Another Year, But Still Snoofling Out What’s Hot In HiFi

It is HiFi PiG’s birthday today. Or at least it is the anniversary of us opening the HiFi PiG Facebook account, I think, which in the strange logic of modern life seems to be the moment something becomes “real”. Much like your dinner’s not real unless you’ve posted a picture of it on socials. In truth, we had been running the website for a good few months before that, and before that, we had still been quietly tapping away on a Blogspot page, trying to figure out what we were doing and whether anyone would actually read it.

But anniversaries are funny things. They make you stop for a moment and reflect a bit on the past. And when I look back at HiFi PiG, I don’t really see a website or a business. I see a long series of slightly mad decisions, blind leaps of faith, and a fair bit of stubbornness. Do what you’re good at, and all that!

The story really begins around twenty years ago, when Lin, the kids and I made one of those decisions that, even now, makes me wonder what the actual JFK we were thinking…We bought a restaurant in France.

It wasn’t a carefully planned life change. It wasn’t the result of years of saving or strategic thinking. It was, quite literally, decided over a September lunchtime while I was at work at a newspaper in Leeds and Lin was working for an electronics wholesaler in Barnsley. We had just come back from a camping holiday in France and, as many people do after a nice break, we were dreaming about a different life. I found a listing for a restaurant for sale in Brittany and sent Lin an email that went something like this.

“Lin, I have found a restaurant for sale. Shall I buy it?”

Her reply came back almost immediately.

“Yes.”

And that was that.

We never visited it before committing. Neither of us had ever run a restaurant, although I had grown up around pubs and Lin had worked in hospitality. By December we had moved, and by early January we had opened the doors. We worked incredibly hard. The hours were brutal, the margins were tight, and while we managed to keep things afloat, after three years, we were exhausted. We eventually decided enough was enough and moved into sales jobs, later starting a small marketing company and building websites for clients. The restaurant became our home – well, we ripped the bar out and moved the furniture down from the upstairs flat. Then, out of the blue, I got offered a job that seemed too good to refuse. I took it, worked there for a year, and during my annual review, made the mistake of suggesting ways they could treat customers better and make more money for the company.

A week later, I got the boot!

At the time it felt like a disaster. But looking back now, it was probably one of the most important turning points in my life. The French system meant I was placed on chômage, receiving around eighty percent of my salary for fifteen months. I did courses, attended job centre appointments, and was repeatedly told I was not allowed to take lower-paid work. Which left me sitting at home, bored out of my mind. And so I started writing.

I wrote about the things I loved and knew something about: music and HiFi. It wasn’t meant for public consumption, really. It was just something to keep me occupied and out of Lin’s hair. As for the name, that was equally unthought-out. In the 1990s, I owned a sound system I called the BiG PiG Sound System, itself named after a friend’s dog. When it came time to name the blog, I simply called it HiFi PiG.

It was never meant to be serious. But people did start to read it.

We were skint at the time. Chômage eventually ended, and I was doing part-time telesales work. Lin insisted we should buy a proper domain name and hosting. It cost around ten pounds a month, which felt like a huge commitment given our situation. I still remember the day we hit one hundred readers in a single day. It felt like a massive milestone. We went out and bought a bottle of champagne with money we really couldn’t afford.

At that stage, I was doing everything. Building the site. Writing the content. Maintaining the servers. Promoting it wherever I could. But it was slowly growing.

The moment that really made us believe HiFi PiG might become something more came when we decided to attend the High End show in Munich. We spent almost every penny we had on train tickets and a very cheap hotel. The overnight journey was uncomfortable, and we slept sitting upright on bench seats. When we arrived early in the morning, we walked to the hotel because taxis were out of the question. We could only afford to have a hundred business cards printed. However, so that people would recognise us, Lin had dyed her hair bright pink. At the show, I nervously handed a card to a man from Hong Kong and said, “Hello, my name is Stuart from HiFi PiG. You will not have heard of us.”

His response was immediate. “HiFi PiG? I love HiFi PiG.”

That moment changed everything. It was the first time we truly realised that people we had never met, in places we had never been, were actually reading what we wrote. Thanks to my now good friend, Lawrence Lau!

From there, HiFi PiG gradually grew into what you see today.

For many years, we continued using the original website I had cobbled together while teaching myself how to build web pages. It eventually became too much to manage, and earlier this year, we finally relaunched with a new, faster, more modern platform created by our brilliant web developer Josh.

Looking at it now, I could not be happier with how it has turned out.

So what does the future hold?

Health permitting, we will keep doing what we love. Travelling the world, covering the best shows, discovering interesting products, and sharing them with you. It remains an incredible privilege to be able to make a living from something that started as a hobby. There’s that saying, “find something you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” Something like that, anyway.

There is also a more personal side to this anniversary. My mum lived long enough to see HiFi PiG grow into something significant. She loved attending shows and became affectionately known as Grandma HiFi PiG by many. Sadly, my dad passed away before he could see how far things would go, and today also marks the anniversary of his death. It makes the day a bit bittersweet.

There are so many people we owe thanks to.

Those who encouraged us when we started. Those who worked with us. Those who supported us. Even those who said publicly that we would not last six months – if anything, that only made me more determined to make a go of it.

Most of all, we owe thanks to you, the readers. To badly quote Neil Young from (I think) Live Rust ‘…and most of all, what a great audience!” You get it!

Without you, HiFi PiG would simply not exist. We are constantly amazed that wherever we travel in the world, people recognise the name, want to say hello, take a selfie, or chat about HiFi. It never stops feeling slightly surreal and kind of mad.

So to everyone who has been part of the HiFi PiG journey, in whatever way, thank you.

But we are not done yet.

We still have ideas. We still have plans. We still have a few disruptions left in us.

Audio Show Deluxe is just around the corner, and beyond that, who knows what might be next?

One thing is certain, though – we’ll keep snoofling out what’s best in HiFi.

Now, where’s Fiddy and that bottle of Bacardi?