Miscellaneous - Toxic Pete

  by Admin

published: 18 / 4 / 2009

intro

Our Website of the Month is Toxic Pete, the website of music reviewer and photographer, Peter J. Brown, who has recently announced that he is to retire from music writing

Peter J. Brown is a Worcester-based music writer and photographer. He started out by taking photographs of some of the local bands and artists in the Worcester area, before deciding to try his hand at writing reviews for local fanzines. In 2001 seized by "the urge to put electronic pen to electronic paper", he formed the Toxic Pete website www.toxicpete.co.uk to serve as a base for his writings and photography. Toxic Pete now features hundreds of music reviews and photos. There is also a 'Rant' column in which anyone with a rant about music can e-mail it in and then Pete will reply to it. It tends to focus though not completely exclusively on unknown bands and acts. Pete says the main aim of the site is "to help the less well known outfits achieve some recognition !" While always totally honest in their opinion and often very funny, Pete's reviews tend to aim towards the positive rather than the negative. "I try to be open minded, to switch off from outside influences and review from the heart and soul," Pete says. "I don't always like what I hear and it's not always to my taste but I always try to offer constructive criticism rather than scathing words wherever possible. I'd like to think that I'm objective not subjective!" Until recently Toxic Pete was up-dated several times a week. In April of this year, Pete, however, exhausted by something which had begun as a hobby but had become increasingly all time-consuming, rather than cut his own high standards, announced his decision to retire from music writing to concentrate on his other interests. The Toxic Pete site will remain on-line for the time being, but will not be adding any more reviews. Music fans should make the most of it while they still can.