This is a deeply personal post.

For years after Mark Rye’s passing (or Dad, as I knew him) I’ve been carrying the responsibility of all of the people who shared their story with Rock History, and the legacy that Dad had left, unfinished.

Dad had always planned to do more – to write more books, to develop documentaries, to put out more of the stories of the British music scene and ergo British (and global) history. He loved stories. Loved hearing people’s stories of the business he spent his life in. Loved the entertainment, but also the way they didn’t just represent the culture of the time, but brought it to life in people’s own words.

So what do you do with terrabytes of video files when your Dad passes away? Unedited. Not fully catalogued. Videos from a time you didn’t even live through yourself? Those were the questions I’ve asked for the last 8 years – through the grief of losing my father, through a pandemic, and in the intervening years as my kids grew up.

As a family we didn’t just sit around – we’ve been in contact with countless music industry archives, academics, museums, and more. We tried working with friends to transcribe. We almost gave up last year.

And then… “the business” served up a chance encounter, a connection, seemingly serendipity.

Paul Brett, founder of British Music Vault got in touch. He was building something aligned, not all that different from what Dad had imagined – an archive of stories from across the British music scene. He’d been told about Rock History via a few people who Dad had also interviewed (thanks David Stark!). We got talking, and after a flying visit to the UK, and a night out at the 606 Club – the Rock History archive was entrusted to Paul and his network at BMV.

Paul has been amazing to work with, and has developed a stream within the broader British Music Vault called the Mark Rye Archives, where he’s posting edited versions of the raw interviews we’d shared with him. I wholeheartedly suggest you check out the Mark Rye Archive page here, and view the interviews at the Youtube stream here as they unfold (there’s 7 at the time of writing, and more in the pipeline):

You can see the whole British Music Vault here.

As they say – Like & Subscribe to British Music Vault on Youtube for new Rock History / Mark Rye Archives videos.

Now that British Music Vault are working away on publishing videos, we’re going to leave this up as a place holder for now – so you can find their way there if you need.

With thanks to you all, to Dad, to Paul and the British Music Vault. Onwards.