For Queen fan Club members only!

I don't think you'll find the arena tickets priced that high - Goldsmith will see to that, regardless of what QPL want - he's not going to promote something that he *knows* will make a loss from the start.

I don't have a problem with the price for a venue that is intimate like Brixton is. What I have a problem with is the manner in which the tickets have been available and, above all, the format of the show its self. A 3 hour show would justify that pricin ANYWHERE, but the won't play any longer than two hours and all we will get is the churning out of the same old Queen songs from '86 plus the odd Free / Bad Co song and perhaps I Want It All, Innuendo and Made In Heaven.

Now, if they had thought about it, SURELY the ideal way to do this would have been to wait until the end of the tour. The band and Paul are then as familiar with each other as they are going to get, Paul then knows the material and is comfortable with a Queen crowd. Have a small venue date at which they can all stretch out and play in a relaxed way and treat it as a celebration - massiavely long show with stacks of rarities / covers thrown in for good measure.

What we WILL get is a Greatest Hits show again.

Gotta say i was also in the fan club for around 12 years and it served the purpose of concert tickets from 1978 to 1986. And of course the convention. I've always been disappointed with the standard and having met Jackie and spoken to her on several occasions i was always baffled as to why she was in charge of this 'monster'. I don't mean anything bad but i never thought she really had it.Even the diction in the mags was often wrong!!Freind of mine posted a question years ago asking what track the flying v guitar was for on a live shot from 82. He got a letter back on their headed paper saying ''sorry we don't know''. Bizzare behaviour.....

Well, here's a story.

I wrote to Jacky back in probably '91 with a number of suggestions for the magazine:

1 - A collector's corner section.
This was taken on, but only to the extent that they just reproduced the pictures that we have all seen of record sleeves - absolutely nothing of interest there. They did this simply because it was the least time-consuming way of doing things.

2 - Bootleg lisings / reviews
Was told "no chance" basically because the Fan Club believe they are as illegal as the record company do.

3 - More rare pictures / press cuttings
Was told that this would be too difficult to do and that printing costs of the magazine would be prohibitive. So, what EXACTLY does the £15 cover gor your subscription, based on the fact that about 20 pence covers postage (which is always late and never quarterly) - that leaves about £3.50 for the printing of your magazine, and I KNOW that a magazine of that size doesn't cost that much to print. They also said that it would be too time consuming to research - I voluntered to do it for free and didn't get a reply.

4 - Band member Q&A
This happened, but the depth of the questionning was absolutely ridiculous. people still asking Brian why he wears clogs and whet Freddie liked for breakfast.

The fact is that they Jacky and Val have become lazy. They have jobs that sustain themselves in terms of them being guaranteed whilst briand and Roger are still "in the business". Anything that takes a little imagination or is showing evidence of thinking outside the box is apparently too difficult. The Conventions pretty much organise themselves now that they ave been going on for so long, so again, they don't have to stretch themselves - it's been the same format for years - sure, people appear to love them, but surely it would be nmore interesting / challenging for the format to be changed.

At the end of the day, they have both done a laudable job in trying to maintain a service, but the fact is that it is tired, out of date and a waste of time in terms of being an information service. What they are trying to do now is to protect their own interests as opposed to serving thise that are best for fans.

Excellent post Benn!!!I share your frustrations for many years. Gimme the damn job!Pals of mine were in the Led Zep and Genesis clubs. Although they didn't get glossy magazines the content was always thorough grammatically correct and intelligently written. I always felt the Queen fan club was bordering on the absurdity you'd expect from a Take That or Spice Girls club.Just childish.Bowie commisions screen printed shirts of his album sleeves. The are great. What do we get? Stick on prints and mismatched Queen logos. Is it so difficult?On 3 occasions mags were late or never turned up and the blamed the royal mail. Oh please....you didn't send them did you.....

What I can't fathom is that when forums such as this are buzzing with news and rumours, written by and for fans, that the fc mags are always have very little news! I have never liked the self opinionated tone taken by the present secretary. There used to be an excellent fanzine based in Manchester called "winged messenger" does it still exist?? There was also "princes of the universe" another 'indie' publication which was informative and written by a fan for fans. Maybe we should pool our resources and set up a true 'fanclub'.....

Count me in. It does need a more qualified approach. I've been to the convention on and off for the last 15 years but it could be so much better. But thats another story. I can't remember the last time i read anything of any interest in the fc mag. Pics of people meeting the band and happy birthdays? why? We need a constructive indie mag(apologies if they are out there)

There used to be a mag called "days of our lives" but it was pretty weak.
Anyone know of any indie fan publications out there??

I was involved in a couple of fanzines here in the States and Italy back in the early to mid-90's. I have designed a lot Queen artwork for them, two of which very heavily:

"News of the World" was a large magazine format fanzine produced by two huge fans with plenty of fellow fan contributions from around the world. I was heavily involved in this mag as well and it was a fantastic mag. Very professional but at the same time having that "indie" edge and what the Hell attitude. It was sold for about two years at many tower Records in CA but stopped near the end of 1997 i think. It was a gem though...and sorely missed!

Another well put together mag was called "Mercury Queen" in Italy, and was the publication of the Mercury Queen Fan Club based in Milan. I was also involved in this one, not as heavily as the previous title, but this mag was aimed for the Italian Fans so i mostly donated artwork. It was very popular in Italy and was one of the leading fanzines there. It also sadly stopped....

The best fanzine we had here Stateside, as far as info, real news, and some great articles past and present was produced by the famous "Royal Vison Club". This was a Fan Club (unofficial, but had the backing of the OIQFC in it's later years) based in Michigan that was very much like the old FC in the UK. They organized Conventions here, raised charity money, organized tickets for the solo tours, and so much more. It's a shame that it folded back in 1996 or so.

None of these well made fanzines exsist now,,,the internet killed them all off.

Yep - Royal Vision was fun - I attended the last two conventions north of Detroit. I joined when Hollywood Records released Live at the BBC and mentioned Royal Vision in the pamphlet.

Yes i remember that well...it was one of the first times the Royal Vision Club was noted in any Queen product. It was very exciting back then!!

The RV "Queenventions" were AWESOME FUN!! I enjoyed them better then the UK ones to be honest, as it was a bit more...well...hmmm, how can i put it...."controlled" and relaxed. They were'nt as packed and crazy as the UK ones tend to be. It was intimate and NICE.....

Glad that after a 2 year gap or so after Royal Vision folded, a few ex-RV Members formed a commitee to carry on the Queenvention fun....BREAKTHRU!

The best publication that ran was The Queen Chronical - a friend of mine called Adam Tidd ran it. It simply sought ot inform fans and act as a reminder of the glory days.

The fact is that as far as the OFFICIAL Queen organisation goes, Jacky and Val aren't thought that highly of. They are seen simply as people that run a t-shirt selling service and are useful in keeping the liberal side of Queen fandom in check. QPL| knows that people like us that are more forthright in our views won't bother with the fan club and try that much harder to get the real story and the very latest information via other avenues. That, for QPL is far better publicity that a badly run fan club.

We are seen as the voracious fans who hunt things down and don't settle for what we're told.

Strokes Jim's ego a bit too....

It won't be long before Henry James is treading the boards with the band himself, hitting the triangle a la Deacon!!
I think that the current fc secretary can not continue crying about news on the internet, only she can make the magazines better and allow for more input from fans. A good start would be a guranteed issue date instead of a magazine whenever.
There's a wealth of info to be gained from us long term fans (or all fans for that matter!)in areas such as collecting, concert memories and detailed articles/interviews with people once close to the band.
The fc ticket pre-sale is at least small comnpensation for the shambles this current tour information has been handled.

That's IF you even recieved that info!

I don't know about other US and Canadian fans..but did anyone on THIS continent get the pre-sale info??

I sure have'nt....

There is more of a need for a well written fanzine now probably more than ever. The tour has seen to that. As for the internet its never going to stop me reading articles in magazines(?)

Football has a similar scenario but major clubs manage both official and unofficial web sites and numerous fanzines.

The fan club exists / existed merely as a vehicle for concert tickets.

Lets take this on .

It's the same with a lot of people - they need to make themselves feel that they are an indespensible commodity. We've got a woman here at work that has done the same job for years. She's moaning about the fact that she's so busy and wants to off load what she does onto someone else. Of course, as soon as anyone shows an interest and suggests a couple of improvements etc, she then heads off to her boss and bleats on about the fact that she "CAN'T POSSIBLY" give that kind of responsibility to anyone else.

Jacky is EXACTLY the same - if other people suggest ideas, there's the chance that she will become marginalised and not the centre of all things. At the end of the day, she's protecting her own job which is central to her life. Unfortunately, she's doing a bad job in terms of servicing the needs of fans by not being more open minded to new ideas and suggestions.

The only way this will change is if people don't renew their subscriptions. It doesn't take a lot to organise a convention, believe me as I had a hand in one for The Who in '04 - it's amazing what happens when you go outside of official channels and find all sorts of "official" people within the organisation expressing an interest and then attending the event.