong fondness for 2.0, was it around that time that there was a paper verison of DiS too? i'm sure i've still got that tucked away somewhere...

popcult | 1 Oct '08, 08:28 | X | Reply

DiS 3.0

A Rook House For Bobby. One of mine that is...

domgourlay @popcult | 1 Oct '08, 08:33 | X | Reply

1.5 is the earliest I remember

and I HATED the change to Ver. 2 at the time

DanielKelly | 1 Oct '08, 08:44 | X | Reply

GWAN SEAN

bung us up a screenshot of The Last Resort, just for the REAL old fogeys...

keveddy | 1 Oct '08, 08:57 | X | Reply

i found DiS on 1.5 according to that chart up there

reading reviews though Google. Never thought to register mind, but now, looking at my horrible 50k+ usernumber, maybe I should've...

I am still not sure about the test site...

justanothersheeldz | 1 Oct '08, 08:57 | X | Reply

DiS 1.0 :')

was it really only october 2000 it started? I thought it was the year before, I'm sure we did something on deconstruction 2000 in june.

kenako | 1 Oct '08, 09:37 | X | Reply

sadly

i had my laptop stolen with all the old ones on and lost the back-up discs :(

sean @keveddy | 1 Oct '08, 09:49 | X | Reply

i think

we ran a summers worth of content in the first month

sean @kenako | 1 Oct '08, 09:50 | X | Reply

yeah

there was a one-off for truck and before that we helped run Probemusic, which was like a proto-Stool Pigeon

sean @popcult | 1 Oct '08, 09:51 | X | Reply

it was

by far the least read section of the site and also led to bands that maybe one member of staff liked, getting a nice review and telling everyone how much "we" liked them.

sean @alxmoore | 1 Oct '08, 09:52 | X | Reply

there was a slight change

but it was more 2.2 than 2.5

sean @oceanRain | 1 Oct '08, 09:52 | X | Reply

ha

this was nearly how i was gonna do the commentary but it felt a bit too self-depreciating...

sean @soodoughnim | 1 Oct '08, 09:53 | X | Reply

ah yes

i had that. and a DiS badge from that era, which is still on my electric guitar strap, gathering dust.

popcult @sean | 1 Oct '08, 09:53 | X | Reply

I was around then too

But never bothered signing up.

DiS 3.0 has been the best so far.

Jook @justanothersheeldz | 1 Oct '08, 10:16 | X | Reply

It's always

difficult to run a site with more content than space, but DiS has generally been easy to navigate.

1.5 and 3.0 had the best of both worlds in displaying images and enough text to keep abreast of the whole site.

My only gripe with the current version is that it isn't very concise. Let's see what Santa brings tomorrow!

darkanddivine @sean | 1 Oct '08, 10:40 | X | Reply

2.0 was where I came in

3.0 looks so much... cleaner

Good work though

dove_from_above | 1 Oct '08, 10:44 | X | Reply

The sooner you get rid of the FUCKING MASSIVE

ipod advert, the better.

theseabass | 1 Oct '08, 10:47 | X | Reply

I got into DiS because of the anchor.

I miss the anchor.

jacktastic | 1 Oct '08, 10:59 | X | Reply

I got into it with 2.0

I liked 3.0 but found it fustrating that I couldn't highlight anything.
Happy Birthday (It was my birthday yesterday too ^_^) and hope the new design doesn't suck

Annoying_person | 1 Oct '08, 11:46 | X | Reply

Really, two years for 4.0?

Jeeeeeeeeesus.

SCROTUM | 1 Oct '08, 11:51 | X | Reply

happy birthday x

shadyadie | 1 Oct '08, 11:56 | X | Reply

is it not on archive.org?

what was the url?!?!?!

shadyadie @sean | 1 Oct '08, 12:03 | X | Reply

Happy Birthday!

xxx

sonicmidwife @shadyadie | 1 Oct '08, 12:44 | X | Reply

actually you're right

and i reckon that with DiScover you're kinda covering that section anyway. a book review or two may be nice though every so often :)

alxmoore @sean | 1 Oct '08, 12:49 | X | Reply

i used to use

the labels and venues section for my old old band and booked most of gigs through numbers on there!! that was before i knew any of you cool cats, so thank you for getting me gigging!

mad love x

william-bowerman | 1 Oct '08, 12:54 | X | Reply