Sounds of 2011, nos. 92 and 91: Applejack fights, MandoPony celebrates

I shall be doing a number of multiple-track posts during this series, since otherwise it's going to take years to complete. A double bill for you today...

92: RainbowCrash88 – MLP Fighting is Magic – Applejack Stage Theme

Remember Fighting is Magic? If you've been in the fandom a few years, then of course you do. You may even have played it. One of the most infamous C&Ds in the fandom's history came when Hasbro ordered the end of the Pony-themed fighting game at a point when it was already in playable alpha. Lauren Faust herself took an interest and offered to design some lawyer-compliant original characters. The eventual result was Them's Fightin' Herds, released on Steam Early Access in February. (Mind you, it's still Early Access...)

Although the original game didn't get finished, we did get to hear a lot of its music. One such track was this AJ-themed instrumental by erstwhile chiptune specialist RainbowCrash88, now known simply as RC88. It's unsurprisingly a country-style piece, full of activity and attitude and twangy banjo licks, and it works just as well as background music to type to as it does in the game. Should you wish to hear it in high quality, you can purchase the track for $1 from RC88's Bandcamp. Oh, and I mentioned Them's Fightin' Herds? He provided music for that, too!

91: MandoPony – The Equestria Daily Song

The last track remains pretty well played to this day. This one? Unless you were around Equestria Daily way back in December 2011, maybe not so much. MandoPony wrote this to celebrate EqD reaching 80 million hits. I'm not sure how many it has now (the banner seems to have been quietly removed) but it's hundreds and hundreds of millions. For some years, EqD was the place to hang out in a way it isn't quite so much today – though, in line with my policy of being as odd as possible, I spend far more time there now than I did when I was a newbie in 2012.

The song was a victim of MandoPony's slimming-down of his Pony back catalogue on YouTube a while back, and the above video is the only one I know of now. Bizarrely, you can buy a karaoke version for 50 cents from MandoPony's Bandcamp, but as far as I can tell he doesn't offer the original at all. Maybe he doesn't like the way he sings, but I think it's fine for a song like this: a catchy, light-hearted, poppy celebration of the then-still-novel idea of a My Little Pony fan blog getting tens of millions of hits. It's worth a listen, especially if you remember the fandom of 2011 yourself.

Next time on Sounds of 2011: another double feature, with two more songs that are now pretty darn obscure but which were obviously fairly well known seven years back.

Text Review Roundup: "Best Gift Ever"

Kicking off the last TRR for a while – well, unless S9 unexpectedly starts next month or something – and you'll note a very different slate of reviewers from usual. Many of the regulars don't have anything that I could find (not even Derpy News!) yet one or two non-regulars have written pieces. Dark Qiviut is back, and we have a brand new reviewer in Mike Cartoon Pony. Huzzah!

So, out of nine reviewers this time, two outright disliked the special, two thought it was okay and five either really liked or even loved it. I'd say that was a pretty good return. As with "A Hearth's Warming Tail", predictability didn't get in the way of enjoyment for those reviewers who liked most of the other stuff. My 4/5 rating puts me in with the pack this time round.

Dark Qiviut – negative (graded D+; "There were a lot of sweet moments here, including the ending, but overall, this was a colossal disappointment.")

DrakeyC – fairly positive ("Was fine. Cute, had some fun moments, decent song, good cameos. It was fine. But, shouldn't it have aired like, a month and a half later?")

geeky things – mildly positive (rated 6/10; "the plot is that of your typical christmas special and it goes exactly how you think it would go but [...] has the right amount of humor either way the story is well told")

JDPrime22 – very positive (rated 10/10; "Loved the music, the writing, the comedy, pretty much everything about this special.")

Louder Yay – positive (rated 4/5; "The adjective that most comes to mind is "warm-hearted", and that will do me very nicely.")

Mike Cartoon Pony – very positive ("predictable [...] But, this is easily one of the best new Pony things I've seen since the Movie got me on board a year ago")

MLEEP Reviews – positive (rated 8.5/10; "predictable story [but] everything else [...] truly helped capture the feeling of the magic of the holiday season")

The Railfan Brony – negative (rated Bad; "a mish-mash of older episodes thrown into the pudding [that] comes out as stale, years-old gingerbread")

ShutterflyEQD – positive ("One of the best things about this special is that everypony got a lot of screen time! [Though] why couldn't they have added Starlight into the fun?")

Ponyfic Roundup 224: Light up, light up, as if you have a choice

Read it Later story count: 292 (-5)

A day late this week, but here's PR once again. As has been the case most weeks in recent months, I'm short of the five fics I'd really like to be reviewing. I don't know why I keep apologising for this, since it doesn't seem to be changing anything. Oh well, I guess some reviews is better than no reviews. One of the fics is longer than sometimes, too. Here's the little selection I have for you today:

So That's What a Wingboner Is... by Fire Gazer the Alchemist
Sundowner Season by Cherax
Basement Ducks by ocalhoun

★: 0 | ★★: 1 | ★★★: 2 | ★★★★: 0 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I find average scores two stars.

Sounds of 2011, no. 93: "Rainbow Thrash"

Apologies for the delay to Ponyfic Roundup this week – it's all down to my stupidity in accidentally deleting my write-up before it went live! I do still have my notes, so I can easily rewrite the post. As such, PR 224 will be along tomorrow.

93: PrinceWhateverer – Rainbow Thrash

Some brony musicians blaze only briefly across the sky, leaving us with mere hints of their abilities. A good example is Phileo, whose one and only contribution to the MLP fandom was "The Way She Flies". However, others are far more enduring, and British rock'n'metal guitar specialist PrinceWhateverer is most definitely one of those. After all, just a few weeks ago he released "Solidarity", a well-received tribute to the continuing strength of the Pony fandom. If we take him at his word, he won't be leaving soon, either.

Back when "Rainbow Thrash" was released in December 2011, PrinceWhateverer had only around 200 YouTube subscribers and was relatively little known. That he now has well over 50,000 is partly due to this song, a loud, brash track about a loud, brash pony by the name of Rainbow Dash. It does betray its age in some ways, such as the slightly awkward lyrics, but the beat is insistent enough to have kept it as a fandom favourite all these years. Want it in HQ? Pay £1 on PrinceWhateverer's Bandcamp.

The video I've linked to above is actually a slightly revised version of the song, released by the artist just a couple of days after the original. The changes aren't dramatic, but I do think they improve the track. Should you wish to hear it as it first came out, that version is still around.

Next time, I'll have a double bill of music for you. One of the tracks you may well be at least reasonably familiar with. The other is a lot more obscure nowadays, though it is by a name you'll know. What are these songs? Well, that would be telling! Wait and see...

Special review: "Best Gift Ever"

Yeah, yeah, I'm pathetically weak. But come on

Although S8 of Friendship is Magic is now over and done with, there's one more piece of related business to get out of the way before we enter what will probably be the last ever FiM inter-season hiatus. "Best Night Gift Ever" marks the first time the show has had a special, which is odd considering how popular it's been. You'd think they'd have made one a few years ago. Still... this was written by Michael Vogel, and given that his strong record includes the fabulous "A Hearth's Warming Tail" I had high hopes. In the event...

UK PonyCon 2018: Merch Haul and Final Thoughts

This was a lot trickier to photograph than you'd think!

And so we reach the final part of my look back at this year's UK PonyCon. In a minute, I'll give some of my thoughts about it. First, of course, the merch haul photo! I was on a fairly tight budget this year, so it's not a huge one. If you've been reading along, you already know about the Team Custard picture by StewArt (BBQ) at bottom left and the cute little original canvas of Scootaloo by Jowy at bottom middle. The con book and asssociated Crystal Ball programme are pretty self-evident, too.

Other than that? Well, the 3D printed exclusive Britannia figure is at bottom right, sitting on the con tote bag. That has the same design as the con T-shirt at top left. Three badges: my VIP and general UKPC ones, plus a Scootaderp I picked up from somewhere. The A4 Fluttershy, Rainbow and Rarity prints are by Ponebooth. Halfway up on the right is one of the ultra-cute Fluttershy cards I bought from EileMonty. Oh, and there's a con badge in there too. :P One or two other things will be presents so aren't shown here.

It's EQUUS accredited now, too!

So that's that. Now, on to what I thought of UK PonyCon 2018. In a word? It was great. Of the seven cons I've been to, this was my favourite. The venue was pretty nice, spacious, light and very well located – and in most Octobers probably wouldn't have been as hot. The venue staff were excellent, there were places to sit down and rest, the acoustics for the concert were reasonable for a non-dedicated space and the cloakroom was handy. The one significant minus I'll get to in a bit.

UK PonyCon is a much larger event than it was in 2014 – when it certainly didn't have 1,000 attendees or 50 vendors! – but it seems to have succeeded in keeping its friendliness, multi-gen appeal and all-ages mix. Personally I wouldn't like it to get too much larger even if the committee had unlimited resources (cue hollow laughter from UKPC Towers), but balanced against that is the fact that it keeps on selling out. I suppose all they can do is to tweak things as seems appropriate; so far they've done a very good job.

Plushie Stacking was not an official event...

The Crystal Ball concert, 2018's (effective) innovation, was very nice and it looks like something similar may be back next year. There was an interesting question in the feedback form about this, asking how it should be ticketed. Personally I'd much prefer UKPC to remain all-inclusive, and would accept a modest bump in ticket prices for that. Things like the Escape Room this year (which did cost extra) were nice touches but peripheral; I'd consider the Crystal Ball much more integral to the main con schedule.

My least favourite option would be a voluntary supplement; those tend to make people feel under pressure to pay. If you have to charge extra, do so properly and ticket separately, as with the con meal. That said, BronyScot's Rock Nessie and the old Summer Sun Celebration at BUCK have/had no clash with the main con programme. The Crystal Ball did. Assuming putting it on Friday/Sunday evening isn't an option, that clash is still going to be there. Another reason for keeping things all-in.

The only shot I got of PrinceWhateverer, during his sound check

I was pleased with the number of events on the schedule this year, and the only major clashes for me were Crystal Ball/Pub Quiz and StormBlaze/EileMonty; luckily all of those ended up with good attendances. It was good to see a fair bit of G1 content, too. Apart from the heat, the event rooms were good: quite spacious, with decent acoustics and lighting too. The vendor hall was fine, with room to move between people shopping. Signage could maybe have been slightly better, but it wasn't too bad.

Right, now to the one real disappointment. The catering provision, though friendly and cheap, was not sufficient for the attendance. Nor was it reasonable to have only drinks on sale on Saturday evening, even if the pony-themed concoctions were fun. UWE in Bristol's café last year, also in a uni-run venue, was better in most respects, despite that con having a slightly lower attendance. Just because we're in a city centre venue doesn't mean we all want to walk through the rain to McDonald's to get an evening bite.

They could get a thousand people in here, right? Right?

I touched briefly on ticket prices earlier. This year UKPC kept Standard Adult Weekend entry at £35, the same as in 2017, by withdrawing Early Bird discounts. I felt that was a reasonable approach. It's always a delicate balancing act, as simple maths will tell you that above-inflation rises aren't sustainable indefinitely, but I would be okay with a small rise next year. Say the basic ticket is £39; that would be a rise of 11.4%, which should help to offset some costs. Supporter tickets at £49 would be reasonable, too.

Where should they hold the 2019 con? UKPC these days needs a big venue: I used to think Wolverhampton Grand Station could be an option, but it may be too small now. As for host city: four of the last five UKPCs have been in the East Midlands (Leicester x 2, Nottingham) or just above (Leeds). So looking at other options... Liverpool? Birmingham? Milton Keynes? Southampton? Swansea? Newcastle? Norwich? Wherever is announced, some people are bound to be disappointed. I do not envy the committee on this one!

Beachball shenanigans during "Awesome As I Wanna Be"

Finally, my highlight of the convention. Well, actually the answer is a rather sappy one: it was the magic of spending time with friends, most of whom I wouldn't know without MLP and some of whom I only ever get to see at conventions. Equally, the biggest downside was missing those friends who for various reasons were unable to make it. And you were missed. But if I have to choose one highlight other than that? "I am Octavia", of course. I will never, ever stop being thrilled and grateful to have had that chance.

There we go: Logan's rambly, waffly thoughts on what I truly believe has become one of the great fandom events of the year. No, it's not BUCK or BronyCon or AnyOtherCon. It's not supposed to be, and it's all the better for that. It's UK PonyCon. It stands or falls on its own merits, and judged on that score it most definitely stands. I had immense fun at this year's convention and it made me very, very happy to be in this fandom. That's something everyone involved in making it happen should be very proud of. Thank you.

The sun sets on UK PonyCon 2018

Sounds of 2011, no. 94: "Autumn"

I should have the final part of my UK PonyCon report up tomorrow, but in the meantime let's get back to Sounds of 2011, my series dealing with what Everfree Radio's listeners voted their top 100 tracks for that year.

94: Griffin Village – Autumn

Back in the dim and distant days of November 2011, Derpy being a mailmare was pure canon. Also back then, we saw the concept EP by Griffin Village, consisting of four seasonally-named tracks. Although it ranks the lowest of the four in this series, "Autumn" – sometimes referred to as "Autumn (Derpy Hooves)" – is probably the one that remains the most popular today. "I know a mare / She knows me too / The stunning Derpy Hooves / Or Ditzy Doo" remains a fairly widely recognised opening in the fandom.

It's a gently synthy track by Floridian Jackle App, once a huge name in the fandom but someone whose last Pony music seems to have been "Sweetiecut" from May 2012. This paean to Derpy was released when we were only four episodes into S2, so the controversy of Derpygate was still some way in the future. It's also the origin of the "Trot with me through the autumn leaves" chorus, which these days may be better known from The Living Tombstone's "Good ol' Days". If you want to hear "Autumn" in HQ – and surely you do – there's a $1 download on Jackle App's Bandcamp.

Next time, Sounds of 2011 will have another original track, and one which represented a significant early outing for one of the fandom's most enduring musicians.