20 years of it: Thru the eyes of … Peter Schütz

Anniversary review by Peter Schütz

How is it that it has already been 20 years since we founded the club? Hard to believe, but true. And so much has happened since then. We have a new century and even a new millennium. In 1991, Helmut Kohl was still Chancellor of Germany and remained so until 1998. My children are (almost) grown up and I have been working as a social security clerk at DAK for 38 years. But wait, I should tell you a little about two decades of fan club from my perspective. And even though my editorial colleagues affectionately call me the Mike Rutherford of the IT editorial team, I can still remember (some things) very clearly.

In 1991, I was a successful small business owner, or as some might say, a dealer, in maxi CDs. Together with a friend, I distributed rare maxi CDs to the public. It was a time when these types of CDs still had imaginative packaging. Genesis had just become active again and released We Can't Dance. As early as 1987, at the time of Invisible Touch, maxi CDs were experiencing a steep rise in popularity, and so my customers included a number of Genesis fans and later club members.

As it turned out later, a certain Helmut Janisch was also a buyer at our company, Ding-Dong Records. And what had to happen happened. Helmut contacted me because he was dissatisfied with a Genesis magazine called Der Genesis-Fan, which he wanted to redesign according to his own ideas. That failed, and Helmut came up with the brilliant idea of starting something of his own. He quickly approached his colleague with the great maxi CDs, who must have had a lot of insider knowledge about Genesis.

A visit to Braunschweig was arranged. And then he (Helmut) stood at my door. A truly momentous event. To be honest, I almost closed the door again. There was a guy with a big bushy beard standing in front of me, unbelievable. That's how it all started, and today we've been friends for 20 years, and of course we've also done a little club work on the side. A short time later, Bernd Zindler joined the editorial team, and so we worked as a 'gang of three' until 2002.

By the end of 1999, we had published 27 magazines. Then, for a variety of reasons, we embarked on the adventure of establishing an internet presence. None of us really knew anything about it, so we needed outside help at first. André Federow took on the task as our first webmaster. Shortly afterwards, I familiarised myself with website programming, and in March 2000 we launched our first website.

But like everything else, the club changed again in 2002. We urgently needed some 'new blood' and were able to recruit Christian Gerhardts as the fourth member of the editorial team. Gradually, he also took over the website, which he continues to run very successfully to this day.

Now, 20 years have actually passed. What do I remember most from all the many activities, events, meetings, concerts, club days, etc.? There is so much to report that I would still be writing in 2021 for the 30th anniversary if I could only remember everything. But here is a small selection of my memories:

Distributing flyers, or how we solved the waste disposal problem

To promote the club, we decided to distribute flyers at the upcoming concerts of the We Can't Dance Tour. We printed around 20,000 copies and distributed them before and after the concerts with the help of some club members. However, we didn't think about whether we needed a permit. As is often the case with flyers, most of them were thrown away, but not in the bin – simply on the street. Afterwards, a certain Guido Karp, a well-known star photographer who photographed the concerts and also distributed flyers, first drew our attention to this problem. He had to pay a hefty sum to dispose of his flyers. So that's how it was done, but we were still new to this business.

Photo shoots by the IT editorial team, or: how best to make a fool of myself

Time and again, we – mostly Helmut – had the idea of doing a photo shoot. The idea was to recreate scenes featuring our 'heroes'. No sooner said than done. Once, the entire editorial team went to a children's playground and recreated the 3×3 single. Another time, a dirt road had to serve as the backdrop for shots for the VW campaign with Helmut's Polo. The shots taken at a motorway car park near Hedemünden are also unforgettable. We met there on the spur of the moment to exchange documents because it is roughly halfway between Fulda and Braunschweig.

Interviews with Genesis & Co, or why they were most amusing with Mike Rutherford

Looking back, the interviews conducted over the years are a highlight of the club's work. We had almost all of them in front of the microphone, and they were all special: Genesis at the Hotel Adlon, with the thickest carpets I have ever seen or walked on. Phil Collins in his dressing room before the concert at the Waldbühne in Berlin. Ant Phillips at his home. Steve Hackett on all possibilities and many, many more.

But some interviews with Mike Rutherford were out of the ordinary. In 1995, I received a call from Helmut saying that Mike would be at Hamburg Airport for a short time on 27 February 1995, so we could do an interview of about ten minutes. So Helmut set off for Braunschweig, and from there we drove on to Hamburg. And sure enough, we met Mike, talked for almost 30 minutes, took some pictures and drove back home, covering several hundred kilometres in total.

But the interview on 11 June 1995 at the Capitol in Hanover took the cake. After the concert, we managed to get an interview with Mike, but there was no large room available. So the four of us had to squeeze into a small room measuring an estimated 2 x 2 metres. At least there was a small table and three (!) chairs. With no place to sit, I had to kneel in front of the tall Mike. What an experience.

The interview on 23 June 2007 at the AWD Arena in Hanover still makes me smile today. Mike balanced a cup on his left knee for almost the entire interview.

Club meetings and events, or why sheep are so popular

The icing on the (club) cake has always been the 'normal' club days and the "special" events. After three club days in Aschaffenburg, Braunschweig and Nuremberg, we found our 'living room' in the middle of Germany, in Welkers. And so the fans made their pilgrimage to the Rhön almost every year. Only a few times did we have to move to other cities due to capacity reasons.

Among the many other great events with their interesting guests, I particularly remember the two-day Lamb event in 2001. After a spectacular presentation by Serge Morissette and a great exhibition, the visitors were so enthusiastic that our exhibition sheep was in danger of being kidnapped. It was only through 'friendly persuasion' that it was saved.

Peter has a visit from German television, or how to become a television star

In 1996, rumours about Phil Collins leaving Genesis became reality. ZDF wanted to broadcast a report on this topic on television. After a phone call with Helmut, it was decided that the recording would take place at my home. I quickly put the children to bed, because at 6 p.m. several ZDF employees jumped out of their car and set up lights and a camera in the living room. A 10-minute interview followed, and then it was all over. The one-minute report was later broadcast on 'Heute Nacht' (Tonight). That was the end of the club's first TV appearance.

Going to concerts, or do I always have to take photographs?

Since my first Genesis concert in 1978, I have seen a large number of concerts related to Genesis. In the past, I didn't have a 'decent' camera with which I could take usable concert photos. That changed with my first analogue SLR camera. During The Musical Box's England tour in 2002, I was finally able to take good photos. Unfortunately, I realised that it wasn't quite that easy. The rule was that I only got a few really great photos of a concert. The digital camera has significantly improved the situation. I now always take a camera with me to every concert; I can't help myself. If allowed, I naturally use my SLR, and this has resulted in significantly better photos lately.

Cash, cash, cash, or how I got my club nickname Mr. Pebble

In the early days of the club, eBay did not yet dominate collectors' hearts. Rarities were much harder to come by. So I tried to procure rare CDs or posters in larger quantities in order to sell them to club members. For a while, a thriving shop developed. I particularly remember selling Ant Phillips' Tarka CD single. The goodies at the it stand also became big sellers. On the first club day in Aschaffenburg, the cash box was so full that we couldn't keep up with counting it. And so it came to be that many people knew me only with dollar signs in their eyes and Mr. Pebble became my trademark.

Alle diese tollen Erinnerungen wären aber nicht möglich ohne die Hilfe und das Verständnis unsere Familien, Frauen oder Freunde. Danke dafür.

Zwanzig Jahre haben wir nun diesen Club am Laufen gehalten, mal war es schwer, doch meistens das schönste Hobby dieser Welt.

Jetzt im Jahr 2011 gebe ich den Gabriel. Schreiben liegt mir nicht wirklich, ich beschäftige mich lieber mit Tourfotografie, Diskografien, Tourdaten oder meiner Vinyl-Sammlung. An der geplanten Tourdatenbank arbeite ich nun schon ca. zwei Jahre lang und sie wird sicher irgendwann auf der Website erscheinen. Bis dahin planen wir das nächste Event oder etwas anderes.

Und so schließe ich mit einem Zitat  aus Peter Gabriels Interview in der Zeitung "Die Zeit" vom 6. Oktober 2011: "Ich kann die Zukunft riechen".