Blog: Hey Hey 16K In Finland

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Last week I got a lovely email from The Computer Museum Of Kallio asking me if I'd mind them using Hey Hey 16K as part of one of their exhibitions. I, obviously, said "Yes! Of course you can!"

Apparently somebody came into their museum recently and showed them the song on the internet, and they thought it would be a good thing to include in their touring exhibition I Love 8 Bit. Even as we speak this exhibition is on in the Central Library in Oulu, where it's part of Oulu2026 European Capital Of Culture, and Tuomo (who had originally contacted me about it all) was kind enough to send me some photographs of the whole thing in action:



If you look closely in some of those pictures (or indeed just click on them to make them bigger) you should be able to see that Rob Manuel's marvellous VIDEO playing, which is all very exciting. I mean, the whole long long story of 'Hey Hey 16K' has ALL been exciting, starting with Dr N Brown DIGITISING it as the first* ever internet single (*yes it was), then Mr D Green promoting it in Need To Know, Rob creating the video, and then ALL of the crazy madness that happened after that.

The wonderful thing is that the aforesaid crazy madness CONTINUES to happen, if in a rather more sedate form that in the first week of the video, when we were second only to the invasion of Afghanistan as the most talked about thing on the internet (NB this is actually true!). Once or twice a year I get an email from someone saying they've found the video for the first time, or re-found it decades later, or want me to come and do a GIG (sometimes JUST to play that song), or even asking if it's be OK to feature it as part of the European Capital Of Culture.

When I wrote the song I was trying to talk about a part of recent-ish history that seemed to have been forgotten, but now those early days of home computers are memorialised all over the place, and it's utterly lovely that this song gets to be part of all that. When you sit down to write a song you never know what's going to happen to it - usually, to be honest, what happens is Not Much At All, but very occasionally it turns into something wonderful like this!

posted 26/8/2026 by MJ Hibbett

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