My Exciting Life in ROCK (part 2): The Hey Hey 16K Video

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Some time ago I released "Hey Hey 16k" as an Internet single. Many people consider it to be the world's first EVER Proper Internet Single... if only because they realise the only way to stop me from saying it again and again and again is to agree with me and hope I'll go away. Other people have other claims, but I say ours was the first with full cover art, b-sides, formal release dates and modern up to date mp3s and so IS the first.

Also: this is MY blog, so they can sod off.

When it came out there was hardly anybody actually ON the interweb, so it didn't get quite the media coverage that internet singles do THESE days. It was, however, noticed by some of the people who WERE online at the time, including one Mr Rob Manuel, editor of the b3ta newsletter, who had an idea to turn the song into a Flash Animation.

It took him a while to get round to it - nearly four years in fact - but when he'd finally finished and got it put online (after asking me if I minded him doing so - I said "NOT AT ALL! WHOOOOO!") we discovered that there were quite a lot MORE people online now and that a significant proportion of them were of about the same age as me, had had ZX Spectrums, and were very happy to be reminded of them.

These people forwarded the video to their friends, who forwarded it to THEIRS, and so on in a style which, here in the super-duper media literate age of 2008, we would call "viral" but back in those dim distant primitive times we just called "MENTAL". The passing on grew and grew until, after just a week online, we'd had over a MILLION hits!!

A MILLION hits! When that happens on YouTube or something these days we're still AMAZED, but this was one little webpage in 2004, all on its own with nothing but links on web forums or in emails to help it. By the end of the second week we'd had TWO MILLION hits, and according to the Hits Charts it was the FIFTH most popular page on THE ENTIRE INTERNET!! Only news channels were getting more hits than us ON THE ENTIRE PLANET!!!

It was INCREDIBLE, and for a short while it was EVERYWHERE. Pretty much EVERY webpage I visited would have a link to the video somewhere and every web forum would have a THREAD where something like the following conversation would be going on.

OLDG33K: Wow, look at this video! It really brings back memories! ROFL!
YUNGTWIT: WTF?!? That SUX Ass.
GROWNUP: Be quiet you foolish child, you wouldn't understand. It made me CRY!
OLDG33K: Aaah, remember Jetpac/Atic Atac/Manic Miner etc etc etc
GROWNUP: I'm off to post this to every web forum EVER!

EVERYONE of a certain age seemed to a) like it b) CRY c) start going on about Death Race 2000 and d) post it somewhere else, so that even now this sort of thread pops up every so often:

S1LVRSURFER: Wow, look at this video! it really brings back memories!
EVERYONE ELSE: FOR GOODNESS SAKE! We've all seen it a MILLION TIMES!!

There was NO ESCAPE - a couple of days into the madness I got an email from Mr Frankie Machine, our bass player. He doesn't like people he works with to know about his other life as an International Rock Star, so was rather alarmed when he suddenly started hearing "Hey Hey 16K" coming from a neighboring machine... and then more so as it WHIZZED round his entire IT department. "They're all listening to it!" he whimpered. "I'm TRAPPED!"

Emails started to pour in from people all over the world who'd enjoyed the song. I got a LOT of requests for the CHORDS, mostly from Garage Bands and Old Blokes, but also from some rather unusual places, including a troupe of Canadian Mounted Policemen who wanted to perform it at their next Gang Show and a class of Norwegian infant school children who wanted to put it on for their Christmas Concert. I got quite a lot of mail from Norway, as it had appeared on television there. It also got played on the big screens at that year's Gay Pride Festival!

Another result of this was that I suddenly started shifting back catalogue - a week before it had all kicked off I'd had an email from someone asking if it was possible for me to do a SPECIAL DEAL for people who wanted to buy EVERYTHING, so I put a Back Catalogue Collection Package online, offering the LOT at a knock down price. I did it specifically for her and never expected anybody else to want one, but suddenly they were FLYING out of the door. It always ALARMS me when people buy one of these - surely NOBODY needs THAT much Hibbett? - but it was a GRATE financial BOON. The album with "Hey Hey 16K" on it, "Say It With Words" lost the LEAST amount of money of any of my albums!

Thus, for one exciting fortnight, I was spending most of my time working as an international mail order company, with a production line set up at home to cope with the demand and FREQUENT trips to the post office. It all quietened down again after a while and things returned to normal, but to this day I can pretty much guarantee that wherever you work, SOMEONE in your IT department will have heard of me - in BASEMENTS at least, I am SLIGHTLY FAMOUS!

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