Its strange how these chapters come and go in your life and with each chapter you hope the story will get better and you will become a better person. Well Bedlam Society is a chapter in my life that we are closing down and I must say, I learned a lot in this period of time and it completely prepared us for where we are at now.

I loved the start of Bedlam and what it stood for, when we started it about 6 years ago or so, it was out of love for music and our musical community in St.Catharines, it was out of frustration of not being able get a head in life, it was out of my naive dislike for the music industry and trying to just be involved and not one person giving a fuck about me or my ideas. I really feel that Bedlam Society was an important era in St.Catharines; it brought the musical community a bit closer together and helped launch some musical careers along the way. Not trying to be campy about this but I think being from St.Catharines and not knowing many people doing what they loved, I felt like it also gave a bit of hope, I felt like it opened the doors and showed that anyone can really do whatever they want if the work hard and love what they do. I know it helped launch what is now Dine Alone Records and Bedlam Music Management which are two childhood dreams of mine and yes I now live in Toronto but this started out of St.Catharines and I will never say it didn’t and SCENE will never move cities.

There were so many things that happened during that time frame and many sacrifices that were made with friendships and relationships but, I am sure all that involved wouldn’t have changed it for the world. To promote shows Fishbone, Thursday, Broken Social Scene, Weakerthans, Billy Talent, Onelinedrawing, Unearth, Everytime I Die, Biohazard, Jude the Obscure, The End, Alexisonfire, Bedouin Soundclash, Moneen, Underoath and the list goes on and on, its amazing that these bands played St.Catharines and St.Catharines turned into a hot spot that bands wanted to play. What else that is great is most of them have remained great friends and still get to work with all these bands, just on different levels now.

The reason we are ending this chapter now is that it just doesn’t feel right not running something I started. We simply cannot put in the time to make it what we wanted. It started as a site for music nerds, run by music nerds with a large ambition and it just felt like it was becoming more of a business then something that I loved doing, just doesn’t feel like its mine anymore and I don’t like having myself out there and not feel like its fully representing what we are about.

The site will be gone, maybe not for good but for now. I know how important this message board is to everyone so we will be moving over to the SCENE Music Festival Site. I hope everyone that was involved from this learned something and were able to share in some amazing memories. I know I loved this chapter in my life; I met great people, slept with great people, drank with great people and learned from great people, overall it allowed me to recognize that with dedication and love you can really do anything. I am not the best looking, I am not the smartest but no one can take away my heart for music and that I hope you all saw in bedlam and now with our new ventures into Dine Alone Records, Bedlam Music Mgt and SCENE Music Festival.

This is my take on it and please recognize that it wasn’t all me, over the years we had amazing people helping out. Steve Stumble, Irene and Jen at Tantrum, Matt Smith, Tricia, Lesley, Tim Penny, Chris Heikoop, Chris Otoole, Alexisonfire, Moneen, Greg Below, Rohan, George B, Riley, The Hideaway, The Mindbomb, L3, Sons Of Butchers advice column, Hemogoblin and all the writers and interviews that donated their time and their heart into Bedlam Society. I know I am forgetting several people and places but straight up, this is an emotional write so just know I do a thousand times over appreciated all that came in and out of this chapter.

I loved everything that came along with running this little machine, so thank you for letting me live my dream and become the adult I never thought I would be. I love you all in on some level and thank you a million times over.

CHEERS YOU SASSY CUNTS!

Joel Bedlam

PS come find us at myspace.com/dinealonerecords or myspace.com/joelbedlam and www.scenemusicfestival.com